Bathroom sewer vented into crawl space

[Johngalt1957]

Yesterday I was crawling around in a section of my crawl space that is under a bathroom addition of my house and discovered the vent for the bathtub, sink and toilet is in my crawl space. The bathtub and sink drain pipes connect into the large pipe coming from the toilet and the large pipe runs into the sewer line in the main crawl space about twenty feet away. The vent pipe comes off of the main pipe from the toilet with a y coupling, the vent pipe is 3 in. pipe ( I think, I have not measured it ) that is angled down with two elbow couplings for about three feet where it rest upon the ground, where rats can easily crawl up. That is the vent. To fix this problem I am either going to run the vent pipe outside the exterior wall of my house and to the roof or install a AAV. My question is which option would be better since the connection for the vent is in my crawl space several feet below where a proper vent would be connected in the wall. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Smooky]

Some photos might help. It is hard to believe that someone would really do what you have described. Could be, but hard to believe.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Johngalt1957]

Some photos might help. It is hard to believe that someone would really do what you have described. Could be, but hard to believe.

I will try to get some pictures. The crawl space does not have much room, I just about have stay on my stomach when I am under there.

 

[Smooky]

Are there any sewer vents coming out of the roof or running up the side of the house etc?

 

[Leejosepho]

Some photos might help. It is hard to believe that someone would really do what you have described. Could be, but hard to believe.

Turning the vent down to the ground might indicate someone thought the vent would thereby only let air follow the flow while blocking the rise of gasses trying to come into the crawl space.

 

[hj]

From your description, the "vent" is not in a correct location so it is probably not functional anyway.

 

[Johngalt1957]

There are two sewer vents on the roof in the orginal part of the house. The addition where this bathroom located does not have a vent on the roof or anywhere. Just the turned down pipe in the crawl space.

 

[Leejosepho]

As you might already realize, the problem with what you have there is the possibility of a clog in the main line backing up and overflowing into that crawl space. So, the best thing for you to do is what you have mentioned about running that vent up an outside wall (1-1/2" or 2" line) after removing the turned-down part that would serve as a trap if you left it there.