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Author:
bobappel (WI)
HI,
I am new to this site and hopeful someone can answer a question for me. My wife and I are in the process of buying a home and I noticed that there is a 4" vent running up from the basement into the main floor wall. When it comes out of the wall into the attic/crawl space it has been reduced to a 1 1/2" pipe and then just before it goes out the roof it has been expanded to a 2" pipe. I do plan to get in touch with a building inspector to ask if that is up to code, but thought someone here could help me. The new home is in Wisconsin.
There are two bathrooms with toilets and tub/showers on the main floor along with the kitchen sink, dishwasher and a washing machine. It is stubbed out in the basement for a toilet, sink and shower/tub which we would like to add.
I thought the vent needed to be a minimum of 3" but I'm not sure. It could be very costly to have to tear into an existing wall in order to find where the 1 1/2" pipe in connected and then change it to a 3" pipe. Your help would be appreciated as we are scheduled to close on this home in a few weeks but it was recently that I discovered the size of the vent pipe. Again, I will ask a local building inspector but was hoping someone here could shed some light on this situation. Thank you. I appreciate your help. I also hope that this question is appropriate for this forum as I didn't know who I could turn to.
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Author:
North Carolina Plumber (NC)
The 4" running up from the basement may not be a vent, it may be a drain. Whatever's on the drain may only require an 1 1/2" vent, increased to 2" before going thru the roof to prevent frost closure. That section of piping may be up to code, but yes, there should be a 3" vent going thru the roof somewhere. If that's the only vent going thru, then it's not up to code.
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Author:
bobappel (WI)
Thank you for responding to my question. I hadn't thought about that. Not sure if it makes a difference, but this is a townhouse. The one right beside it does have a 3" pipe coming up from their roof. Is it possible that both homes could share the same 3" vent pipe? There is no 3" pipe coming up from the roof of the home we are purchasing, just the 2" I mentioned. Thanks again!
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Author:
hj (AZ)
qutoe; there should be a 3" vent going thru the roof somewhere.
NOT everywhere. Here, and most UPC areas, the vents through the roof have to have a total area at least equal to the area of the incoming sewer, but do NOT have to be "full size".
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