Ok, here’s the situation. We have a basement 4-pce washroom added about 20 years ago, 50 yrs into the life of the house. The washroom vent travels North-East-North-East about 40 horizontal feet, in all, to the laundry room, up the vent shared by the laundry room and kitchen, and then South to exit the roof above the 2nd floor bath.
It’s pretty funny, actually – but it’s all working if we don’t mess with it. So, of course, we want to mess with it. We want to finish the basement ceiling and a lot of that pipe is in the way.
Option 1 – live with it.
Option 2- get a Studor/auto-vent/air admittance valve to replace the basement bathroom vent and have some risk of failure and sewer gas in house until a potentially defective unit is replaced in a matter of hours. This option is looking pretty good just now, but BTers have a habit of taking away miracle fixes {G}. Advanced search says it would have to be located well above fixtures, accessible for repairs, non air-sealed, and inspected …
Option 3 – ?What? We can easily get to the exterior of the house just above the basement washroom. Is it possible to vent the lower bathroom to the outside above the basement ceiling, but without having to continue to above the 2nd storey? And without blasting sewer gas at the neighbours.
We’d love advice and to know what other questions to ask. Thanks.
Replies
Studor it, no problem. Put in access panel. Buy two in case one fails (probably wont) Supply house sells 'em for 39 bucks here.
But it sounds like the main stack for the whole house passes through the washroom?
Are you moving that or something?
"but it sounds like the stack for the whole house passes through that washroom.."
No, here's the vent stack path for the whole house. The "//" marks the path we'd like to make magically disappear. (Hey, who needs autocad when you have ASCII cad - drawing with nothin but keyboard chars.)-----------------------------------------------
A Roof ^ >>>>>>>>>^ ^ 2nd fl bth ^ ^ kitch ^<<< // << ^ ^ laundry bsmt bath----------------------------------------------
B Roof ^ >>>>>>>>>^ ^ 2nd fl bth ^ ^ kitch ^ studor valve ^ ^ laundry bsmt bath
Edited 4/2/2005 6:59 pm ET by hacknhope
Make double sure that the main house isnt draining through the basement bath is what I am saying (as a combo waste/vent).
If not, remove the 40' of pipe in the ceiling and cut the Y or T at the main vertical stack and put a fernco cap on or install a cleanout if that would make sense. Then go back to the other side of the basement and install studor vent at any point thats accessible and well above the highest flood rim.
I've always put them in pointing vertically, but you might be able to put it in the ceiling laying flat, check the instructions when you buy them.
I am a big fan of the white plastic access covers from HD, they work great for studor vents, just cut the drywall.
We have also put them outside, but they can't be near any windows, and they're kind of ugly.
Have fun and make sure no one flushes the toilet above you when its all apart.
I can tell you personally that puts a strain on marital relationships!
hi just happen to be reading this post, can you tell me what a studor vent looks like, i think that is what they used in my bathroom (coupler with black plastic cap?) any way i asked if i should have access to it and they replied it wasnt neccessary. I can get to it (at least to the the coupler and black cap) now from the room behind it, but was going to close that side off to hide the stack and some duct work. I can cut out some drywall in the bathroom and install an access panel.....just not sure what need to be accessed.
Dan
Here are two sites where you can get photos of installed vents. It is probably what you are looking at. I'm holding one that is silver colour and another that is black. I'm new to this, as you can tell by the post, so I have no advice of my own, just second-hand.
One manufacturer says install in a vertical position, so we will. One package says make sure the valve is 6inches above the trap arm (and/or highest flood level). By 'accessible' you need to make sure the valve is A) not in an airsealed space and B) kept accessible so you could swap it instantly and with your bare hands, in case of failure and sewer gas smell. We plan to keep one in an access hatch (not air tight) and stow a matching replacement part right in the cavity with it.
http://www.oatey.com/aav_public/optimized.htmlhttp://www.studor.net
Thanks for good advice. We have checked and are not concerned that the whole house is venting through this bathroom -- it was an afterthought of an earlier owner, so it was tied into an existing system. We're merely undoing that tie-in.
As to your comment...
"I can tell you personally that puts a strain on marital relationships!"
OH been there done that (not your particular example) but we've being hacking up our houses together for the past 7 years. So far, nothing injured but pride. And, luckily, we're about tied for really really stupid moves, so we don't point accusing fingers. Those kinds of accidents do happen and once you recover from them, the stories become the-ties-that-bind. We'll still be laughing as we tell the grandkids.