fcrick
New Member
Hi there,
I've been putting some drain pipes and fittings together - the specific one I'm working on is a 3" pipe where I'm adding a 3" x 3" x 2" wye fitting that will go off to the lavatory. This pipe will also supply the vent for the toilet as a wet vent. The pipes are in soil under my basement slab, I've worked pretty hard so far to make sure the 3" run has a consistent slope that's exactly 1/4" per foot using a laser level as a reference. I have an 8" torpedo level, but it's a bit off and shows a slightly different bubble position if I just turn it around the other way, for example.
Especially since I'm working through a hole in the concrete, about a foot below, it's a challenge even when just dry fitting the wye to get the angle of it right so the pipe fitting coming off it will also have a 1/4" per foot slope. I know it doesn't have to be perfect, and if I'm reasonably close, I can just make sure the pipe, in this case a 4' long stretch, is sloped correctly, but the closer each step is to perfect, the more room I have for error elsewhere.
My strategy so far has been to dry fit it and get it as close as I can, and make a big pencil mark that goes across both the pipe and the fitting so I can line those up when I'm using solvent. This works only as well as I measure the angle, and while I haven't been way off, I'm always left feeling I could do a lot better.
I'm using ABS.
- What are some tips for getting the fitting's angle just right in this and similar situations?
- What's the best way to measure the slope of the little pipe coming out of the fitting?
I've been putting some drain pipes and fittings together - the specific one I'm working on is a 3" pipe where I'm adding a 3" x 3" x 2" wye fitting that will go off to the lavatory. This pipe will also supply the vent for the toilet as a wet vent. The pipes are in soil under my basement slab, I've worked pretty hard so far to make sure the 3" run has a consistent slope that's exactly 1/4" per foot using a laser level as a reference. I have an 8" torpedo level, but it's a bit off and shows a slightly different bubble position if I just turn it around the other way, for example.
Especially since I'm working through a hole in the concrete, about a foot below, it's a challenge even when just dry fitting the wye to get the angle of it right so the pipe fitting coming off it will also have a 1/4" per foot slope. I know it doesn't have to be perfect, and if I'm reasonably close, I can just make sure the pipe, in this case a 4' long stretch, is sloped correctly, but the closer each step is to perfect, the more room I have for error elsewhere.
My strategy so far has been to dry fit it and get it as close as I can, and make a big pencil mark that goes across both the pipe and the fitting so I can line those up when I'm using solvent. This works only as well as I measure the angle, and while I haven't been way off, I'm always left feeling I could do a lot better.
I'm using ABS.
- What are some tips for getting the fitting's angle just right in this and similar situations?
- What's the best way to measure the slope of the little pipe coming out of the fitting?