Inspection report - Plumbing

Hi,

I was going through my paperwork and ran across my home inspection report from before I moved into my home.

In the plumbing section, in the water heater category, the following is what was listed:

Condition: Deficient
Comments: Extension on relief does not have 1" air gap at sewer line


My question to you all here is what you think could happen if that was never fixed?

Up until recently, I've had frequent backups coming up from the drain where the water heater is. This would happen when I would take a shower or wash clothes. Something to note is that the laundry room and that bathroom share a common wall.

The last plumber that was here installed a studer vent on the drain line of the bathroom sink, and that seems to have solved the problem.

However, seeing that notation in my inspection report made me wonder if that could have caused my problems.

Does anyone know if that could be the cause, or if not, what problems could arise if that deficiency was never taken care of?

Thanks!

I'm guessing you have the water heater in the basement, and that the PRV terminates at or near a floor drain? I doubt it has/had anything to do with your drain being slow... especially if the vent valve solved it.

Here in crawl space country we all have water heaters above grade, usually in the house or garage. The PRV piping has to terminate outside the building, pointing downward, not more than 6" above grade. I've actually never seen it done any other way.

Hi David,

Thank you for replying. No, my water heater is in the house, in the laundry room.

Yes, the studer vent seems to have solved the problem. I'm still crossing my fingers on that. Since my problems seem to have been caused from a lack of air, and the inspection report mentioned the lack of an air gap, I just thought I'd check to see if that could have caused the problem.

Thanks again for your reply.

Now that my curiousity's up, I got down my copy of the 2003 IRC and see that P2803.6.1 states that:

"....The discharge from the relief valve shall be piped full-size separately to the floor, to the outside of the building, or to an indirect waste receptor located inside the building. In areas subject to freezing, the relief valve shall discharge through an air gap into an indirect waste receptor located within a heated space, or by other approved means...."

Now I'm guessing you're in an area subject to freezing.

For the record, I'm just a lowly GC, not a plumber, and it doesn't freeze much here.

Yes, it does freeze here.

Do you know what could happen if that wasn't taken care of?

This is a guess...it is a safety issue. If the outlet doesn't have the air gap, if there was a backup and conditions just right existed, it would be possible to contaminate the house's water supply by sucking sewage or at least contaminated water back into the system.

the purpose of the airgap is to prevent contamination of the potable water supply. If you lost water pressure and the water heater was siphoning out and if the t&p valve was faulty it could siphon wast water through the t&p drain if it was tied into the drain without and airgap. A lot of if's. It will not affect your drainage system in the way of causing poor drainage.

jadnashua & winslow,


Thank you for your replies! This is all good to know.

At least it's not what was causing the backup problems I was having.