Where not to put your floor waste (and where I'd put it instead)

When you're looking at a set of bathroom plans, the floor waste is easy to miss. It's a little circle or square drawn in the corner of the shower or somewhere on the floor, and most people don't give it a second thought.

But once your bathroom is tiled, that floor waste isn't moving. You'll be using that room every day for years, so where it sits is worth a few minutes of thought before the plumbing goes in.

Below I'll cover where to put your shower floor waste, where to put the main floor waste in your bathroom, and the one rule that applies to both.

Your shower floor waste

Don't put it where you stand

Think about how you actually use your shower. You walk in, turn to face the water, and stand in roughly the same spot every time. That's the spot you want to keep clear.

There are two reasons.

1. It's uncomfortable. A floor waste never feels the same underfoot as the tiles around it, and a grated waste in particular is something you really feel. Standing barefoot on it once isn't a big deal, but you'll do it thousands of times.

2. It's wobbly. Floor wastes have to be removable so you can lift the grate out and clean underneath. Because they're designed to come out, they're never completely fixed in place, so they can shift slightly under your weight. It's a small thing, but it just makes you feel uneasy.

Where I'd put it instead

Ideally, I'd put the floor waste underneath where the shower comes out of the wall.

My preference is a linear waste. It runs along the wall, so it's completely out of the way of your feet. The shower floor can then fall in one direction to the back wall, which also limits the cutting of tiles. You're not standing on it, you're not feeling it shift, and you barely notice it's there. Which is exactly how a floor waste should be.

Your main bathroom floor waste

The same thinking applies to the main floor waste in your bathroom, the one outside the shower.

Tuck it under the vanity

Ideally, I love tucking the floor waste underneath the vanity, where it's out of sight and out of the way.

The key is to keep it near the front of the vanity so it can still be accessed and serviced. Don't push it right to the back. You also need to achieve particular falls across a bathroom floor, and that would be hard to do with a floor waste tucked against a wall in the main area of the room.

If your vanity goes to the floor

If your vanity sits right down on the floor, that option's off the table. In that case, I'd put the floor waste to the side of the vanity or next to the toilet.

Again, not where you stand

The rule is the same as the shower: avoid putting it anywhere you're going to stand.

That means not in front of the basin, where you'll be standing to brush your teeth or wash your face. And not where you step out of the bath, because that's the first place your wet feet land.

It all comes back to thinking about how you actually use the space. Walk yourself through your routine in that room, and keep the floor waste out of your path.

Check your plans

If you're building or renovating right now, pull out your bathroom plans and check:

• Where the shower outlet comes out of the wall, and whether the shower floor waste sits underneath it

• That your floor wastes have actually been drawn on the plans

• Where the main floor waste sits, and whether it's under the front of the vanity, or beside the vanity or toilet

• That neither waste is somewhere you'll be standing, like in front of the basin or where you step out of the bath

  
  

If a floor waste is sitting right under your feet, have that conversation before the plumbing goes in, not after the tiles are down.

This is exactly the kind of small detail that slips through, not because people aren't paying attention, but because there's just so much to look at on a set of plans.

If you'd like a second set of eyes on your bathroom, or your whole plan, before things get locked in, that's what The Design Edit is for. It's a 90 minute plan review where we go through your plans together and catch details like this before they're built in.