As I recall, when you are talking about a bathroom the more expensive
contractor is correct and you do want to follow his procedure or you may
find you will loose the water forming the traps in the lower baths when the
upper toilet is flushed.

--
Joseph Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math
"Peter Langevin" wrote in message
...
I live in a 1 1/2 story home, one bathroom on the first floor. I had
a remodeling contractor out last week to give me an estimate to add a
second bathroom to the upstairs bedroom. His quote came back
significantly ($5000) higher than the other 2 I got, and when I asked
him what the difference was he said it was due to a "wet venting
issue." I mentioned that 2 other contractors hadn't mentioned it,
and he essentially told me that they didn't know what they were doing.

I'd like to see who is "all wet" so I know who to believe. The layout
is pretty simple and to the best of my notes I'll try to recall what
the last guy said.

I have a single bathroom (tub/lav/toilet) on the first floor, as well
as a kitchen sink and dishwasher. A single 3" PVC pipe is used for
the drain on all of those items, and it extends straight up through
the roof without anything else connecting to it.

The bathroom on the second floor would be right next to the 3" pipe,
and the other contractors said they could just drain right into it,
and that it would also serve as the vent, as long as everything was
within 5' of it upstairs.

The last guy said that you can't drain fixtures from the second floor
into the same drain used for the first floor, since the first floor
fixtures are being "wet vented" into that pipe. To add the bathroom
upstairs would mean that you would have fixtures "wet vented" above
others that were also "wet vented." This contractor says the extra $$
is to add a second 3" PVC drain all the way to the basement and extend
it through the roof. When I spoke to the first 2 contractors they
told me that he was nuts, and that they could absolutely be vented and
drained into the same "stack" and that the "DFUs" were not exceeded.
No idea what a DFU is.

So, help! Who is correct? Can I add the second bathroom upstairs
with the same vent/waste pipe?

Thanks all!