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burritto · Oct 28, 2008, 10:55 AM

I apologize if this has been asked before, and I assume it has, but I can't find the answer after fishing around on the site for a while.

I have a washer hooked up to a standpipe that drains into the wall and then down. After a good deal of time trying to figure out where my leak was coming from, I finally discovered that there was a small but steady leak coming from the vertex of the u-bend that connects the upright portion of the standpipe to the pipe that goes into the wall. There looks to be a hex-nut and bolt fastener/tightener where the graywater is coming from.

My question is: Does it sound like there is a simple fix to this?

I rent, so before I have my landlord come snake the pipe or anything, I'd rather explore simpler fixes.

In case any of this matters: the standpipe opening is about 36" above the floor. The pipe enters the wall about 14" above the floor. The standpipe's opening has a diameter of 1.5" (outdated, I know). Also, I discovered this leak by running a glass of water down the standpipe, so, while I've come to learn that 1.5" standpipes often get overloaded with water, this appears to be a persistent leak at the u-bend. Then again, what do I know? Heh.

Thanks in advance for any help!

speedball1 · Oct 28, 2008, 11:23 AM

I finally discovered that there was a small but steady leak coming from the vertex of the u-bend that connects the upright portion of the standpipe to the pipe that goes into the wall. There looks to be a hex-nut and bolt fastener/tightener where the graywater is coming from.

As I understand your complaint the leak is at the connection between the trap tail and the sanitary tee, correct? This "fastener", doews it look like any of these?(see images) Let me know. Tom

burritto · Oct 28, 2008, 04:31 PM

Originally Posted by speedball1

As I understand your complaint the leak is at the connection between the trap tail and the sanitary tee, correct? This "fastener", doews it look like any of these? Let me know. tom

First of all, thanks for the response. I appreciate your time.

As a layman, I'm not 100% clear on what a trap tail and sanitary tee are. None of pics you included look exactly like what I'm trying to fix. I used the terms you used and came up with an image that looks something like what I'm dealing with.

The key difference between this picture and my situation is where the leak is coming from: at the bottom of the u-bend there feels like there is a hexnut and a bolt; this is where the leak is coming from. It is very unclear as to what the function of this bolt is (other than to leak water. Heh.). It seems like it would be used to hold a clamp in place, except that it's at the very bottom/center of the u-bend and, much like in the image I attached, there would be no reason for a clamp in the middle of a solid length of pipe.

What I'd imagine is that I'm dealing with extremely archaic plumbing here. Every image I've been able to Google up has NOTHING like my pipe has. Every bend is just a smooth surface with no nozzles or clamps or random hex nuts. The building I live in is 100 years old and the plumbing has only been redone once, so I'm guessing that the problem I'm dealing with has been phased out of modern plumbing. While I'd imagine that replacing the u-bend part altogether would fix my problems, I'm hoping that a simpler fix might be in order.

Again, thanks for your time and I hope I cleared some things up. I apologize for my blatant lack of knowledge when it comes to plumbing.

speedball1 · Oct 29, 2008, 07:18 AM

OK! The trap tail id the part of the trap that connects to the wall stubout and that sanitary tee is located inside the wall. Sounds like you have a New York Trap, (see image). That's leaking from the cleanout nut. Is that correct?
There should be no bolt down there. Why not simply purchase a PVC "I" Bend and change it out? Good luck, Tom