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Comment by compiler-guy | Hacker News Reader

In the US, any tub made past about 1900 or so has an overflow drain that prevents overfilling. The adoption of such drains not quite contemporaneous with the adoption of indoor plumbing, but very soon after.

It's the metal plate usually just below the faucet that looks like it might be useless. But it has an opening underneath to let the overflow water in. These are always sized to handle more water than the faucet can output.

This is basically a non-concern in anything but very, very old, unremodeled bathrooms.

The sinks do as well, but it is more obvious.

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Im not sure about bathtubs, but in the U.S. it's apparently legal to sell lavatory sinks without an overflow. Ask me how I know.

My last apartment had the overflow drain hole but it wasn't attached to anything. The water just went directly into the wooden cabinet underneath. Madness. Literally worse than not having the hole because it reduced the capacity of the sink. This is what happens when landlords who DGAF hire handymen who DGAF to do all the work on their units.

To be fair to the potential handyman or contractor many overflow drains are integrated into the sink drain before they attach anything. It might have been the landlord buying temu style sinks with fake overflow holes.

Many overflow drains are not or are poorly connected. If you buy a new home, the inspector will usually skip to overflow test because it will likely fail.

This puzzled me and I looked it up, and yes, sinks without overflow meet code [1] (but not tubs). So your situation was apparently legal.

But the sibling comment to this one, where a sink had an overflow, but it was not connected, did not meet code [also 1].

Go figure. There must be some reasoning there, but I'm confused as to what it is.

https://forms.iapmo.org/email_marketing/codespotlight/2018/m...

Code sometimes makes allowances for situations which aren't ideal, as long as they aren't deceptive or creating a false sense of security.

So if you have old two-prong outlets in your house from back when, those are allowed.

If you replace them with a three-pronged outlet which is ungrounded, that breaks code.

If the three-pronged outlet is a GFCI outlet labeled with NO ELECTRICAL GROUND, that is allowed.

Well, it's also legal to sell food that tastes bad. Doesn't mean you should buy it.

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