Plumbing -- Venting options?

[mtnmenagerie]

Hi everyone.

We're currently buidling a new home and are somewhat confused on plumbing vents.

Must all air vents be vented out through the roof?

I was talking to someone who vented all air vents into his attic next to the attic vents on either end of the house. Is this okay to do?

I figured someone on here would have some experience on the subject.
What is your opinion?

Thanks!

[The Paw]

I can't say for sure if it meets code or not, but I doubt it.

Even though the plumbing vent is near an attic vent, you are venting warm, moist air (and some methane) into the attic. Why would you want to do that?

If it is too much trouble to punch a hole in the roof, your friend could have but a 90 degree elbow and extended his plumbing vent through the attic vent hole. Still not perfect, but better than what was described.

If you are building a new home, my advice would be to do it right and go through the roof. In new construction, it is not even a real inconvenience.

[mtnmenagerie]

thank you i was thinking along the same line as you just said - but we are doing most of the work ourselves and i just wanted to make sure that wasn't something we needed rethink.

[cfabe]

Yes it should go through the roof, you absolutely don't want the moist air venting into your attic. It will condense on the cold sheathing and breed mold, etc.

If you have a difficult venting situation for one appliance or area of your house, you can install an air admittance valve aka studer valve to vent one appliance but you still need at least one vent stack going through the roof.

[Ross]

Straight up and out with as few bends as possable.

[mtman]

straight up and out NOT that makes to many holes in the roof
tie all the vents together in the attic come through the roof with one pipe
2 inch vent and out with a 3 inch pipe
if in a place you can not tie one in run a loop vent
a loop vent is come up in the wall put a tee on the run then stright up for about 18 inches then a 90 deg.elbow a short nipple and tie into the bull of the tee that will always have air in there yes its legal

[js2743]

you ever stuck your nose over a vent pipe and took whiff? i don't think you want that smell coming out into your attic.

[retire2$]

You can tie all the vents into the main stack and only run that stack through the roof. You will need to make sure that all the other vent pipes are pitched up and no 45 or 90 degree bends down. Think if the rain went into the top stack it should flow freely into the septic or public sewer. If there were a 45 or 90 degree bend down it would act as a trap and this would not pass code.

[beowoulf90]

You can in some cases use a soffit vent also, but that varies from state to state, township to township etc..

As others have said tie the vents into one main stack and take one vent stack out the roof.

[Micahn]

Sewer gases will kill you.
That fool that has them in his attic is just asking to die. They will not only make you very sick but will kill you.
You can take them out a side wall but they need to be away from any openings such as doors and windows (Codes very from place to place so may not be up to code every where) I forget off hand what the distance is.

This is from a retired master plumber take them out of the roof.

[tiogacounty]

Go to Amazon, in the book section, and search "plumbing code check". This will get you to a detailed, fully illustrated, explaination of how to legally and properly plumb a house. It covers two codes, the IRC and the UPC. In Pa. we go with the IRC, and it tends to be a bit more relaxed. Currently the book is available, used, for less than three bucks. Solid, easy to understand reference material, and darn near free. good luck. BTW, these guides are available for other trades like electrical, and a general guide that covers common "red tag" issues that inspectors look for in new construction.

[meanwhile]

Yes! Yes! Yes! Be sure the vents go up through the roof and....I think it is 3 feet above the edge. I know the trouble that is caused by not doing it right. We had one Plumber put one of those horrible vents up under the kitchen sink = nasty smell in kitchen. Then, a 2nd Plumber put only a vent that ended just under one house eve = nasty smell in laundry room and all surrounding outside areas. Then we found out the 3rd Plumber did not put those "P" trap items on two sinks = nasty smell in those bathrooms!

Next, we bought Plumbing books and now we do our own Plumbing!

If you hire a Plumber, watch what they do and be sure they do it correctly or you will be doing it over later and paying for it.

Good Luck.