remodeling bathroom and have some questions

Remodeling my second floor bathroom and adding a shower. Main reason for the remodel is the plumbing in the floor was leaking every time someone used the sink.

The house is from I believe 1952, But you can tell someone added the dormer for the bathroom at a later time, not sure when.

After demoing the whole bathroom, I found where it was leaking. The sink didn't use a pea trap. It had an interesting setup where the water went straight down under the floor and then went to kind of like a catch basin thing. The drain water entered from the bottom and then went up into the drain. Hopefully that makes sense.

Anyways, What I believe was happening was the drain going to the main stack was clogging and causing a backup. The water would fill up in the sink, which appeared to be higher than the vent, and would pour out of there.

So my first question, my vent not only vents outside but also into my attic space. A friend whole is also a DIYer said that I need both otherwise I would have poor draining. Personally that doesn't make sense to me and I would think I would have sewer gases going into my attic space.... Do I need both or just the one going out of the wall?

2) Currently, you can see the vent going outside is going out the side of the wall. Is there a certain height that the vent should be about say the sink? I think the main reason for leaking I had was because it would backup and the vent (going to the attic) was lower than the height of the water in the sink.

3) Can I add a drain for the shower into the plumbing with the sink?

4) I plan to redo all the plumbing up to the stack from the galvanized to PVC. 2" should be fine for the sink and shower, correct?


Open to any other ideas or suggestions.


Thanks,
Brian

Cut it all out and bring it up to code. There is no easy fix, the drum trap has to go!

Lose the drum trap, put a regular P trap under the sink. The vent thru the wall is questionable. The open vent in the attic is absolutely improper, illegal and dangerous.

Ask that friend who to bet on next football season. But don't ask him any more plumbing questions, because he is clueless!

You are the blind leading the blind. Neither of you has the plumbing knowledge or experience to do what you plan to.

Cant tell from the angle...but I guess the pipe labeled to outside....is that the roof?? OK, that's good. The open tee....hard to imaging why they did that, but it has nothing to do with making it drain right.

You have the perfect opportunity now that it is all open, to get a good plumber in there to make this all right. A bathroom remodel is a lot of work. You have figured that out already. You want this job to be done so it lasts another 50 years. Screw it up, and you will be out the money, and having problems within the year!

We are all about DIY here, sometimes lacking in bedside manner! But you have a lot of problems here. We will be happy to continue to answer questions, so if you decide to push ahead on your own...ASK US about it at each step of the way...BEFORE you act! Good luck with the project.

In Chicago every fixture has to be individually vented. According to your drawing the shower is wet vented. Your best solution is to rip everything out and start all over with a proper lay out ( piping in the wall, not coming thru the floor)

hj said:

You are the blind leading the blind. Neither of you has the plumbing knowledge or experience to do what you plan to.

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jc60618 said:

In Chicago every fixture has to be individually vented. According to your drawing the shower is wet vented. Your best solution is to rip everything out and start all over with a proper lay out ( piping in the wall, not coming thru the floor)

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I plan to do it myself. To be honest I just don't have the cash to pay a plumber. On a side note, this bathroom was done by the prev homeowner, who was a licenced plumbers for over 30 years. Just because you hire a plumber, doesn't mean it will be done right....(I bet most of the plumbers here and fixed other plumber's work many of times.) I know I am not a master plumber by any means, But I think adding a shower drain and fixing the sink drain isn't too difficult.

I plan to rip it all out minus the toliet flange. Run 2" PVC to replace the galvanized.

As for venting, I plan to rip the one out of the wall and bring it up to the roof. Can If I add another vent in between the sink and shower drain, can I tie it into the one for the sink? This way I only have to have 1 hole going out my roof?

here are some pics of the current vents

Don't know your Chicago code, but under the UPC, there are a LOT of issues with both of those vents. Vent cannot be within 1 foot of vertical wall. Vent must be at least 10 feet way, or 3 feet above, any operable window.

