The WPJ blog

If you’ve been keeping up with our plumbing glossary series, you should be pretty clued up by now, but as we all know, you can never have enough knowledge – so get to grip with some plumbing T-words today.

TBE – Threaded Both Ends

T&C – Threaded and Coupled

Tailpiece – section of pipe that runs between a fixture outlet and the trap

Tap adapter – fitting with one plain end and one threaded female end

Tap tee – cast iron tee with a threaded female side inlet

Tee – T-shaped fitting with three openings that allow another pipe to be attached at a 90 degree angle

Teflon tape – a fluorocarbon polymer with non-sticking properties used to wrap pipe threads to seal a joint

Test plug – a rubber plug used to seal off sections of pipe to test for leaks

Thermal efficiency – ability to transfer and absorb heat from fuel sources into water

Throat-plate – the underside portion of some faucet spouts that also use a top shroud to cover an assembled faucet waterway – the throat-plate is only visible when viewed from a very low angle

Threaded – a spiral ridge on a screw, nut or bolt

Trap – curved section of drain line that prevents sewer odours from escaping into the atmosphere – all features that have drains must have a P-trap installed, whilst toilets will have S-traps

Trap arm – the waste arm portion of a drainage trap

Trap dip – the U-bend portion of a drainage trap

Trap drain – a flex adapter to connect drain pipes

Trap primer – a small feeder line connecting the cold water line directly to the drainage trap – it releases a small amount of water to the trap if it runs dry to maintain the water seal

Trap seal – height of water in a toilet bowl at rest, providing a water seal to prevent sewer gases entering the home

Trap weir – an interior projection in the outlet side of a trap to aid in maintaining a water seal

Tuberculation – the process in which blister-like growths of metal oxides form in pipes as the result of corrosion of the pipe metal – iron oxide tubercles often develop over pits in iron or steel pipe and can seriously affect water flow

Type M tube – an industry standard for copper tubing defined by the tube wall thickness and identified by a red stripe

Tyseal gasket – gasket for joining SV cast iron pipe into a hub

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