Ask Me Help Desk - Bought an older house... Some plumbing questions

My wife and I just bought a house that was built originally in 1940. There are some curious plumbing 'issues' that I have not seen before.

1. There is a waste line connection in the basement floor where I can physically connect a 3-inch waste line (i.e. for adding another bathroom). It currently has a 2-inch ABS pipe sort of sitting in there (not actually connected properly). Is there any reason why this would be there and yet be too small to connect a 3-inch waste line? I don't want to connect a toilet line to it and then eventually have it clog underneath the basement slab.

2. This house has no plumbing vents that go through the roof. I'm not positive (that is, I haven't checked) but I think they only go to the attic (or they don't exist at all... that makes less sense). How bad is this? I can fix it, but I would like some idea of how high to prioritize fixing this one.

Thanks,
Tim

I am confused with number one. You say you can physically connect a 3 inch drain line and then you say it is too small to do so? Perhaps what you have there is a hub for 2 inch cast iron.
If your vents only go into the attic you will want to extend them soon. The humidity coming from them (and bath fan vents, if applicable) will ruin your insulation in the attic. I have seen vents go out the side of the house in some old, rural houses.

I apologize for the confusion.

Regarding#1, I am concerned that even though the sewer hub is big enough to connect to a 3-inch line... that the connection might not be big enough to handle toilet waste (and other stuff) consistent with a 3-inch line without clogging. The actual plumbing is beneath the concrete slab, so I don't know for sure (basically, I want to know if my assumption is valid... I'm guessing that it is).

Regarding#2, I am now certain that there are no plumbing vents (or bathroom exhaust vans) in this house. There is a vent (that I missed) near the main stack that vents out the side of the house. The kitchen has no vent; I'm certain of that.

The sewer line must not be open ( pipe just sticking in it) where does that pipe go. Is it a connection or perhaps a clean out area.

No vent is a serious issue, was there a home inspection of this home. Have you had a plumber come out and review this for safety

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fr_Chuck

the sewer line must not be open ( pipe just sticking in it) where does that pipe go. is it a connection or perhaps a clean out area.

no vent is a serious issue, was there a home inspection of this home. Have you had a plumber come out and review this for safety

The sewer line indeed is open in the basement. It is sitting in there due to the effects of gravity. It's the plumbing from a basement laundry tub, but it's not connected. I can simply lift it out. There was a broken rubber gasket inside the sewer line.

Upstream of this sewer hub is where the kitchen plumbing hooks into the plumbing. When we wash dishes, we literally have suds floating up out of this hole (yes, this is a priority for fixing).

There was no inspection... I decided to save some money... I'm a reasonably competent plumber (though cautious, so I ask questions here), electrician, DIY-er, etc. I'm not regretting the lack of inspection... I knew about most of these problems when I got myself into this (I didn't catch the lack of plumbing vents, though). In the past, my inspectors failed to catch several important problems, so I figured "why bother?" this time.

Do you know about AAV's for interior fixture venting?

All we're doing here is speculating.
Go up in the attic and tell us where the pipes go.

Quote:

The sewer line indeed is open in the basement. It is sitting in there due to the effects of gravity. It's the plumbing from a basement laundry tub, but it's not connected.

This almost sounds like a indirect waste for the laundry sink. Is that the case here? A 3" drain will handle your proposed bathroom group. Answer our questions and we'll get back to you. Good luck, Tom

Quote:

Originally Posted by speedball1

All we're doing here is speculating.
Go up in the attic and tell us where the pipes go.

This almost sounds like a indirect waste for the laundry sink. Is that the case here? A 3" drain will handle your proposed bathroom group. Answer our questions and we'll get back to you. Good luck, Tom

Hi Tom:

I apologize for not answering questions... here is the latest.

There are no pipes in the attic. The vent for the main stack goes out the side of the house (I missed it when inspecting the plumbing originally... there is a lot of stuff there).

The kitchen sink does not currently have a vent and it does not drain particularly well. I will install an AAV when I find the time. The new bathroom that I am trying to put together also does not have a vent (the bathroom was partially plumbed when we bought the house), but I am going to install a vent through the attic and out the roof.

The other "curious" find is that the stand pipe for the laundry is not connected to the plumbing at all. It simple drains to the crawl space beneath that part of the house (the house has a partial basement). I cannot physically get to this part of the crawl space (I'd have to be 3 ft tall and weigh about 50 lbs... and then it'd still be very tight). I have a quasi-solution, but it will mean that I will have a 2"-PVC pipe visible (I'm OK with this).

As far as the laundry tub, it looks like it was originally connected with a donut (or some other kind of rubber gasket). I was able to fish out an old, broken rubber gasket from inside the sewer hub (the photograph of the sewer hub is in my other thread -- you can see the laundry plumbing in the photo).

I am now pretty confident that this sewer hub will handle my bathroom plumbing fixtures. I was able to dump a large bucket of water down the hub without any issue at all whatsoever (except bad aim).

Basically, I have purchased a house that had been owned by a DIY-er who cut corners. He was also mid-project with a lot of this stuff, so I had a lot to figure out.

Thanks again for all of the help. I think that I have this 99.5% figured out.