artistsnature
New Member
I'm a single mom in Jersey and I try to do all my own work. The house I bought a year ago had A LOT of plumbing "issues". The septic failed, the well was filled with bacteria, the well tank inside was filled with silt, mud came out the faucets. All that was "fixed" before I moved in. Originally I thought the smell in the basement was due to a propane leak - which was true, and I replaced both the propane fitting on the dryer and the propane oven above. That helped, but the smell continued. I tore down the moldy ceiling in the basement bathroom to fix a loose, dripping fitting in the trap of the shower above. I replaced the sink and toilet in the basement bathroom. I installed a trap missing from the stand pipe of the washer. The downstairs shower isn't functional - when I started to refinish it, I saw that the handles are six inches off center, and I haven't tackled that yet. So I periodically pour water down the shower drain to make sure the trap - if it exists, which I doubt because the whole bathroom was just slapped together - stays wet. I even installed a bathroom vent, but it's no match for the smell, which gets much worse when I run the dishwasher or shower.
I thought the problem was the vent stack - it's a steep pitched A-frame roof, and the stack is below the top bathroom, and only sticks up 6 inches. There's only one 1.5" stack in the entire 3 bathroom house, which seems inadequate. It looks like the upstairs 1/2 bath is unvented (that sink is also not working, because it's rotted through and I just shut off the supply). The methane odor used to consume the back yard, but I extended the stack two feet and that helped outside.
The gutters of this house hadn't been cleaned or maintained in decades, which caused leaking in the basement. I fixed all that. But I wonder whether the vent stack, which was not capped, could be clogged too? The leaves were so composted in the gutters that they turned into the richest soil I've ever seen - could that be in the stack too? I don't have any drainage problems in the appliances, so I doubt that the vent stack is clogged, and I also don't hear any gurgling.
When I started to re-do the basement shower, I did not replace the pan - even though the septic had backed up in there decades ago and the shower was full of crap. Should I pry off the pan to see if there's a trap? Should I run a hose down the vent stack to see if it's clogged? Should I do a peppermint oil test? Do I need to install an extra vent stack? I really don't know what I'm doing, although I muddle through and figure a lot out. But I can't afford a plumber - can you help?
THANKS!
Caryn
I thought the problem was the vent stack - it's a steep pitched A-frame roof, and the stack is below the top bathroom, and only sticks up 6 inches. There's only one 1.5" stack in the entire 3 bathroom house, which seems inadequate. It looks like the upstairs 1/2 bath is unvented (that sink is also not working, because it's rotted through and I just shut off the supply). The methane odor used to consume the back yard, but I extended the stack two feet and that helped outside.
The gutters of this house hadn't been cleaned or maintained in decades, which caused leaking in the basement. I fixed all that. But I wonder whether the vent stack, which was not capped, could be clogged too? The leaves were so composted in the gutters that they turned into the richest soil I've ever seen - could that be in the stack too? I don't have any drainage problems in the appliances, so I doubt that the vent stack is clogged, and I also don't hear any gurgling.
When I started to re-do the basement shower, I did not replace the pan - even though the septic had backed up in there decades ago and the shower was full of crap. Should I pry off the pan to see if there's a trap? Should I run a hose down the vent stack to see if it's clogged? Should I do a peppermint oil test? Do I need to install an extra vent stack? I really don't know what I'm doing, although I muddle through and figure a lot out. But I can't afford a plumber - can you help?
THANKS!
Caryn
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