Bowl Basin
Overview
There is no ideal place to put a water bowl for pets in most homes. This may sound like just a minor inconvenience, but a bowl of water on the floor is a serious hazard. At the very least it is a regular source of water damage; at worst it can result in people tripping over either the bowl or the animals near them, seriously harming themselves or their pets in the process. These problems, as well as several others, can be solved by a bowl basin.
A bowl basin is a small alcove built to keep a water bowl out of the way and always full. Structurally, it is basically a tiny, open shower stall: It has two or three waterproof walls surrounding a drain pan, along with a valve nearby to supply water. Ideally, this valve will be connected to an auto-filling device, and the basin will include multiple safeguards against flooding.
Benefits of a Bowl Basin
For pets
Drinking sufficient water is crucial to animals’ long-term health, especially when they are older. Bowl basins help ensure this happens by providing consistent water availability and a secure drinking location.
Consistent water availability
Humans, being fallible, will inevitably let water bowls run dry sometimes, even bowls with large reservoirs.
Depending on the animal and the frequency of unavailability, this can lead to behavioral changes. For example, pets may drink more than is ideal if they are uncertain whether their bowl will have water the next time they check. In general, though, if the water bowl is sometimes full and sometimes empty, it can lead to anxiety.
Bowl basins allow pet bowls to be safely connected to water sources indoors, which eliminates this potential source of anxiety.
Secure drinking location
Still, having water always available doesn’t necessarily mean pets will get all the water they need to be healthy. Improper water bowl placement can also cause animals—especially older ones—to drink less than they should and live in a state of constant dehydration and anxiety.
For many animals, drinking water is an instinctually risky activity because it places them in a vulnerable state. In the wild, cats drink in groups, with some keeping watch while others drink, but housecats typically must brave it alone.
Cats and small dogs live in an environment where giants twenty times their size stomp around, giants who can kick or crush them if they aren’t paying attention. A single accident where they get hurt or even just scared can cause animals to feel anxious about a drinking location for years and can permanently change their behavior.
This is more important than it may sound, because if animals cannot drink comfortably, then they may not drink as much. Over time, chronic dehydration leads to a plethora of serious health problems, especially in older animals.
On the contrary, if pets have a place where they can consistently drink undisturbed, they are more likely to have lower anxiety and to drink healthy amounts of water, which can mean several more years of healthy life in a senior animal.
(Note: The proper location of the bowl is even more important and complex for cats. See Find the right space for details.)
For people with pets
Beyond enjoying your happier, healthier pets, with a bowl basin you will also enjoy more peace of mind. Having your pet’s water bowl filled automatically is like putting a bill on autopay—it means one fewer frequent chore to do, plus never worrying about your animals going thirsty or feeling guilty when you let the bowl go dry.
Tripping over the water bowl or slipping on spilled water will be a thing of the past, as will water damage around the bowl. Plus, as with every feature that reduces your pet’s anxiety, you may find your animals engaging in destructive behavior less frequently.
Finally, whether used for a bowl or not, the basin is also an ideal location for a pet bed to prevent damage from elderly pets who have become incontinent.
For people without pets
If not used to house a water dish, the bowl basin can simply serve as a general storage area. However, due to its durable, waterproof construction, this versatile space can also perform additional functions.
For example, it can store wet or dirty items, then be easily hosed down afterward. It also functions as a mop sink, which can aid in messy jobs like cleaning floors or rinsing off shoes.
For rental property owners
Bowl basins can deliver a strong return on investment for rental property owners by preventing water damage—the leading cause of property damage.
Water bowls are inevitable.
Virtually all rental properties will have animals in them at some point. Even if you have a strict “no pets” policy, some people will still sneak in cats.Also, service animals (and in some cases emotional support animals) must be allowed as they are not considered pets under the Fair Housing Act.
The bottom line is that your rental properties will have animals in them, and those animals will need water, which means bowls of water on the floor. If you don’t provide the perfect place to put those bowls, tenants will put them anywhere and everywhere. They’ll drip water when they’re filling the bowls, the animals will splash water around, and periodically the whole bowl will be knocked over.
To make matters worse, many modern pet bowls have circulating pumps and reservoirs that can hold a few gallons of water. When the return path gets clogged (which happens frequently when animals are involved), the pump will send those gallons of water all over the floor. Since this can all happen while unattended, this water can sit for days if your tenant is out of town.
Vinyl flooring or tile help a lot, but it can still be weak at the seams. Even if you have perfectly waterproof floors, your walls and cabinets will still get damaged. A one-time investment in a bowl basin that costs less than one moderate water damage repair can avoid all this expense, in addition to adding a feature that tenants with pets will love.
Manage your risk.
You can give your tenants a smart place to put the water bowl. In fact, a bowl basin gives them such a smart place that they would be foolish to put the bowl anywhere else.
You can put a clause in your lease’s pet addendum that states that as a condition of being allowed pets, tenants agree to certain practices, such as keeping the water bowl in the bowl basin.
However, while you can’t always count on people to follow legal agreements, you can always count on them to follow incentives, and a bowl auto-filler is the ultimate incentive to get people to put the water bowl exactly where you want.
