{ "id": "tile-insert-floor-drain", "sku": "tile-insert-floor-drain", "title": "Tile Insert Floor Drain with Removable Strainer", "slug": "tile-insert-floor-drain", "price": 44.99, "currency": "AUD", "availability": "in_stock", "category": "shower-grates", "category_label": "Shower Grates & Floor Wastes", "tags": [], "colors": [], "materials": [], "dimensions": null, "weight": null, "images": [ "https://drains.net.au/dropship-images/shower-grates/tile-insert-floor-drain/main-tile-insert-floor-drain.jpg", "https://drains.net.au/dropship-images/shower-grates/tile-insert-floor-drain/tile-insert-floor-drain-2.jpg", "https://drains.net.au/dropship-images/shower-grates/tile-insert-floor-drain/tile-insert-floor-drain-3.jpg", "https://drains.net.au/dropship-images/shower-grates/tile-insert-floor-drain/tile-insert-floor-drain-4.jpg", "https://drains.net.au/dropship-images/shower-grates/tile-insert-floor-drain/tile-insert-floor-drain-5.jpg", "https://drains.net.au/dropship-images/shower-grates/tile-insert-floor-drain/tile-insert-floor-drain-6.jpg", "https://drains.net.au/dropship-images/shower-grates/tile-insert-floor-drain/tile-insert-floor-drain-7.jpg", "https://drains.net.au/dropship-images/shower-grates/tile-insert-floor-drain/tile-insert-floor-drain-8.jpg" ], "description_short": "Square stainless steel face, a removable strainer that catches hair before it reaches the pipe, and a core that closes itself after the water has gone.", "description": "The problem nobody plans for\n\nA floor drain is the least glamorous thing in a bathroom. It costs less than the tap, nobody compliments it, and it sits in the one spot where water collects. Then one day the shower starts draining slowly, a faint sewer smell turns up in the laundry, or you notice the old grate has gone brown around the edges and will not come clean.\n\nThat is when the floor drain stops being invisible. And it is usually a cheap builder-grade grate causing it, because the builder bought the one that cost the least and nobody thought about it again.\n\nA square tile insert floor drain fixes two things at once. It sits flush with the tile so it looks deliberate rather than an afterthought, and the removable strainer gives you somewhere easy to catch the hair and grit before they travel into the pipe. That second part is what actually changes your week-to-week life.\n\nHow a floor waste with a strainer works\n\nWater goes through three stages. It passes the face of the drain, falls through the strainer, then runs through the core and into the waste pipe.\n\nThe face is the part you see. On this drain it is a square polished surface with openings spaced to let water fall quickly rather than puddle. A wide outfall matters more than people expect. If the opening is narrow, water sits on top of the grate and spreads across the floor, which is how you get that permanent damp corner.\n\nThe strainer sits below the face. It is a basket that holds hair, lint and grit. Everything that would otherwise knit itself into a blockage somewhere inside your waste pipe collects in a small removable part you can lift out with your fingers. The clog still happens, but it happens somewhere you can reach.\n\nThe core is the last stage. After the water has gone, it returns to a closed position. That closed core forms a barrier between the room and the pipe below, which helps hold back the sewer odour and the insects that otherwise use a floor waste as a doorway. It is a mechanical idea rather than a chemical one, and it only works properly while the drain is clean.\n\nWho this suits\n\nShowers are the obvious case. A shower floor generates more hair than any other drain in the house, and a strainer takes the pain out of it. If you have long hair in the household, this is not a nice-to-have.\n\nLaundries are the quiet winner. Lint, washing machine overflow, the occasional bucket getting tipped out. A square floor drain in a laundry handles all of it, and lint strains out just as well as hair.\n\nBalconies and external landings benefit during leaf season. Instead of leaf litter heading into the pipe and sitting there, it sits in the strainer where you can tip it into the bin. Expect to check it more often in autumn.\n\nGarages, workshops and basements are the rougher end of it. If you hose a floor down, grit comes with the water. A strainer keeps the worst of it out of the line. In those spaces, clear the strainer after each wash rather than waiting.\n\nKitchens and commercial wet areas use these too, though grease is the enemy there. The best kitchen floor drain grate in the world still needs frequent cleaning when fat is involved.\n\nHow to choose the right one\n\nStart with measurement, not looks. Three numbers decide whether a drain fits, and getting them wrong wastes everyone's time.\n\nMeasure the opening in your floor, corner to corner on the square. Measure the outside diameter of the waste pipe below. Measure the depth you have available between the tile surface and whatever the pipe connects into. Write all three down before you shop. Exact dimensions and pipe compatibility are not specified by the maker, so please check with us against your measurements before ordering.