# ADA lav drain offsets and low flow faucets



## 422 plumber (Jul 31, 2008)

I just ran into a problem at a school district admin center. We were doing a repipe in the basement, and I was asked to look at no hot water in some of the lavs. I thought it was strange, because there is a new B&G recirc pump on the return line. Well, it turnes out that the faucets are Moen commercial push handle timed lavs. The vandal proof aerators were only .25 gpm. It took several cycles to push the cooled down water out. I changed the aerators to 1.5 gpm and now I see the water backs up in the bowl. The only lavs it did this in were the ones with the ADA offset. I pull them off and about puked. The offset and 90 tube was packed full of black goo. The .25 gpm aerator wasn't putting enough water down the drain to wash anything down and it just built up this smegma. I installed grid strainers and they were good to go. Even one of the lavs with a 1.5 gpm aerator had an offset that was packed full. That might be because originally it had a low flow aerator, and the offset was fudge packed before the chimptard plumber switched aerators. Anyway, they were happy to find out the solution was so low-tech.


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## user2091 (Sep 27, 2009)

go figure!!!!!!


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## Redwood (Sep 8, 2008)

Ooops you just undid their Leeds certification... :laughing:


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## 422 plumber (Jul 31, 2008)

Redwood said:


> Ooops you just undid their Leeds certification... :laughing:


I know, I know, the frickin' schools are the worst for "green" crap. All bright eyed college grads without a brain in their head. However, a lot of the teachers are really hot and don't wear appropriate teacher type clothes, IMHO. Makes great eye candy, though.


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## Plumbus (Aug 4, 2008)

jjbex said:


> I know, I know, the frickin' schools are the worst for "green" crap. All bright eyed college grads without a brain in their head. However, a lot of the teachers are really hot and don't wear appropriate teacher type clothes, IMHO. Makes great eye candy, though.



And you get paid to do that? :whistling2:


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## plumb4fun (Feb 18, 2009)

I feel your pain, as I work for a large school district and I have to deal with all that "feel good" green design crap. After the outside contractors finish their work its not long before I change parts out for low maintenace reliability. I have enough to do keeping 13 schools flushing and draining!:furious:


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## Ccmj (Dec 30, 2009)

Had the same problem in a school we built about 2 years ago. Didn't have gunk in the offset but definately had issues with hot water. System had a recirc line but it took about 2 or cycles on the faucet to draw hot water. Other problem was guys were sloppy with pipe dope at threaded connections and weren't cleaning the insides of pipe after reaming ends and those little chunks will do work on those faucets!


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## 422 plumber (Jul 31, 2008)

Plumbus said:


> And you get paid to do that? :whistling2:


I know, 45 bucks an hour plus all the low cut blouses I can handle. What's nice is when it's a pre-school class, and the hotties are sitting on little stools, leaning over the child size tables, yes!


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## user4 (Jun 12, 2008)

jjbex said:


> I just ran into a problem at a school district admin center. We were doing a repipe in the basement, and I was asked to look at no hot water in some of the lavs. I thought it was strange, because there is a new B&G recirc pump on the return line. Well, it turnes out that the faucets are Moen commercial push handle timed lavs. The vandal proof aerators were only .25 gpm. It took several cycles to push the cooled down water out. I changed the aerators to 1.5 gpm and now I see the water backs up in the bowl. The only lavs it did this in were the ones with the ADA offset. I pull them off and about puked. The offset and 90 tube was packed full of black goo. The .25 gpm aerator wasn't putting enough water down the drain to wash anything down and it just built up this smegma. I installed grid strainers and they were good to go. Even one of the lavs with a 1.5 gpm aerator had an offset that was packed full. That might be because originally it had a low flow aerator, and the offset was fudge packed before the chimptard plumber switched aerators. Anyway, they were happy to find out the solution was so low-tech.


This is why every truck should have a kinetic water ram on it, 10 PSI would have cleared that.


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## 422 plumber (Jul 31, 2008)

Killertoiletspider said:


> This is why every truck should have a kinetic water ram on it, 10 PSI would have cleared that.


I don't know about that. This stuff was almost like dough. It was before the trap, so I don't if the ram would have worked, plus it would have blown it into the drain, and there wouldn't be enough water to wash it down.


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## user4 (Jun 12, 2008)

jjbex said:


> I don't know about that. This stuff was almost like dough. It was before the trap, so I don't if the ram would have worked, plus it would have blown it into the drain, and there wouldn't be enough water to wash it down.



Fill the lav all the way before using the ram, that would be plenty of water to flush it through.


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