Washing machine not vented,

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Kiton

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The washing machine and a wash tub in the basement have no vent. They are located a foot or less from the main 4 inch stack and connected at the base of the stack with a 1.5 inch ABS threaded adapter to the San Tee in the cast iron stack.Sometimes there is a little bit of a smell from the wash tub, so I assume the traps are getting siphoned at times. I am guessing this setup is at least 25 years old.


Does this sound reasonable as a fix to this very old setup?

If I can get the 1.5 threaded adapter out successfully, upgrade it to a 2 inch.
I can not really tell without removing the sink, but would the threaded adapter be screwed in to the cap on the 4 inch San Tee (the way the cleanout plug is) or lead and oakum chaulked in place?

Add a San Tee to the trap arm from the washer (which is connected by a wye to the trap arm of the wash tub), I can go straight up about 4.5 feet, then I would have to go across about 5 feet and I can tie in to a 2" vent that runs to the roof.

It appears that the builder relied on the stack as the vent for drain purposes of the sink and then the washer when added, but what happens when my daughter on the second floor drains her deep soaker bathtub which must hold 60-70 gallons of water?
 

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Terry

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Each floor gets vented, and those vents go at least above flood level on the next floor before tying back in.

The washer and laundry tub are totally wrong. Those should be cut out, and started over. In fact, based on the drawing, very little is right. No permits there I guess.
 

Kiton

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Each floor gets vented, and those vents go at least above flood level on the next floor before tying back in.

The washer and laundry tub are totally wrong. Those should be cut out, and started over. In fact, based on the drawing, very little is right. No permits there I guess.

I have been in the house (which is about 68 years old) for about 11 months now, and very little is right with all the plumbing and wiring (extension cords in the closed ceiling from light socket to power wall plugs!). I had the place inspected, he said it was a great building in great shape, which cosmetically it is.

We have a system where the home owner can replace like for like, below a certain dollar value, without a permit. But you are suppose to call city hall and get it inspected. The inspection is almost the same cost as the permit. So there seems to have been a lot of replacing like for "likeish" but the inspection part of the process was over looked. Permits are very expensive here, so city hall has not helped this at all.
I am aiming for city inspection at the beginning of August for the fixes I am doing.

I could rip it all out, turn the washer 90 degrees (unfinished basement) and set it up like this. The washer and wash tub would share one p trap and one vent.
Does this look reasonable?

Thank you Terry

(my drawing skills suck, sorry)
 

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Kiton

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Terry,
I was chuckling about your "I guess there are no permits there" comment today.
I called city hall to ask 3 code questions, one on converting my flat roof to a green roof with a veggie garden.
The reply was:

You don't need permits for that stuff,
just get someone who knows what they are doing

They will charge you for an inspection on completion of a project when you call it in however.
 

Presence

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You don't need permits for that stuff,
just get someone who knows what they are doing

Green roofs imply weight from dirt load. Typically commercial installations use specific light weight soils and commonly are covered in succulents and sedum over a 60mil butyl pond liner. Soil depth is usually 2-6 inches. If there is pitch over 1:12 the soil is often held back with a mesh until rooted. Your aspiration to put a "veggie garden" up there may require far more soil than your roof was designed to hold. Roofs are typically not framed as robustly as floors. 2x6 16 on center is common framing. I wouldn't put soil on it though. Generally the framing of a roof is engineered FOR a green roof. Retrofit is not advisable without consulting weight load tables; you have to think of not just the weight of soil... but the weight of WET soil and plants. 3" of wet soil can be as heavy as 2 feet of snow.
 

Kiton

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Thanks Presence.

I have read some municipalities around me require an engineering report on the very issue you mention.
Our roofs are designed for 2-3 feet of snow, being in the Great White North, but regardless of the city permits office being so slack, I would not go green roof without having and engineer sign off the roof and the drainage.

I told my daughter we would coat 1/4 of the surface as white roof, she could place no more than 3 pallets with potted plants up there pending a full evaluation. Which won't happen this summer at the rate I am falling behind on pressing projects. She is a plant biology student.......you know where that is heading...... she would have an experimental eco system up there is she could.

I saw a roof last week that was a greenish roof, it has a very thin, light layer of some green vegetation covering the entire area, but not veggie or plants, almost like a layer of moss. Seems like a good compromise to tar and gravel roof tops.
 
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