Yes, you are only allowed no more that one pipe diametre graduale slope from the weir of the trap to the vent. In this case it would be 1 1/4" (2% slope or 1/4" per foot)Is it because there is too much slope in the pipe?
The blade length of the Sawzall should give you the room to work around that copper.
WCP,
I might give you a call, but first I want to contact the original plumber and see what he says. He's a licensed plumber. I got three bids on the job. they were all within $100 of each other. None were cheap by any means. He spent the most time here and gave a detailed estimate of what he was going to do. Unlike the other two he was the one doing the work, not just the estimate.
MG,
I think you're suggesting removing the entire section, from the sink to the drain/vent pipe, correct? Basically there's no way to do this without re-plumbing the entire sink.
The plumber came out on Friday to look at the line. He confirmed that he put in the trap arm but not the sanitary tee. He curved the trap arm so it would join up with the sanitary tee. I asked him about it being a S trap and being pitched so steep. He doesn't see any problem with the pitch. I showed him the codes but he dismissed them saying the trap wasn't the problem. English is his second language (he's German) so it can be hard to communicate with him.
The sink has never smelled when he's been here.
To him, the fact that the smell isn't constant is an indication that it's not the pitch of the trap arm that's causing the problem. He thinks the smell is from the "gunk" he removed from the drain pipe when he was here before.
He'll fix the trap arm if I want him to but he pointed out several things that could make this problematic. First there's the issue of the supply line hindering access to the arm. He'll cut the line to gain access to the arm and then re-connect the arm. If he does this there's the possibility that the supply line will be proud of the studs (they're 2 by 3's). Second, to cut the sanitary tee he'd need to cut several inches below the bottom of the tee. If you look at the picture you can see that there's blocking an inch below the tee. He'd have to remove some of this to be able to cut the pipe. There's a shower on the other side and he's worried that when he removes the blocking he could damage the shower pan. And lastly, the walls are mud walls. The wall bulges into the cavity conforming to the shape of the pipes. The wall appears to bulge in where the new pipe would run. This would cause the pipe to be proud of the studs. It also possible that it would'nt line up with the new sanitary tee.
I know what he did is wrong and should be corrected (though not by him). Given the potential obstacles in correcting this I'm wondering how bad is the configuration of the trap arm? My understanding of the code is that the trap arm must pitch 1/4" but not more than the diameter of the pipe - 1 1/2" - (please correct me if I'm wrong). The pipe drops 2 1/4" to 2 1/2", making it off by 3/4" to 1". How much off is to much?
I went a year and a half with this configuration of the trap arm without smelling sewer gas. It was about a month after the rough in for the second bath that the sink in the first bath began to smell. Not constantly, but periodically over the span of two weeks. After he cleaned the drain arm there was the faint smell of sewer gas twice. It's been three weeks and I haven't smelled anything. I've tried to duplicate the problem by making the trap siphon without any luck.
The potential problems of installing the new arm and the fact that the drain doesn't smell plus the inability to make the drain siphon dry makes me unsure of what to do.
Any opinions?
Thanks again for all the help and advice.
This is awkward, but...
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