Drum trap with built-in vent line

[Philip E Agne]

I have a drum trap under my bathtub. I run cleaner through it all the time because I cannot access the bottom of it because it's on a slab. Even if I could take the cover off there would be no way to access the bottom of it. I am considering just cutting it out and replacing it with the P-trap. Problem is I'm not sure if I can hook into the old lead lines. There is one going to the main drain and another going to the vent. I have no desire to remove all this lead since I cannot even see where it connects to the main line. I have no desire to redo the drain vents. Can I get away with using rubber couplings on both sides? I'll try to post pictures later.

 

[Philip E Agne]

Here are two pics. As you will see the vent pipe is quite large. The sewer pipe, coming out of the backside is actually crimped a bit. I see no reason to attempt to take off the cover which is on the bottom . This is set down into a cutout area of the slab the house sits on .

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Philip E Agne]

When there be any point in removing the bottom cover? Is there anyway I can get up there and clean that?

 

[hj]

It was made by a "dummy". The cover HAD to be on the top, and there is NO "vent" on the trap.

 

[Philip E Agne]

What the heck is large pipe coming out of it going upwards? It appears to lead to the vent. Did this person just miss route everything? The whole thing baffles me

 

[Reach4]

What the heck is large pipe coming out of it going upwards? It appears to lead to the vent. Did this person just miss route everything? The whole thing baffles me

Your thinking this is a vent makes sense.

Are you having any symptoms?

 

[Philip E Agne]

Well, my symptoms are periodically I have to use some sort of hair breakdown solution to get the drain flowing decent again. I never get what I would call great drainage. My shower only puts 2-3 gallons per minute and it doesn't keep up with it even at the best of times. I think it needs a thorough clean out but obviously the way they installed it, it can't be done. My thought is to replace it with the P-trap then use that vent line seems to be coming off of it for my vent line. I imagine I'm just going to call in a plumber. There's barely room down there to install a P-trap and I wouldn't want to get into it and not be able to figure out how to do it. And it may not be feasible to put in a P-trap because of how close everything is there and they may have to put in a correctly installed drum trap.

We're in the middle of a long remodeling process. I think I'm going to wait until we get into the dining room here and I can pretty much expose that whole plumbing wall from the back just in case a plumber would want to redo the venting. Till then I'll just run the hair stuff down there once a month.

If this weird way they set it up would have been feasible I think they killed it when they crimped the drain line.

The only way I see them putting in a P-trap is to put it directly below the drain. That is where the drain line seems to be coming from. I would imagine you could bring that vent down to below the P somewhere on the drain line. Not really sure how you would handle the overflow pipe. I was thinking that vent pipe was lead but it feels pretty damn solid. I'll put a magnet to it. I'm going to check the drain line also. They both seem to be the same material

 

[MACPLUMB]

it is all lead can tell by the pictures, defiantly wait for a plumber for this, when you have dining room is good ideal
he may ? have to open the floor their also to straighten out the plumbing
I would call different plumbers and ask if they have any experience working with lead of this type, ask for people that they have done this type work for,
there are many good plumbers for general plumbing work but you want one that has this experience other wise could end up costing you lot more money

 

[Philip E Agne]

it is all lead can tell by the pictures, defiantly wait for a plumber for this, when you have dining room is good ideal
he may ? have to open the floor their also to straighten out the plumbing
I would call different plumbers and ask if they have any experience working with lead of this type, ask for people that they have done this type work for,
there are many good plumbers for general plumbing work but you want one that has this experience other wise could end up costing you lot more money

I get the feeling he may want to go all the way down to the drain pipe. Get rid of the lead leading to it. I'd hate to think you need have to do anything with the tub to do that. Some of this work is under the tub. If that's what required we'll just live with it. That open area is just cut out area in the slab.

My wife is pretty much willing to live with the way it performs now if it runs into too much money. She doesn't want to sink a lot into it. She has lived with this longer than I have. We have a better hair tapper we just put in. It's not like we're remodeling to sell this place.

That all said, I am going to have some guys come in and look at it when we get to that room. I can pretty well visualize how to do it. I don't know how easy it would be. The big problem I see is connecting up the vent pipe but it's not like that has to be a straight arrow thing. All your doing is moving air through it. Got to keep it above the drain line of course.

Thanks guys

 

[MACPLUMB]

The big problem is to reconnect to the existing lead pipe without having to follow it to far tell your wife that these problems never stay the same as that pipe ages it is going to get worse especially using drain chemicals will rot it out faster

 

[hj]

The pipe coming out of the top of the drum trap is the tub's waste and overflow, NOT a vent.

 

[MACPLUMB]

He knows that he installed the bathtub himself, he was talking about the 11/2" lead running to the right side of the picture

 

[hj]

Well, since the trap was designed to be installed "right side up", the pipe in the rear that comes off the trap WOULD have been the drain into the trap and that other pipe the outlet. Now, even if it was intended to be a vent, its connection is under water and useless. In fact, the whole trap may be useless if the tub and outlet are BOTH above the trap's water level.

 

[MACPLUMB]

GOOD POINTS HJ

 

[Philip E Agne]

It is just crazy. Since posting this I have not had to clean the drain one time since August. I am not sure what happened. The real problems did not start til after the new tub was put in. Now it seems they are gone. This lasted over a year. Go figure.

I don't understand it and I don't really care.