Vent stack height, color

Two vent stack questions:

1. How high above the roof should the vent stack protrude. I have a 3" and 2" vent. I looked at the code, but am still unsure. I also realize that the code is the "minimum" and I'm wondering if any of the pros have some good rules of thumb to make things work smoothly and not "smellily". I'm not afraid of a long vent protrustion if it does a better job of venting and/or disipating sewer gases odor. It looks like some of these factors come into play.

- I live in southwest VA
- The 3" stack is about 3 feet below the peak of my roof (8/12 I think)
- The 2" stack is in the outside wall (the eaves stick out 2-3' past the outside wall).
- There is a window just to the side of the 2" stack with the top of the window about 2' below the top plate of the wall.

2. I'm using PVC for my DWV. I've noticed that many folks in my area have somehow colored their PVC vents black to look better against a dark roof. I thought it might be ABS, but can see where the paint has worn on some older installs to reveal the white PVC. As far as I know paint does not adhere to PVC very well. Is there some pro secret to making this work?

Thanks,

Joel

In my area nothing less than 3" can penetrate through the roof for frost reasons. As far as painting the pipe, scuffing the plastic (which is easy with sandpaper) will provide a good surface for paint to adhere to. In Ky the vent must terminate a minimum of 12", but longer in areas where dormers/windows come into play.