bezoar
New Member
I have a 50's era home with a downstairs shower. We have never used it as the tile was cracked and falling off, but the bathroom would occasionally have water leaking on the floor. I finally realized that when the upstairs bathtub was full and drained it would overflow and come up the shower drain, which would then leak through the broken tile onto the floor. It only happened when the bath drained. Showers or just running the water wasn't enough to cause the overflow. Plumber snaked the pipes but that didn't help. He thought the pipes would likely need to be replaced, so now that we have decided to remodel the downstairs bath I got to work with the jackhammer. Here's what I found.
Vertical pipe on the left is the drain for the bathtub, vertical pipe on the right is auxillary vent.
Here's where the shower drains going the opposite direction as the previous pic.
Vertical pipe coming in from the right is the drain from the sink upstairs.
Here is another view of the pipes leading to the main stack.
Vertical pipe right next to the main stack is a vent (connects to the toilet drain in the floor). Main stack drains the toilet in the bath directly above. Both the sink in this bathroom and the one in the bathroom above drain via the vertical pipe on the far right. They both connect to the vent next to the main stack.
I had originally planned to just replace the pipe myself in its original layout, but now I'm wondering if the backflow is a design problem vs clogged up pipes. If that's true I'd rather hire a real plumber to redesign the system. How would you professionals tackle this? Is the drainage set up properly? Thanks for any advice and I can take more pics if you need clarification.
Vertical pipe on the left is the drain for the bathtub, vertical pipe on the right is auxillary vent.
Here's where the shower drains going the opposite direction as the previous pic.
Vertical pipe coming in from the right is the drain from the sink upstairs.
Here is another view of the pipes leading to the main stack.
Vertical pipe right next to the main stack is a vent (connects to the toilet drain in the floor). Main stack drains the toilet in the bath directly above. Both the sink in this bathroom and the one in the bathroom above drain via the vertical pipe on the far right. They both connect to the vent next to the main stack.
I had originally planned to just replace the pipe myself in its original layout, but now I'm wondering if the backflow is a design problem vs clogged up pipes. If that's true I'd rather hire a real plumber to redesign the system. How would you professionals tackle this? Is the drainage set up properly? Thanks for any advice and I can take more pics if you need clarification.