We just moved into a new house. While crawling through the crawl space on an unrelated issue I noticed that one of the drain lines was leaking.

Further inspection showed that the shower in the master bath does not have a trap. Instead the pipe drops about 24 inches straight down (very noisy shower btw) to a joint that is about an 80 degree turn. The pipe then runs about 8 foot uphill to the main drain line. There appears to be a cleanout beside this 24 inch drop and this is what is leaking.

My question: The plumber is coming to repair the leak. Am I right to insist that he also install a trap on the drain and reroute the shower drain line in such a way that it is a downhill run to the main drain line? There's room to do this, it'll just take more pvc.

Thanks,

Easeful

Code MANDTES that every fixture be trapped. No exceptions! If your shower isn't trapped then you have a direct open line from your home to the sewer allowing sewer gas to enter. Sewer gas is harmful to your families health and the methane content makes it explosive.

"My question: The plumber is coming to repair the leak. Am I right to insist that he also install a trap on the drain and reroute the shower drain line in such a way that it is a downhill run to the main drain line? There's room to do this, it'll just take more pvc."

Yes,by all means have this ,really stupid, screw up brought up to code. Good luck, Tom

Thanks Tom, I thought that was the answer but I needed the voice of an expert to back me up.

Next problem... the contractor is sending the same lowlife who did this (apparently to save the cost of a trap fitting and 3 foot of pvc) out to make the repairs. ::sigh::