Venting Part Two, Wives Tales...
Bill Westrick, CPD
Technical Sales Manager and Plumbing Design Specialist at VIEGA. Follow Me for Fitness, Pickle Ball and Press Technology. #AmericanNinjaWarrior #Coffee #WGP
There was a day when i believed everything my plumbing foreman told me. i had no reason to doubt. but one day things just didn't add up. he would say "dont use too much slope" "just crack the bubble" "it will hold water (even though it would not hold air" and "cant see it from my house!" that was my favorite.
but the worst one of all was the ole Finger over the top of the Straw theory.
one day i decided to educate myself and take a deep dive into world of venting. so i opened my code book to chapter 9. and ICC Definitions, VENT SYSTEM: a pipe or pipes installed to provide a flow of air to or from a drainage system or to provide a circulation of air within such system TO PROTECT TRAP SEALS FROM SIPHONAGE AND BACK PRESSURE. no where does that read that it will help the building drain work better.
chaper 9: Trap Seal Protection, the plumbing system shall be provided with a system of vent piping that will permit the admission or emission of air so that the seal of any fixture trap shall not be subjected to a pneumatic pressure differential of more than one inch of water column. no where does that read that it will help the building drain work better.
so my plumbing brothers and sisters. i ask you again...where is the top of the straw? i dont know, because the whole premise of a straw theory does not apply to plumbing systems!!!!! :-)
proof: indiana code does not require the venting of floor drains. as far as i know...every floor drain installed in indiana works perfectly fine. and there are hundreds of thousands of them.
proof: jump back in time.......................sears and robuck started selling toilets. the 20~ gallon tank hung on the wall. the brand new drainage pipe shot out the house and down to the creek. it flushed just fine.
then came other fixtures and the septic tank...and along with it....sewer gas smell, then the House trap. (that did not work very well, and still allowed sewer gas from inside the drain pipe) the next great plumbing invention????? drum roll;';';';';';';';';' THE FIXTURE TRAP. yes the fixture trap eliminated the house trap. that was a good thing. but that big ole toilet flush was sucking all the other traps and letting back in the sewer gas. poop. now what? you guessed it. a vent system. individual vents for all. it was a glorious day. we had modern plumbing.
jump back to today...............low flow fixtures, better piping materials, better understanding of plumbing hydraulics, and plumbing engineers. now there are many ways to VENT a plumbing system.
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so i'm not talking about bad plumbing, or bellies in the drain, or odd ball stuff that is not correct plumbing. i am talking about modern day gravity fixtures, drains, traps, and vents.
why do we have vent systems? to protect the trap seal. period.
what do vents do? protect the trap seal. period.
how do vents work? by allowing the free movement of air so the entire DWV system stays at less than one inch of WC pressure. basically neutral pressures.
right after venting part one was published i got a lot of great feedback, pushback, support, and questions.
i am asking you to read, study, observe, and educate yourselves. do just take someone's word for something. be a critical thinker. and be the best plumber, person, husband, or wife that you can be.
work hard, play hard, pray harder.
#WGP out
Real Estate Broker Better Homes & Garden Real Estate, Grayslake, IL.
1 年It is a simple matter to resolve, turn a 2 liter bottle upside down and see how well it flows, without a hole on the bottom! Anyone that has installed an above the counter, glass lavatory bowl, knows that they are notoriously bad at draining… no overflow…no vent from the overflow hole! If you have ever had a Sewer Backup and then it suddenly was open… then you experienced every trap on that line, getting its trap sucked dry. Hence the need for vents on every trap connected to the system. Another issue is Floor Drain evaporation, hence the need for a trap primer. I experienced another reason to protect a floor drains trap from being dry… we were Rodding a Sanitary Sewer that was connected to a shallow manhole/ catch basin. Our cutter, cut open a high pressure gas line that had been bored through the sewer. That gas blew back through the sewer into the manhole and into the Main! We were very lucky that a house did not blow up, before the Gas Company shut off the Gas Main. Today, I repair Sanitary Sewers for the Gas Company at least once a month. Illinois Plumbing Code 101, “ Every fixture must have a trap, every trap must be protected by a vent.” Physics and pneumatic science is the basis of all good plumbing code.
Engineering Financial Futures with Precision, Passion, and Integrity.
1 年Nice job, Bill!
Do, or do not. There is no try.
1 年I keep a copy of " Plumbing Venting Decoding Chapters 9 of the IPC Second Edition" by Bob Scott next to my desk. Excellent resource with theory and on-site installation. ISBN# 979-8-68247-137-9 if anyone is interested.