"HeyBub" wrote in
m:

Nate Nagel wrote:
lagman wrote:
I noticed a water bubble on my bedroom ceiling, so I went in the
attic to investigate. It turns out a pipe that vents to the roof
had become disconnected at the first joint, so I just re-connected
it. I assume when it rained hard enough, rain water was leaking
down the pipe and on to the ceiling (we just had a hard rain).

But that got me thinking.. Even if the pipe didn't become
disconnected, should rain water still be leaking down the pipe?

Thanks,
Dan

down the inside, sure. But if it was running down the *outside* of
the pipe, you probably need new flashing.


Shhh! If water runs down the inside of the vent pipe, rainwater will
enter the sewer system. This, in turn, will cause extra expense for
the sanitary sewer treatment plant.

Say each house has four of these vents, each 2" in diameter, that's
about a total of 12 square inches of rain capture.

Now in my town, Houston, we get about 48" of rain per year, times 12
sq in of rain capture per house, that's 4 cubic feet of water that has
to be unnecessarily treated per household per year.

We have about 800,000 households, so the total waste becomes 3,200,000
cubic feet, or 24 million gallons!

If this comes to the attention of our betters, municipal ordinances
will spring forth mandating rain-dispersing caps on the plumbing
vents.

The good news is that these caps shouldn't cost more than $100 per
house.



....and a $50 required permit fee to install it.