Shower remodel - do I need this vent?

I'm replacing a shower that the prev owners let leak and rot the walls (tile floor, no liner). While I'm replacing walls, I'm going to move the interior wall to increase the shower size (38x60).
Two things have come up, first, the orig vent came up through the slab into the wall I'm moving, so the vent will either have to move as well or be plugged. Their is another vent less than 5' away shared with the rest of the bathroom (single vanity and a toilet). Also, the septic tank inlet is about 5' away on the other side. Do I really need to move this vent or can I cut it flush and plug it? Second question, what's the best way to remove the existing mortar/tile drain flange without destroying the pipe?



more pics for better detail and perspective, the far wall (with the temp copper running out to the hose bib) is exterior, septic is on other side

vent

Whether the vent is needed or not depends on the shower piping, not how close another vent, or the septic tank, is. As it stands we have no way of telling or answering your question.

hj said:

Whether the vent is needed or not depends on the shower piping, not how close another vent, or the septic tank, is. As it stands we have no way of telling or answering your question.

Click to expand...

Based on listening to water running out the drain from other bathroom fixtures, it seems that there is a single drain line running out from the bathroom vented by the pictured vent and a vent behind the vanity, The shower drain ties into this same line. I can hear water drain from the sink or toilet through both the vent and the shower drain. I can't tell for sure whether the pictured vent is on the septic or the house side of the shower tie-in, but from it's relative location through the slab, I'm betting on the septic side.

Each trap needs to be vented individually. My guess, and it is only a guess, is that yes, you will need to move the vent so it can be re hooked up.

Ideally, your drain would be in the center of the shower, so you might want to tear up some floor.

There are lots of ways to build a shower...many of them will fail. For some good advice check out www.johnbridge.com. I also really like the kerdi system from www.schluter.com. The nice thing about that is it works really well to just make the walls out of drywall...much easier and cheaper to do. Kerdi is like puttig up wallpaper, except you use thinset and you overlap the seams. Then youput the tile on. Neat...

Thanks for the Kerdi tip, sounds like the ticket to avoid the problems I'm fixing. As far as breaking up the floor, I'm not sure how that's going to go. The entire slab is only 42"x72" (it was poured as an addition) I'm concerned about breaking the slab and having an unstable floor.

Hi: How about putting some sort of bench where the vent comes up and "L"ing the pipe into the new wall? Marty

Marty 1 said:

Hi: How about putting some sort of bench where the vent comes up and "L"ing the pipe into the new wall? Marty

Click to expand...

you must be reading my mind, Going through the JohnSmith site, I got some ideas for seats that might be able to hide the protrusion. Only downside is that I'd have to build a tile floor instead of the Corian my wife favors, Upside is that I save the $800 a Corian floor runs.

Anyone have any ideas on removing the present drain? I hate to start cranking on it and end up breaking the pipe deep in the slab


thanks