Please Help Me With Shower Plumbing

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seanmathes

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A guy over at the John Bridge tile forum suggested I come over here for some help. I am in the process of building a shower. I recently put in the plumbing and a few of the guys over there are telling me that I have an issue with the horizontal wye. I am pretty sure what I have is a wet vent.

Honestly, I am not getting a building permit or an inspection but I do want to do it right. As long as it operates correctly and I won't have any major problems the way it is I am fine with it.

Here are a few pics and also the link to my post at the other forum.

http://www.johnbridge.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=57907&page=3&pp=15

the plumbing stuff begins on about page 3.

Thanks for any input I really appreciate it.


As I say in the pic below. The 3" stack is less than five feet from the drain and actually closer to 3'. This drain comes from a bathtub that is just to the right of the shower. This is a 2" horizontal line.
 

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Redwood

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All I see is a piece of pipe. Please provide more info on how this drain is constructed.
 

seanmathes

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To the right it goes to the stack or the wet vent, I believe that's the right terminology. This is a 3" stack with a pipe going up and one going down to the sewer I think. To the left is the trap and drain for the tub. In the picture you can see the drain and trap for the shower.
 

seanmathes

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Here is a better picture where you can see the stack.
 

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Fubar411

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So you have a bathtub and shower sharing a 3" drain? The bathtub is vented w/ 2" I assume?

If wet venting is allowed where you are, it prob is okay.
 

Terry

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I was trying to help a home owner with his handyman plumbing one day, it was plumbed like that.

They had added a tub beyond the shower, and used the same line.
Everytime the tub was drained, it backed up in the shower.
It was pretty nasty looking too.

Normally, you would have a vent after the trap, before you wyed in another fixture to it.

And that has always worked well.
There are shortcuts, and the shortcuts don't save much in time or money.
The funny thing about the homeowner above, he didn't blame the handyman that had plumbed without venting fixtures.
He did blame the plumbing contractor that had to keep coming out and snake his drains.

He also had added a washer drain below his upstairs kitchen sink in the basement.
That would overfllow too, when the sink above was drained.

If it were me, I would put in the vent and wyes.

Or if you want to wet vent it, change the pipe from the stack and wye to 3". You could use a 3x2 wye with a 3x2 fitting reducer on the end.
Don't know if it would pass an inspection where you live, but the 3" sizing would give it a chance to vent.
 

seanmathes

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Terry, thank you for the reply, but the 3" stack is a wet vent if I am understanding wet vent properly. The 2" horizontal pipe runs from the tub and shower to the 3" pipe. The 3" tee goes down and up. The pipe that goes up is the vent I assume and the one that goes down goes to the sewer. If I understand this properly this is what makes it a wet vent right?



******* Maybe I didn't explain well enough. Ok, so the bathtub is already installed. As soon as you walk in to the room it is on the right. I am converting a closet to a shower that is to the left of the bath tub. They share the same wet wall. The trap in the pictures is for the shower I'm installing. There is also a toilet to the left of the shower that goes into the 3" stack. The toilet is all the way to the left though and is on the other side of the stack than the shower and tub.

In the first picture the horizontal line is the existing bathtub drain that runs to the 3" stack.

I Y'd into that horizontal 2" line for the shower drain.

There are also more pictures in the original post on the other site.

Am I explaining this properly or do I need more??

Thanks
 
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Terry

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What I'm suggesting, is to replace the horizontal 2" pipe with 3" pipe and wye for the shower connection.

Right now, when the tub drains, it can pull the water from the trap of the shower.

In the Seattle area, there isn't any inspector that would let me plumb it the way it is shown.

dwv_b2.jpg
 
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