Does anyone have a creative solution to this situation?

[Saiphes]

I'm helping a friend finish a house that the contractor quit on after only 25% completion. We have no zoning or code requirements in our area. I'm looking for a creative solution that doesn't require me to tear all the walls out of the main floor bathrooms.

I've looked at these: http://www.3dplumbing.net/ontplumbing/wet_vent.htm and I understand that my horizontal vent pipe is supposed to be higher than the overflow of fixtures, but that will never happen.

There is a main floor with sinks and tubs and showers, and a basement with no fixtures, but through which the plumbing runs.. There is no vent pipe in the main floor. All the walls in the main floor are finished. In the basement ceiling,at least 6" higher than the waste pipe, are one way vents that have been failing and making the whole house smell like sewer gas, so they have been covered. Things seem to flush ok with them covered and the smell has gone away... There is a small vent in the second floor on a branch of the waste pipe not shown in the picture. The septic/leech system seems to pull air in the field vent and send it out the second floor bathroom vent outside - due to temperature differences?

What I'd like to do is remove the indoor vents, connect them all at basement ceiling level, run them straight - or sloping upward 1/4 per foot - outside and up the side of the house. I think I attached a picture successfully.

Edit: There are traps on every fixture going into the waste pipe.

I hope someone can help. Email my name over on yahoo if you don't want to get caught giving non-code advice. :/

 

[Jimbo]

You DO have a plumbing code http://archive.org/details/gov.nh.plumbing
You may not have permitting or enforcement in your area.

If you install a horizontal vent pipe below the fixture....just don't bother, it will clog up..

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Bluebinky]

The word "creative" is a bad sign when it comes to things like plumbing.

I vote for tearing out the walls. Sorry, but you may as well do it now when you can, rather than later when you have to.

Without vents going up at the trap arms, the sinks have s-traps which are prone to siphonage and not allowed.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Where in NH are there no codes or enforcement? The law says that if the town or township does not have a sitting building inspector then enforcement goes to the state inspectors and the state code shall apply. So, if you are up there in say Hart's Location you would call the plumbing board to schedule an inspection.

 

[Kreemoweet]

Just because you call a piece of pipe a "vent", doesn't make it one. What you are proposing to add are not vents.

 

[Saiphes]

Thank you for all your responses. Bad news, indeed.

 

[hj]

do that, and all you will accomplish is give the sewage an "alternate path" to the sewer whenever one of them plugs up.

 

[Emmie]

Saiphes, I sent you a private message. I'm not far from NH, and may know some licensed folks who could help. Let me know if you get the note. I wish you and your friend luck!

 

[WorthFlorida]

If the contractor quit before the job was done he was probably incompetent. Was he a licensed plumber or a carpenter? If the later it most likely was done all wrong. As kreemoweet mentioned above, because you call it a vent, it doesn't make it a vent. Play it safe man.