CutterComp
New Member
Relevant background info: 200 year old stone farmhouse in PA. Built into a hillside so the first floor is also the basement. At the rear of the house, the second floor is ground level. The main soil pipe exits the center rear of the house between the second floor joists. Adjacent to that is a 1.5” copper drain line that also exits the house and I assume joins the main pipe in the ground beneath the concrete pad behind the house. There is a 1.5” vent coming vertically through the concrete pad. The kitchen (and therefore the sink drain) is on the first floor. The single bathroom is on the second floor directly above the spot that the waste lines exit the house. That’s the entirety of the waste plumbing in the old part of the house (toilet, bathroom sink, tub, and kitchen sink). This was all plumbed and replumbed by homeowners from the ‘70s to ‘90s.
Now to the issues we’ve had since moving in: because the kitchen sink is below the level at which the 1.5” copper line leaves the house, there is a pump under the kitchen sink… every time the pump runs it sends the wastewater into the bath tub and bathroom sink. I’d like to put a one way valve in to eliminate that. The second issue is that the tub drain has been slowly clogging worse and worse for years and I can’t get a snake to make the 90° turns. And there was zero access to the trap. Hence, I finally gave in and pulled the drywall down from the ceiling that was hiding the drain piping to address these issues.
I’m no plumbing expert but I’d guess there are a hundred things wrong here. For one, I see they used sanitary tees in the horizontal orientation. Suggestions on how best repipe this, at least for the short term? Long term, the bathroom is being relocated and all this ripped out.
Now to the issues we’ve had since moving in: because the kitchen sink is below the level at which the 1.5” copper line leaves the house, there is a pump under the kitchen sink… every time the pump runs it sends the wastewater into the bath tub and bathroom sink. I’d like to put a one way valve in to eliminate that. The second issue is that the tub drain has been slowly clogging worse and worse for years and I can’t get a snake to make the 90° turns. And there was zero access to the trap. Hence, I finally gave in and pulled the drywall down from the ceiling that was hiding the drain piping to address these issues.
I’m no plumbing expert but I’d guess there are a hundred things wrong here. For one, I see they used sanitary tees in the horizontal orientation. Suggestions on how best repipe this, at least for the short term? Long term, the bathroom is being relocated and all this ripped out.
