The Essential Guide to Bathroom Wastes: Combining Practicality and Design
Wastes, traps and grates cover every drain point in a bathroom, laundry or kitchen. Each kind has its own collection, so the quickest path is to work out which one you need, then go straight to it.
The main types of waste
Wastes split into a few groups by where they sit. Floor wastes drain the floor of a wet area. Shower channel and linear grates are long slot drains for the shower. Basin and bath wastes sit in the fixture itself. A trap is the curved pipe underneath that holds a water seal against sewer smells.
Floor wastes
A floor waste sits in the bathroom or laundry floor, with a square grate, a round grate, or a tile insert on top. The tile insert hides the drain under a piece of your own floor tile. For sizes, finishes and tile insert options, see our floor wastes collection.
Shower channel and linear grates
A channel or linear grate is a long slot drain. It runs across a shower entry or against a wall, and it suits curbless showers because the floor only has to fall one way. For linear grates and trough drains, see shower channel wastes and grates.
Basin and bath wastes
Basin and bath wastes sit in the fixture itself. A basin waste is usually 32mm across and a bath waste is larger at 40mm. A plug and waste uses a rubber plug on a chain. A pop up waste opens and shuts with a push or a small lever, so there is no loose plug to lose.
The thing to check is overflow. If your basin has an overflow hole near the rim, you need a waste made to work with it. If it does not, you need a no-overflow waste. Our guide on choosing the right plug and waste covers how to tell.
Traps
A trap is the curved section of pipe below the waste that holds a small amount of water. That water seal stops sewer gas rising back into the room. The common types are the P-trap, the S-trap, and the bottle trap, chosen to suit how the pipework runs behind the wall or under the floor.
Finishes
Grates and visible wastes come in chrome, brushed nickel, brushed brass, brass, matte black, and stainless steel. Chrome is the default and the easiest to match. Match the waste to your tapware finish rather than the tiles, and it looks deliberate even when you can barely see it.
Brands we stock
The range covers Nero, Meir, and Phoenix across the popular finishes, plus Caroma and Fienza for basin and bath wastes. For linear and channel grates built for larger showers, we also stock Stormtech, an Australian maker that specialises in linear drainage. Every product is WaterMark certified for Australian installation.
