Currently I have about a 9″ drop from the toilet closet flange to the elbow, (all 3″ cast iron) and roughly 18″ of horizontal run to the 3″ vent / soil stack, and another 5′ of vertical pipe to the main sewer line of the house. The vent stack is doubling as a waste line too.
A soon to be bathroom remodel will have me rerouting some of the waste lines. The new plan will have
1) A 2′ drop from the closet flange to the elbow.
2) A 4′ horizontal run (pitched ¼” per foot)
3) Another 3′ of vertical drop into the main line of the house. The main line is 4″ cast iron and there’s a UN used stub at the basement floor.
I think this should work ok; I’m concerned with the amount of vertical run and the water out pacing the solids. If nothing else I’ll be slowing down the water with the new layout. Provided my idea is sound, can I stay with 3″ for the potty or should I bump it up to 4″ while I have it apart. Considering the 1.6 gallon flush, and the little 2 ½” outlet on the toilet itself, I’m wondering if 3″ pipe might actually be better?
Don’t be too hard on me as I’m just a guy fixing up his house..
By the way, I called two local plumbers and offered to pay their going rate just to come out and answer my questions. One was a no show, the other was to busy.
Thanks, Bill
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sobriety is the root cause of dementia.
Bill, your proposed piping sounds just about like what I put under my house, and it works just fine. The vertical drops are not a problem, the slope on the horizontal is good (should not be much more than 1/4 per foot, otherwise the water runs away from the solids and they can't float without it). 3" pipe is better than 4 with the low flush toilet.
Make sure that your elbows are the long-sweep variety. Make sure that you don't use any Tee fittings laying on their backs... use combos or wyes instead, so that waste enters horizontals runs headed in the right direction. While you're under there throw in a cleanout or two and/or maybe a test wye in case you want to plug the system and test it.
What are these "solids" you guys are talkning about? How genteel!
A two foot drop to the elbow. No problem, use a long sweep ell not a short turn.You will always out pace the solids. This is the design of the system. You should not have any problems. The only problem that I can foresee is the 1.6 toilet. They suck. Good luck.
A lot of the low flush toilets do suck, but we have had great luck with Toto 'Promenade' toilets and I know other folks like other Toto models too. You can definitely throw some solids in ours and they get flushed.