Hi, this is my first post here and I appreciate any help you can give me with a plumbing project I have to figure out in my new old house. When we bought this 1890's house three years ago, it had a downstairs kitchen and half bath and a full upstairs bathroom. I remodeled the kitchen in July 2005, and then started to notice that the new kitchen sink gurgled whenever the upstairs toilet was flushed. The old sink didn't do that, or maybe it did and I just didn't notice? Anyway, for some reason I gave myself license to put it in the back of my mind as something I would think about later. :rolleyes:

Now the upstairs bathroom tile has rotted out and I HAVE to put a full bathroom plus a washer and dryer in the downstairs bathroom before I can start working on fixing the upstairs. Here's the problem--the downstairs bathroom is clearly not vented, and there's no way to tap into the existing soil stack above the upstairs bathroom fixtures to vent the downstairs. Once I have four or five people in full-time use of a full bathroom downstairs, I am afraid my plumbing problems are going to multiply quickly.

What do I do? :confused:

Can I put vents inside the walls, or won't they just flood/overflow if my drain ever backs up? Can I run a 2" PVC vent from the soil stack in the basement out through a side wall of the house and up the side of the roof, using a couple of 90's to get past the roof ridge? Or does the tub/shower, sink, and clothes washer each have to be vented above their individual drains in order for it to work right?

Thanks in advance for any help or guidance you can give me!

First off Rudy,

Every fixture that has a trap MUST be vented or wet vented. The only exceptions to this rule are floor drains. You may run your vent to a outside wall, with as many elbos as you wish, and terminate it with a upturned elbo as long as it's screened and passes local codes. In other words you don't have to run it all the way to the roof if the codes in your area permit this. What you may not do, however, Is terminate it under a window, door, AC unit or within 10 feet of any such opening unless it's located at least 2 feet above such a opening.

You may tie all the basement vents together in a revent and run them outside as one vent.
More questions? I'm as close as a click. Tom

First off Rudy,

Every fixture that has a trap MUST be vented or wet vented.

Hi, Tom,

Have you ever seen or used air admittance valves? In theory they seem to be the answer to my problem, but I don't know what their reputation is, how functional they are, and how well they hold up over time. I could put AAVs on my kitchen sink, bathroom sink, bathroom-located clothes washer, and probably bathtub drains fairly easily compared to the alternative. I don't think it's realistically possible for me to vent these fixtures any other way without hiring someone to do it for me, and even then it will be ugly. So, my fingers are crossed.

Hey Rudy,

Like all mechanical devices I suppose they could wear out in time, but look at you other option. I haven't had any call backs on the AAV's that I've installed. Check them out at the home page: http://www.studor.com/index2.htm Cheers, Tom