Let me guess. You are not going to pull permits for this work, so of course it will not be inspected. If I am correct, that is going to be your downfall. Permits and inspections are to make sure what you have done will not only function, but will be done correctly and be safe. You're right, what can be so difficult about fixing a shower and sink drain. Just don't let all those pesky codes get in the way. Sorry to be sarcastic, but this is a job you really need to scrap together enough $ to hire a plumber to do.

Ofcourse I will have a permit.


I don't understand why most of this site is anti-DIY?!? You know it's bad when MODS are on here bashing people. I think I'll just head over to a DIY forum...

Actually, many of us are DIYers, but we recognize the many problems a novice can get into when taking on a job that may be beyond your level of expertise. Pulling a permit shows good judgment, but this means you must have the work inspected when completed. The pros on the forum can guide you through many rough spots, but there will likely be some that are missed. The inspector will catch these errors and require you to fix them. This may be simple, but it may require tearing out are replacing some of the work you did. Not every plumbing job is suitable for every DIYer. Proceed at your own risk, and good luck.

Well from what I have read, seems like all vents coming out of the roof must be 4".


Can I remove the top half of my current stack and run PVC in the attic more to get it out of the middle of my wall?? In other words can I add like a 45 or two just for the venting, or does it need to be in a strait line??


My house has 3 bathrooms. I'm pretty sure all 3 use only the stack to vent(wet venting). I'll end up correct the lower bathrooms at a later date.


Is it ok to header the shower and sink into the main stack?


here are a few pics I made. Sorry, my cad skills aren't that great and it would take quite some time to make on there


Black pipe is drain, blue is vent.

how the stack is currently. You can see whenever they added the dormer, they didn't make it quite wide enough. So the stack falls in the middle of the wall.

Not sure about chicago code. Under the UPC, you can combine vents, and the total agragate volume of vent pipe coming through the roof must at least add up to the total volume of the main sewer , often 4". Note that two 2 inchers only adds up to about half the volume of one 4 incher. Also, in cold climates, the will be minimum through-the-roof sizes for every pipe, due to freeze issues.

On your last drawing, there are no vents for first and second floor. The waste pipe coming down from above cannot serve as the vent.

To get a permit, you will need to submit an isometric plumbing diagram showing all the fixture locations, their drains, and the individual vent for each fixture. All pipe sizes must be annotated. The city of Chicago has additional requirements above and beyond that of the surrounding area.

Looking at your pictures, you may also be required to have a lead and asbestos abatement done. You should contact your building inspection dept. before you go any further.

jimbo said:

Not sure about chicago code. Under the UPC, you can combine vents, and the total agragate volume of vent pipe coming through the roof must at least add up to the total volume of the main sewer , often 4". Note that two 2 inchers only adds up to about half the volume of one 4 incher. Also, in cold climates, the will be minimum through-the-roof sizes for every pipe, due to freeze issues.

On your last drawing, there are no vents for first and second floor. The waste pipe coming down from above cannot serve as the vent.

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Jimbo, you are correct. I believe that is how the house is ATM. Everything wet vents through the stack. There is another vent on the otherside of the house, but I don't believe any of the bathroom's connect to it. What I will most likely do is run an extra tube down the wall for the vent and cap it till I redo the lower bathrooms.

I did find most of the code online

http://www.chicagoplumbingcode.com/PDF/chicagoplumbingcode1.pdf

I don't believe chicago allows you to reduce a 4" into 4 2"s due to frost. Atleast that is how I read it in the code.

cacher_chick said:

To get a permit, you will need to submit an isometric plumbing diagram showing all the fixture locations, their drains, and the individual vent for each fixture. All pipe sizes must be annotated. The city of Chicago has additional requirements above and beyond that of the surrounding area.

Looking at your pictures, you may also be required to have a lead and asbestos abatement done. You should contact your building inspection dept. before you go any further.

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Wow, thanks for the heads up.

I doubt any code allows wet venting between floors. UPC does not.