whole house trap

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ddurand

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The house I am looking at buying has a whole house trap in the 4" drain pipe after all the fixtures in the house but before the kitchen sink and dishwasher. I have never seen a whole house trap in a house before. The washing machine drain pipe has no trap and smells from time to time. I was told its from residual stuff on the 10' of drain pipe before the whole house trap and not gas from septic tank. Also right next to the whole house trap is a elbow and then an open 4" vertical pipe (between fixtures and whole house trap). I was told this is another vent and should just be vented through the stil in the basement or a pop up vent installed. Since its after all the fixtures it will not help with a the vacuum created when a toilet is flushed, so what is it there for?

If I install a trap in the washing machine drain line I am not sure how to vent it. Its the last fixture in the 4" drain pipe (farthest from septic).

Lastly, someone put a tee and in the attic connected the bathroom fan to the 4" vent stack via white flex hose. It may work, but just seems odd.
 

Jadnashua

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Can't help with all of the problems, but connecting the bathroom vent fan to the sewer vent line is NOT correct - it must be run separately.
 

hj

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vent

It should be on the outlet side of the whole house trap, and without it the septic tank will become a closed system and nothing will drain. We remove whole house traps whenever we find them.
 

ddurand

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whole house drain

The open pipe is on the house side of the whole house trap rather than the septic side. However the whole house trap is really an almost whole house trap, as its after all fixtures but kitchen sink. So I assume the septic can vent through the vent used by the kitchen sink.
 

Gary Swart

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I'm not an expert on this, but from following this forum for as long as I have, one of the bits of knowledge I have gathered is that a whole house trap is way out of modern use. I would advise you look into removing it and installing standard p-traps in your house. Another bit of knowledge, bathroom and kitchen vents must go outside separately and not be connected to a sewer vent.
 

ddurand

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venting a whole house trap

If one did have a whole house trap, it would seem one would need a vent on the septic side, in addition to all fixture drains being vented.

And in my case, the whole house drain does not eliminate the bad smell, which I assume is various crud coating the 10' of pipe in the house before the whole house trap.
 

TedL

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Is the "whole house trap" in question the same thing as the running trap, which is in additional to individual traps?

Or is it some ancient configuration that came before individual fixture traps?

My current and recent homes both have a running trap, which our code apparently required at least through 1984, when the newer one was constructed.
 

ddurand

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This is pretty new construction, less than 5 years old. Never heard it called a running trap. Its in addition to the normal traps for each fixture. Except for the one for the washing machine drain, that maybe they forgot.
 

Enosez

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Am I in trouble.

Both our houses have septic systems and "house traps" made from 3" and 4" PVC fittings respectively. There is a "fresh air vent" just before the house trap on the 3" line in one house. In the other, I have 4" PVC house trap with no fresh air vent other than a piece of 2" which transitions to galvanized and runs along the outside of the outside of the house as a vent. (House is dated 1901).

Both systems have been running fine for the last 5 years since weve owned both houses.

Should I be worried??
 
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