On Sep 11, 12:10*pm, jamesgang wrote:
On Tuesday, September 11, 2012 10:43:22 AM UTC-4, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Sep 11, 10:20*am, jamesgang wrote: On Tuesday, September 11, 2012 9:54:38 AM UTC-4, DerbyDad03 wrote: I have a basement bathroom that is located at the very front of the house. All of the fixtures are within a few feet of the last clean out before the main drain leaves my house. The house is about 50 feet from the town's sewer pipe. I came home from work last night (Monday) to find that the toilet had very little water in it. There was still some water in the toilet, but it was below the bottom of the bowl section. When I flushed it I could hear noise from the shower drain, so I turned on the shower and heard the shower trap filling up with water. Since I had used the toilet and shower that morning, whatever happened had happened during the work day. I should add that the town was at the neighbor's house on Sunday evening, apparently snaking their drain. Their house is downstream from mine. However, as I said, I used the bathroom Monday morning so I know the toilet and shower trap were full when I left for work. Could the town have come back on Monday and done something with the sewer that would have sucked the water out of my toilet and shower trap? Obviously I'll check when I get home tonight to see if it happened again, but I'm curious as to what might cause the toilet and trap to loose water. Thanks. It would be an unusual event unless your waste system is not adequately vented. *Is that bathroom traditionally vented or does it have a studor vent under the sink? *Studor vents do stick when they get old. *Usually they are easy to replace. "It would be an unusual event unless your waste system is not adequately vented" Well, in my case, both of those conditions exist, so "unless" doesn't fit here. 1 - It's an unusual event - first time it's happened in 20 or so years, at least that I've noticed, and I use this toilet and shower every day. 2 - The waste system is not adequately vented. 1956 house with the only vent being the main stack. None of the fixtures in the house have their own vents, but we've never had any of the problems typically associated with inadequate venting. Hopefully this is just a one off but I'll keep my eye on it.

You may be able to add a studor vent under your sink. *Easiest if the drain comes up from the floor but either way you just need to get a T into it somewhere. *That will help vent the other stuff in that bathroom.

I've considered venting numerous times, just because "it's supposed to
be vented" but I've never had any reason to go through the trouble.

Up until yesterday I never saw any indication that I needed to alter
anything related to the plumbing. At this point, it's a bit hard to
imagine that after using this bathroom nearly every day since I
remodeled it 20+ years ago I've suddenly got a venting problem. I
guess it could happen, but something else must have changed also.

So here's the next question:

If it were indeed a venting issue, please explain what happened
yesterday. I used the toilet and shower in the morning so I know they
were OK. I was the last one to leave the house and the first one home.
In other words, no water was used from the time I left to the time I
noticed the low level in the toilet.

What could have happened during the day that - vent related - would
have caused the water in the toilet and trap to be sucked out?