# Sewer line vent labyrinth



## enigma (Feb 21, 2005)

Company that's building a new bathroom for me in an old house has broken the old heavy duty sewer vent pipe and added a plastic pipe to it by turniung it away from a usual path by making a turn across the bathroom and then up to the ceiling and then 90 degree turnhorizontally above the ceiling in the attic and then another 90 degree elbow into the old line vent which goes out up into the roof and out. Sorry for bad English. They made this complicated "pipe dance U turn" because it was convenient for them and not for me or the air, and of course, I'm paying for all the extra piping they've used for it. Plus a lot of space wasted just to make this "U wrap". I have a Home Improvement book and in the pictures the vents always go straight up. The way the pipe goes now instead of connecting the one below the floor and the one above the floor directly they made a 90 degree elbow and "sent" a pipe horizontally all across the bathroom below it's floor and then up in the corner inside of the bathroom and then elbow above the ceiling and then horizontally back into the same position, then yet another elbow into the old "cast iron??" one which comes out in the roof. What I mean is - can they do this? Can they instead of vent pipe going all the way between under floor until the outdoors all the way up straight, can they make it "turn" by elbows in 4 places? I mean they made the new vent pipe "snake away" in 4 elbows (!). Is this usual? Thanks for your help.


----------



## PipeGuy (Oct 8, 2004)

I'm not a plumber. A plumber can best answer your question. Keep an eye out for a post from a plumber. That being said-
My biggest concern would be that the pipe sections are properly joined and glued and that all horizontal sections 'slope' downward towards the drain so that rainwater that falls into the vent at the roof will drain down the pipe without 'puddling' inside of it. If water were to 'trap' in a horizontal section that sloped away from the drain then the vent could become blocked and potentially cause a problem.


----------



## Mike Finley (Apr 28, 2004)

Your rough plumbing inspection should tell you what you want to know.


----------



## PipeGuy (Oct 8, 2004)

LOL. "Should" being the key word in that statement.


----------



## Bjd (Dec 19, 2003)

Stack vents and vent stacks, they are both the same. Yes in your book they show you a basic diagram of the most used system that being a stack vented system. If you were to do any type of reasearch you would find that this type of system will not work in all applactions.

To make hozontal changes to the vent stack is the norm, it cannot always go straigth up, as shown in your book.

Too add to this, if you had a high rise building and the stack that went from the ground floor to the top floor of lets say a 20 story building, when the top floor toilet was flushed what do you think would happen when it meet the base of the stack?

Therefor offsets in the vertical line are made to slow down the fall rate.
Bjd


----------



## Teetorbilt (Feb 12, 2004)

This thread literally turned to s***. LOL
I have a mental image of a toilet being flushed from 20 floors up and it ain't pretty.


----------