The auto-filler is also a risk, but this risk is managed by adding several safeguards:
- Float or Hudson valve
- Floor drain
- Overflow drain
- Shut-off valve (Continuous volume limiting or leak detector/solenoid)
Any one of these measures alone will prevent flooding, which means all four would have to fail simultaneously for overflow to occur. This makes a bowl basin a tiny risk compared to all other plumbed appliances in the home, such as a sink or shower, which lack such redundant protection. Plus, it’s all but guaranteed to keep water bowls in a location where they cannot cause damage, eliminating this significant source of risk.
How to Build a Bowl Basin
Find the right space
Location
When evaluating the location of a bowl basin, it is important to follow these guidelines:
- Avoid areas with regular human foot traffic (especially for cats or small dogs).
- Avoid areas that require stairs to access them, since senior animals develop arthritis and won’t drink as much if it’s uncomfortable to get to the bowl.
In addition, cats have an instinctual need for cleanliness that requires more rules:
- Do not place the bowl basin near the litter box.
- Do not place the bowl basin near the food dish.
Size
Although the bowl basin alcove only needs to be about 18” tall to operate for small animals only, it’s best to make it at least 24” tall to make the space compatible with more animals, more versatile for alternate uses, and easier to clean. For large dogs, consider counter height (36”) or at least table height (30”).
If there will be nothing else above the bowl basin, stick with counter height (36”) regardless of the intended animal usage—which will create a counter/shelf at a useful height above the bowl basin. Counters shorter this typically won’t line up with other horizontal visual elements, leaving them looking awkward and out-of-place.
When designing for cats, make the basin at least long or wide enough to allow a cat to enter the basin and be completely out of the way while drinking. (This depends on the size of the bowl used, but 24” is usually big enough.)
Later, when placing the bowl within the basin, position it so that your cat can look out of the alcove while drinking if possible. Many cats will be more comfortable being able to view the surroundings rather than having their backs to an area where they could be surprised from behind.
With these guidelines in mind, look for a space that isn’t very useful to people, but has easy access to a water supply and drain line. Some great places to put a bowl basin:
- In dead space behind blind kitchen cabinet corners
- In dead space under staircases
- In the otherwise hard-to-use space next to appliances mandated by ADA (especially dishwashers or washing machines, which have drains and water supply lines)
- In the bottom portions of closets
Create a bowl auto-filler
Install a water shut-off valve
To prevent flooding, you can install any manner of leak detection devices connected to a solenoid valve.
Alternately, you can install a continuous volume limiting shut-off valve, which is triggered after a certain amount of water has flowed through the valve without stopping. Use a cutoff threshold higher than the capacity of your pet bowl (which allows you to fill the bowl completely after washing it) but well under the capacity of the basin to prevent overflow.
For example, if your bowl reservoir holds 1.5 gallons, and you have a 24” square basin with a 4” curb, which holds roughly 10 gallons, you can use a shut-off threshold of 3-5 gallons and be well protected against flooding even if your drain and overflow were to be fully clogged.
Add the fill hose
Terminate this water line in a recessed ice maker water valve box installed in one of the walls around the basin, either above or through the surround. To reduce the points of failure, choose a valve pipe size that matches the size of the inlet for your float valve to avoid needing any additional pipe fittings. Connect one end of a short stainless steel water supply line to the recessed valve and the other end to the float valve. Place the float valve in the water bowl’s reservoir, and that reservoir will now be automatically filled.
The easiest bowl designs to adapt are those with reservoirs that are either open on top or have lids. In the latter case, you’ll need to cut a small notch in the lid the size of the water hose, which will allow the lid to be affixed while the float valve is inside without requiring any permanent installation. This makes removing the auto-filler a snap when the bowl needs to be cleaned.
Note: Hudson valves are a compact, elegant alternative that perform the function of a float valve, but without the moving parts, which makes them durable and reliable. They are more expensive—and well worth it—but only if your bowl design allows you to mount them securely. If you want to be able to easily remove the auto-filler for cleaning, stick with a cheaper enclosed float valve.
Build the basin
The basin can be built using any standard construction techniques used to build a shower pan or floor drain.
With new construction, you can use building techniques from curbless showers to create a basin that seamlessly recedes into the floor.
However, when remodeling, a recessed drain most likely will not be practical, so you will need a raised curb to retain the water.
Alternatively, you may be able to find a premade basin. For instance, mop sinks come in several common sizes that may work for your space. (Look for mop sinks with one wall lower than the others for bucket pours; otherwise, you’ll need to remove a large portion of one wall for pet access.)
Waterproof material on the walls, such as tile, only needs to be as tall as the curb to form a basin, although you may choose to build the surround higher for aesthetic purposes. If not, coat the walls above with waterproof paint to prevent damage from splashed water.
It is highly advisable to install both a floor drain as well as an overflow drain in the wall, as the overflow drain is the most reliable failsafe of all. For best results, do not connect the overflow drain to the sewer system, but rather to a safe, conspicuous location outdoors to help create awareness of an overflow.