GreyGnome
New Member
Because my vent is not working right. I have a 100-year-old, 2 story+basement, 2 apartment building. When the 2nd floor tenant does laundry, she gets a sewer gas smell. When stuff drains from the second floor, the first floor people get gurgling in their sink. The second floor laundry and kitchen sink and dishwasher, and the first floor laundry and dishwasher, all drain to the same stack.
This sewer gas smell has been going on for over a decade. It was there when we lived in the 2nd floor apartment over 12 years ago.
So I went on the roof and found a major blockage in the vent, which is a 4" iron pipe. I cleared it, and pushed my 50 foot rod all the way in. It went down well into the basement, and I'm guessing it made it all the way out to the catch basin on the side of the house. That's where everything in this wet wall drains.
The vent is 23" from the brick wall. See photo roof.JPEG. In the basement, there are no pipes that are 23" from the wall. See photo basement.JPEG. So there's a bit of zigging and zagging behind the walls.
Fast forward to yesterday and the tenant complained that the smell is not gone. I went back up with my rod and found some resistance about 8 feet down. This is right at the level of the laundry drain, which is exactly where there's a tee. See laundry_drain.jpg, which shows the box with the laundry drain in it. Also see whole_catastrophe.jpg; this is a picture inside the wall on the second floor. I don't have a picture of the first floor's plumbing. The top arrow points at the Tee, which is about where i'm feeling resistance. I don't know if I got junk in there or if my snake is just off-center and hitting the joint.
The bottom arrow points to the P-trap for the laundry, which is suspicious to me. It's not a very deep trap.
So that's my story. The tenant is annoyed and I'm flummoxed. I don't know where to go from here. Note that the hole to the left, with the X by it, is closed. Nothing drains there and I'm confident nothing leaks out of there.
This sewer gas smell has been going on for over a decade. It was there when we lived in the 2nd floor apartment over 12 years ago.
So I went on the roof and found a major blockage in the vent, which is a 4" iron pipe. I cleared it, and pushed my 50 foot rod all the way in. It went down well into the basement, and I'm guessing it made it all the way out to the catch basin on the side of the house. That's where everything in this wet wall drains.
The vent is 23" from the brick wall. See photo roof.JPEG. In the basement, there are no pipes that are 23" from the wall. See photo basement.JPEG. So there's a bit of zigging and zagging behind the walls.
Fast forward to yesterday and the tenant complained that the smell is not gone. I went back up with my rod and found some resistance about 8 feet down. This is right at the level of the laundry drain, which is exactly where there's a tee. See laundry_drain.jpg, which shows the box with the laundry drain in it. Also see whole_catastrophe.jpg; this is a picture inside the wall on the second floor. I don't have a picture of the first floor's plumbing. The top arrow points at the Tee, which is about where i'm feeling resistance. I don't know if I got junk in there or if my snake is just off-center and hitting the joint.
The bottom arrow points to the P-trap for the laundry, which is suspicious to me. It's not a very deep trap.
So that's my story. The tenant is annoyed and I'm flummoxed. I don't know where to go from here. Note that the hole to the left, with the X by it, is closed. Nothing drains there and I'm confident nothing leaks out of there.
