Ok I have chosen this as my first home maintenance problem to understand,
even if I am not the one to fix it. I am not a knowledgeable home repair
person YET. But I have decided to become so. Unfortunately I am Google
impaired. So perhaps I can get advice and links to plumbing information.
Here is my deal.

I have a washer and dryer in the finished basement. When I do the wash there
is a nasty smell around the front door of the house (where the septic tank
is), but particularly in the playroom and the mudroom next to the laundry
room. (I am somewhat reporting what others tell me since my nose has gotten
desensitized to the smell.) The smell is progressively worse the more
laundry I do. Here are the supposed facts

- My DH claims that he can see/hear that the laundry water is exiting the
house by pipes to the front yard, not to the septic system.
- My DH beleives that there is a problem with the vent stack, or lack of a
vent stack.
- I had a septic guy out today to pump the tank. He says that DH seeing
water in the ground is bad and that may mean a leaky pipe going from septic
to leach field. Thus the foul odor (but why particularly INSIDE the house?)

So I decided to see what the plumbing looked like. I pull away the washer.
And there is one water exit pipe from the washer than goes through an S
shaped pipe to the floor. DH believe that pipe goes out the garage, under
the front steps and into the yard (of all places). Now according to my
sister, this is not all that weird. My folks did it to keep the laundry
water, including bleach from diapers, out of the septic system.

There is another pipe with the top covered in plastic that does not current
have any water feeding it that exits through the wall. We don't know where
that one goes or why there are 2 out pipes. I strongly believe that tried
just switching pipes to see what would happen with no luck.

So... my question is does anyone know where I can find on the net what this
plumbing is supposed to look like and what precisely a vent stack is and any
other info that a newbie dip like me might find useful in understanding this
problem? I would very much appreciate it.

Thanks!

I live in a house built during the 50's (in New England). I know that
I have a drainpipe behind my washing machine that drains into a drywell
in the front yard (not to the septic system in my backyard). This
drainpipe is no longer used and my washing machine now drains to the
septic in the back yard. I was told that they used to pipe washing
machine water to these drywells instead of septic system due to
detergents/soaps back then. Perhaps this is the setup you have.


Stephanie wrote:
Ok I have chosen this as my first home maintenance problem to understand,
even if I am not the one to fix it. I am not a knowledgeable home repair
person YET. But I have decided to become so. Unfortunately I am Google
impaired. So perhaps I can get advice and links to plumbing information.
Here is my deal.

I have a washer and dryer in the finished basement. When I do the wash there
is a nasty smell around the front door of the house (where the septic tank
is), but particularly in the playroom and the mudroom next to the laundry
room. (I am somewhat reporting what others tell me since my nose has gotten
desensitized to the smell.) The smell is progressively worse the more
laundry I do. Here are the supposed facts

- My DH claims that he can see/hear that the laundry water is exiting the
house by pipes to the front yard, not to the septic system.
- My DH beleives that there is a problem with the vent stack, or lack of a
vent stack.
- I had a septic guy out today to pump the tank. He says that DH seeing
water in the ground is bad and that may mean a leaky pipe going from septic
to leach field. Thus the foul odor (but why particularly INSIDE the house?)

So I decided to see what the plumbing looked like. I pull away the washer.
And there is one water exit pipe from the washer than goes through an S
shaped pipe to the floor. DH believe that pipe goes out the garage, under
the front steps and into the yard (of all places). Now according to my
sister, this is not all that weird. My folks did it to keep the laundry
water, including bleach from diapers, out of the septic system.

There is another pipe with the top covered in plastic that does not current
have any water feeding it that exits through the wall. We don't know where
that one goes or why there are 2 out pipes. I strongly believe that tried
just switching pipes to see what would happen with no luck.

So... my question is does anyone know where I can find on the net what this
plumbing is supposed to look like and what precisely a vent stack is and any
other info that a newbie dip like me might find useful in understanding this
problem? I would very much appreciate it.

Thanks!