bathroom sink tee

[c4char]

Quick question. I am putting in a bathroom sink and would like to know if the tee can be put in on an angle instead of the normal way. There is an obstruction that prevents a 90 degree angle tee installation with a vent going straight up.

My plan is to come up from the 2" pipe, at about 10" from floor, install a 45, then the tee, from the top of the tee another 45 to the sink drain and trap going down to 1 1/2 inch,

From the center opening of the tee, I will 45 and go all the way up through the roof for the venting. Will this work and provide ok venting?

I kind of need a response very soon since I am going to attempt this tonight.

 

[Terry]

That would be fine.

Anything 45% or more is considered a verical waste.

I will do that sometimes too.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[c4char]

I just realized that the vent will not be able to go 100% straight up. What is the rule with elbows or 45 degree in the venting pipe.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Jadnashua]

As long as it continues up and horizontal sections slope down, bends in a vent don't really matter - you're moving air through that, and at a low velocity.

 

[hj]

tee

My question is about the tee's opening for the drain. You imply that it will not be installed with the open facing out perpendicular to the wall. If not, then it may be an improper installation.

 

[c4char]

The tee itself is not perpendicular to the wall but the tee quickly goes into a 45 which then is perpendicular to the wall so the sink drain trap can be installed. The same for the return 45 degree and then straight up.

There is a hard ventpipe that goes to the furnace for heating/colling that can't be moved which is where the normal tee configuration would go. I am actually coming up from the ground, Then 45degree out of the way from the vent pipe. Then the tee and another 45 to get to perpendicular to the wall. The tee is installed at a 45 degree angle. I put it in last night and everything seems like it is working properly. Sink drains fast and no odor or return issues from what I can tell. If for some reason it doesn't work.
I can still access all of the piping from my medicine cabinet opening since the back bathroom wall is about 10 inches or so from the original wall.

 

[c4char]

I now have an issue with the bathroom sink and I am unsure if it is the tee/vent installation or because of the other work going on in the house. We are redoing kitchen and upstairs bathroom.

Like I said earlier, I could change my tee/venting config. but it is a tough area to work in through my medicine cabinet.

Anyway, I started to smell odors coming from the bathroom sink which is lower than the kitchen and lower than the bathroom upstairs. When I first did the piping it seemed like all was ok but now, I am getting odor from the sink when water is turned on and I think even when it isn't. I just reinstalled my kitchen sink so now there is a trap in place and sink works great and is vented properly with existing venting that was there when house was built. I still don't have a toilet in the bathroom upstairs but the trap for bathroom sink is in and tub with trap is in. The bathroom is under construction and I can still change things if I need to. I state this because I am wondering if for some reason there may be air getting in through the toilet opening or something. I thought that the odor from the downstairs bathroom was due to the kitchen not having a trap and not being installed but I installed it over the weekend and the odor did not go away.

It definitely seems like the tee is not letting the air go up and out of the house through the vent, it is instead taking the wrong 45 degree turn back to the bathroom.

Do tees need to be paralell to ground to work properly. Also my return had to go around a 2x4 so it continues up but there are two elbows in it that form an S.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Since the two bathrooms are below and above each other and I have medicine cabinet access, I should be able to make changes. Also if there are tips on things I can do to narrow down the problem, that would be great. This is a huge problem right now and it is driving me crazy.

 

[c4char]

I also wanted to add that I moved into this house a couple years ago and it was built in the 50's so according to all of the diagrams I see, I don't think everything is vented properly. On all of the new house, I always see many vents, my house doesn't have this. That was why I desided to replace the bathroom sink and add the went in the first place.

This is what I think my house has in terms of plumbing drains/vents

There were only two vents that went out through the roof
-4 inch cast iron
-2 inch cast iron
plus my new 2 inch pvc (that I am not sure is working properly)

The main 2" vent is also the main drain for the:

-kitchen sink (drains to 2" stack and also has a vent that ties into the two inch stack higher than everything
-upstairs bathroom bathtub (is less than 1 foot from stack) basically has a trap and then goes into the 2"drain/vent stack lower than kitchen vent tie in and higher than kitchen sink

downstairs it is hard to tell because although there is a basement in the house, the part where the bathroom and laundry room are is on a concrete slab.

I think that everything down here including the bathroom sink, bathtub, toilet tie into the main 4" cast iron drain. Also the laundry room washer and sink tie into the main 4" drain. I can tell that there are no vents on the laundry room sink and washer because I can see them come up from floor.

The bathroom sink from upstairs drains into the same 4" that the toilet does and is within two feet. with a 2" to 4" Y.

Unfortunately, the only access I have to the downstairs level is a medicine cabinet. I could maybe also do something with the washer and sink if I were to open up my garage wall but I don't have access to the bathtub downstairs or even the toilet. I should draw a diagram but there are a number of unknowns. I don't know what they did back in the 50s but I am certain that this house is not plumbed correctly at all. I am just wondering how bad it is and if I can fix my bathroom sink problem and I also have the option of changin the upstairs bathroom sink and doing something different with the plumbing.

Apologize for the rambling but this is very hard to describe because I don't know the terminology or what is right/wrong. I will try to draw out a diagram tomorrow.

 

[c4char]

Here is a quick diagram, I am taking a guess at the ground level since it is on slab but knowing where the sewer line is and where they are located, I think it is correct. It seems like when the house was built, they definitely didn't put vents on each fixture and they also drained/vented into the same pipes.

Let me know your thoughts and what you think I should do besides knock down the whole house and start over. If I didn't have the bathroom sink issue, none of this plumbing stuff would bother me. I also have the option to go into the 2" drain/vent on left with sink and make the sink drain solely a vent. I would remove the tee. It seems like my bathroom sink is being used as a vent in the house instead of out where it should be.

 

[hj]

drain

Your drawing does not help since you are guessing as to the pipe routing, but after re-reading the original posting, it appears that the branch opening on the lower tee will be for the vent. If so, it cannot be done that way. The vent has to come off the top of the tee that the trap connects to. But your original also implies that you intend to use a tee at the trap connection. What will you connect the top of the tee to?

 

[Terry]

This is normal plumbing here.

 

[c4char]

HJ,

Thanks for your reply. The pipe that you are talking about is the middle one on the bottom (2"PVC). This pipe comes from the main drain under the slab to the bathroom sink from the floor vertically up from the floor. Currently, the tee is inserted there for the bathroom sink but it is not perpendicular to the ground because I had to 45 around some ductwork where one side of the tee goes to the trap, the other goes up all the way up vertically through the roof.

I think that a tee can't be used if it is not perpendicular to the floor. So if I were to change the tee and put it normal, it would look like the bathroom sink on the right on the diagram Terry provided. Do you think this will fix the problem. What I am thinking is that I would put the tee lower under the ductwork, keep it perpendicular (normal). The top of the tee will go all the way up to the roof, the bottom, to the drain and the horizontal I would elbow up around the duct and a second elbow to the sink trap.

Hard to explain this stuff writing it down but hopefully it makes sense. I wish there was a way to make all of the plumbing 100% but that wouldn't be feasible without demloshing the concrete slab and many rooms. The good thing is that I have access in certain places.

Charlie