What do you call those slush traps?

January 30, 2009 7:47 AM

What is the proper nomenclature for the contraptions installed inside building entrance vestibules, consisting of a grille-covered pit to catch and drain away snow, slush, and rainwater?

If pressed to name them, I'd probably go with "slush trap" or "slush pit", but I'm sure there must be a specific term from a discipline like civil engineering or architecture.

posted by onshi to Grab Bag (5 answers total)

I think they're just called grates, or walk-off grates, or aqueduct grates. Probably depends on the manufacturer. This one calls refers to them as their "aqueduct grating system."
posted by billysumday at 8:04 AM on January 30, 2009

This patent refers to "floor gratings, particularly those used in the entrances to buildings".

Another site refers to "entrance grates."
posted by djb at 8:06 AM on January 30, 2009

How unsatisfying! Grating names only the visible portion of what I assumed was more of a system...

Thanks for your help, hopefully the institutional property owner to whom I'm going to complain will know what I'm talking about.
posted by onshi at 8:58 AM on January 30, 2009

You are correct onshi, "grating" refers only to the visible surface-covering of a "trench drain."
posted by Bango Skank at 10:16 AM on January 30, 2009

It seems the term trench drain is applied more in industrial or infrastructural contexts, but not necessarily to the sort of set-up you'd encounter walking into an office tower or shopping mall in places with a cold-weather climate. They are functionally the same, but the latter type tends to have a larger grating area to catch the few steps into the building whereas the former are used to surround an area and isolate spills.
posted by onshi at 10:52 AM on January 30, 2009