My house is upside down - kitchen/lounge upstairs, bedrooms/bathrooms
downstairs. Roof is still on top of the house

In the en suite, I've got what I sugess is a soil stack pipe... except that
it's capped at around 1.5 metres in height. It requires its own plastboard
housing so it can be hidden away.

The toilet goes into it at the bottom, as does the sink and the shower
drain.

Anybody know the reasoning behidn it? I guess it's so that if there's a
blockage further down the drain system, there's space to backup? But,
equally, woudn't that backup head up the sink/shower drains and start to
overflow? What can I do about this? Is there a non-return value system?

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Stinkoman wrote:

My house is upside down - kitchen/lounge upstairs, bedrooms/bathrooms
downstairs. Roof is still on top of the house

In the en suite, I've got what I sugess is a soil stack pipe...
except that it's capped at around 1.5 metres in height. It requires
its own plastboard housing so it can be hidden away.

The toilet goes into it at the bottom, as does the sink and the shower
drain.

Anybody know the reasoning behidn it? I guess it's so that if there's
a blockage further down the drain system, there's space to backup?
But, equally, woudn't that backup head up the sink/shower drains and
start to overflow? What can I do about this? Is there a non-return
value system?

What do you mean by *capped*? Chances are that it has a Drago-type air
admittance valve at the top. This lets air *in* to prevent a vacuum from
developing in the stack - but lets nothing out.

I presume you have another stack which is much higher, and vented at the
top?

--
Cheers,
Set Square
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

On Sat, 9 Apr 2005 18:43:18 +0000 (UTC), a particular chimpanzee named
"Stinkoman" randomly hit the keyboard and produced:

In the en suite, I've got what I sugess is a soil stack pipe... except that
it's capped at around 1.5 metres in height. It requires its own plastboard
housing so it can be hidden away.

If I understand you correctly, this is on the ground floor. If so it
could be a 'stub stack', which is a short unventilated stack
connecting to a vented drain or sewer a short distance away. It
doesn't need a vent, as the chances of siphonage are very small.
There's no reason for it to be a 'stack' apart from it's easier to
connect the smaller branches into its side that way.

It could also have a "Durgo" or air-admittance valve on the top if
this stack is a long distance from a main drain.

Any blockage should be capable of being cleared by an access or
inspection chamber on the branch drain, or preferably at its junction
with the main drain.
--
Hugo Nebula
"If no-one on the internet wants a piece of this,
just how far from the pack have you strayed?"

My house is upside down - kitchen/lounge upstairs, bedrooms/bathrooms
downstairs. Roof is still on top of the house

In the en suite, I've got what I sugess is a soil stack pipe...
except that it's capped at around 1.5 metres in height. It requires
its own plastboard housing so it can be hidden away.

The toilet goes into it at the bottom, as does the sink and the shower
drain.

Anybody know the reasoning behidn it? I guess it's so that if there's
a blockage further down the drain system, there's space to backup?
But, equally, woudn't that backup head up the sink/shower drains and
start to overflow? What can I do about this? Is there a non-return
value system?

What do you mean by *capped*? Chances are that it has a Drago-type air
admittance valve at the top. This lets air *in* to prevent a vacuum from
developing in the stack - but lets nothing out.

I presume you have another stack which is much higher, and vented at the
top?

Sorry, yes, you're right. It's not capped - there's a one-way air valve at
the top.

Now I think about it, there is a soil stack outside which runs to the top of
the building, despite nothing actually going into it at that level.

This used to have an even higher (and rather silly looking) pipe into the
top of it, going beyond the height of the roof. I know this from a photo of
the building when it was first renovated. This high pipe is no longer
there - I presume it got blown down at some point.

In article ,
Stinkoman wrote:
Now I think about it, there is a soil stack outside which runs to the
top of the building, despite nothing actually going into it at that
level.

That's the vent for the drains?

This used to have an even higher (and rather silly looking) pipe into
the top of it, going beyond the height of the roof. I know this from a
photo of the building when it was first renovated. This high pipe is no
longer there - I presume it got blown down at some point.

I had the same, but had it removed when doing an attic conversion. They
ran it along the side of the house well clear of any windows and added
some sort of valve.

--
*It's lonely at the top, but you eat better.

Dave Plowman London SW
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