What's this trough by the tub for?

[Tom Raymond]

Not my boy, he normally won't even use the urinal. He prefers the privacy of a stall with a closed door and only waters the lanscaping in extreme emergencies.

Tom

[AHI in AR]

Originally posted by Jim Katen

Well, the little trough is interesting. However, I'm more interested in this sunken, tiled tub. I can't recall having every seen anything like that before.

How did they build those things? Is this a slab on grade, or is there a basement or crawlspace under there?

It's hard enough to build a shower pan that doesn't leak, how the heck did they do it with a tub that was intended to hold so much water?

If these are common in your area, how often do they leak?

- Jim Katen, Oregon

The tub is encased in concrete. It is adjacent to a crawl space, but all you see from underneath is the drain exiting the slab under the tub. I've seen 4 or so; all were constructed about the same way, but minus the trough. (One had lavender tile!)

I suspect that all the homes were all built by the same man, a well known custom builder at the time. Probably either a keeping-up-with-the-Joneses kind of thing or just his particular predilection for odd tubs. This one had tiny but meticulously built steps down into the tub from the floor. It was also tiled in the same tile as the floor, all the walls and the vanity top. That tile must have been on sale...

I still can't buy the foot washing idea. Straddling the thing to put your foot down into it would be awkward, bridging across the gap with your sole would be no better, and I don't see how it would be easier than simply using the tub to rinse your foot. As for the vomitorium idea, well, let's just call it interesting. However, for that application there would seem to be a lack of proper engineering as regards the drain cover. It had pretty small perforations in it!

My guess was that it was a place to set potted plants, either as a permanent decorative thing or temporarily to water them without worrying about the runoff. I didn't throw that idea out there since it seemed a little offbeat. I'm not so sure that's the case now.[]

[Bain]

I hate to admit it, but Kevin's tub crossed my mind a couple of times during the day. I'll bet the trough was installed for someone with a handicap of some sort.

The tub is sunken, though I can't really appreciate how much from the photo, which would allow for easy entry. Maybe the trough was for shampooing hair, or shaving legs, or some special-need issue none of us is aware of.

Special needs fixtures were pretty rare fifty years ago, so I'm betting whoever had the house built requested the unique tub set-up.

Then again, sometimes I'm wrong.