An Odd Find

I am beginning a oproject to finish off an attic. We bought house about 1 year ago, 10-year old house. There are two vent pipes in attic that need to be moved a few feet. Standard stuff - Sch 40 PVC coming up through floor, poking through roof boot.

Each pipe is about 5 feet from floor to roof. In the middle of each there is a simple coupling fitting. I assumed these were placed for cleanout purposes. When I started working on the first pipe, I found that the pipe section between the coupling and the roof was not glued, just dry fit. There was also some evidence of past leaking there, although I had never noticed that before.

The real surprise was that after loosening the section in question, there was a plug in the second pipe section going down to the floor and to the fixtures below. I checked the other vent pipe that needs to be moved - same deal. Each pipe had a common plug with a nut on top.

I have never noticed any problems with fixtures draining, although every now and then there is a very slight odor from a shower drain (we have septic system).

I can only guess that the plug was there during construction for inspection purposes, and never removed?

I went ahead and moved the first vent pipe, no problem. Evereything below works fine. But before I finish up, I wanted to check to be sure there is no legitimnate reason for the plugs being there.

Any insights much appreciated

The lazy plumber never removed the plugs after the inspection! That's why the joints weren't glued up, so he could retrieve his test plugs. Rain, or melting snow does come down the pipe, and it has no place to go...it could build up, and without the connection being glued, it could seep out.

SO, remove the plugs, and do what you need, then glue it up. Keep in mind that if you put too many elbows in there, if a bird's nest, chipmonk, squirrel, etc. decides to invade the pipe, you'll never get it cleaned out.

Oh, my imagination is much more devious than that! I'm thinking somebody went up into the attic and cut and plugged the vents for some nefarious purpose. I've never tested a house with plugs in the vents inside the building. The plugs go on the ends of the pipes if using air, and no plugs (usually) if using water.

Maybe they didn't like the smell of sewer gas outside.

plugs

It might be nice to have a picture of these plugs to see what they could have been used for. Cleanouts above the first floor are useless, so that is not what they should have been.

artb said:

I have never noticed any problems with fixtures draining, although every now and then there is a very slight odor from a shower drain (we have septic system).

Click to expand...

Just goes to show that venting is not always quite as critical as it might sometimes seem to be!

why not

Just goes to show that venting is not always quite as critical as it might sometimes seem to be!

Neither are air bags or seat belts, UNTIL you need them.