\n\nThen think about the face. A square face lines up with square tiles and looks intentional. A round grate in a square tile pattern always looks like it was added later. If your floor has a strong grout grid, square wins.\n\nFinish is the third consideration. A polished surface wipes clean and resists soap scum better than a rough cast grate, and it sits quietly against most tile colours. A finely textured polished face also gives some grip, which matters in a shower.\n\nFinally, think honestly about maintenance. The best anti odour floor drain is the one you will actually clean. A strainer you can lift out with wet fingers gets cleaned. A grate you need a screwdriver and a torch for does not.\n\nInstallation, and when to call someone\n\nIf you are swapping a drain into an opening that already matches, it is a straightforward job for a confident DIYer. Clean the recess, dry fit, seal where needed with a neutral cure silicone made for wet areas, and let it cure before running water.\n\nIf the job involves cutting tile, altering the waste pipe, or going anywhere near the waterproof membrane around the floor waste, stop and get a licensed plumber. The membrane is what stops water tracking into the building structure, and a small mistake there turns into an expensive repair you will not notice for two years. Plumbing rules also differ between countries and states, so check what applies locally before you start.\n\nThere is no shame in handing over a thirty minute job. It is cheaper than a leaking slab.\n\nKeeping it working\n\nThe maintenance routine is short. Lift the strainer out, tip the hair into the bin, rinse under warm water, drop it back in. Once a week in a busy shower, less often elsewhere.\n\nEvery month or so, take the core out as well and give it a proper rinse. Soap residue builds on the sealing surfaces and that is almost always why a self-closing core stops sitting flat. A quick clean fixes it.\n\nFor the visible face, use a soft cloth and a mild household cleaner. Stay away from steel wool, scouring pads, bleach and strong acidic descalers. They mark polished surfaces and the damage does not buff out. In hard water areas, drying the face after cleaning keeps mineral spotting down.\n\nIf water starts draining slowly after a clean, the problem is further along the pipe rather than at the grate. That is a different job and usually needs a drain snake or a plumber.\n\nWhat this drain does not claim\n\nHonesty is worth more than a longer spec sheet. The material composition, colour, exact dimensions, weight and country of origin are not specified by the maker. The finish is listed as polished and the strainer is removable. No batteries are required, which is one of those details a supplier lists because a form field demanded it.\n\nIf any of those unspecified details matter to your project, ask before you buy. We would rather answer a question than process a return.\n\nThe short version\n\nA square tile insert floor drain earns its keep in two ways. It looks like it belongs in a tiled floor instead of being bolted on, and the removable strainer moves your hair blockage from inside the pipe to somewhere you can reach in ten seconds.\n\nMeasure your opening, your pipe diameter and your available depth before ordering. Choose a square face if your floor is tiled in a square grid. Plan to lift the strainer out weekly in a shower and less often elsewhere. Get a plumber involved the moment waterproofing or pipework is in play.\n\nDo that, and the drain goes back to being the thing you never think about, which is exactly what you want from it.", "llm_summary": "A square tile insert floor drain supplied under the Nomel brand, listed in the shower grates category. The visible face has a polished finish and a square profile intended to sit flush in a tiled floor. It includes a removable strainer that collects hair and debris before it reaches the pipe, and a drain core that returns to a closed position after water has passed through, which helps hold back odours and insects from the waste line. No batteries are required. Exact dimensions, material composition, colour, weight and country of origin are not specified by the maker. Suited to showers, bathrooms, laundries, balconies, basements and garages where a compact square floor waste is needed.", "returnable": true, "return_policy": "Voluntary 14-day change-of-mind returns in original condition, buyer pays return postage; Australian Consumer Law consumer guarantees for faulty goods. Return postage on faulty goods is ours.", "shipping_profile": "standard", "warranty": null, "brand": "Drains Company", "gtin": null, "mpn": null, "condition": "new", "url": "https://drains.net.au/tile-insert-floor-drain/", "canonical_url": "https://drains.net.au/tile-insert-floor-drain/", "json_url": "https://drains.net.au/api/products/tile-insert-floor-drain.json", "updated_at": "2026-10-11" }