Soil Stack Vent Position

manualskeleton

Hi folks,

Would anyone be familiar with the regulations related to this? I've been having issues here with an intermittent strong sewer gas smell for around two months, took a full month of contact before I could get the letting agency to do anything and still working through solutions now with the second plumber who came here (first was totally useless). This is the situation on the gable end of the house:



Vent on the left is to an extractor fan in my bathroom. Right is the soil stack vent. Beneath it is a wall vent to a bedroom. Is this not daft? Also looks to me like there's half the cover on the extractor vent missing - the wind just catches it and lifts it up when it blows over it.

Edit: bah, can't paste an image here unfortunately. Basically, the extractor vent and soil stack are side by side on the gable end of the house.

manualskeleton

Metric Tensor

The best practice is to have the soil vent completely outside of the building but many people hate that because it looks .... less than pretty!

Failing that the stack should go up through the roof (not into that attic).

I've never seen one penetrate horizontally through a wall!

I don't know what the exact "rules" are in this regard but what you have described is definitely far from ideal.

I take it that it's not your own house to change?

Edited to add: Despite all of the above if you have a smell of sewage in your bedroom I'm not convinced it's the location of the top of the stack that's causing it. Leaks or breaks further down in this pipe or others may be to blame.

manualskeleton

Metric Tensor wrote: »

The best practice is to have the soil vent completely outside of the building but many people hate that because it looks .... less than pretty!

Failing that the stack should go up through the roof (not into that attic).

I've never seen one penetrate horizontally through a wall!

I don't know what the exact "rules" are in this regard but what you have described is definitely far from ideal.

I take it that it's not your own house to change?

Edited to add: Despite all of the above if you have a smell of sewage in your bedroom I'm not convinced it's the location of the top of the stack that's causing it. Leaks or breaks further down in this pipe or others may be to blame.

Hmm yes, it's rented and I had to really press the letting agency to do anything at all about it. First plumber who came after a month was rubbish, this week a much better person came and we're working through a list of possible things. I've been scouring DIY forums etc for ideas as to what it could be and my original thought from that was that there was some problem in the soil stack, or that the vent grill is blocked and it's not open to the air.

Gumbo

Have a look at the section of Technical Guidance Document Part H that deals with. Ranch connections and vent pipes.

I wouldn't be too happy with your arrangement and I would insist on the pipe to continue out through the wall and vent above the facia/soffit.

But as MT says, there may be leaks or cracks or loose connections in the flexor housing that feeds the existing wall vent.

manualskeleton

kceire wrote: »

Have a look at the section of Technical Guidance Document Part H that deals with. Ranch connections and vent pipes.

I wouldn't be too happy with your arrangement and I would insist on the pipe to continue out through the wall and vent above the facia/soffit.

But as MT says, there may be leaks or cracks or loose connections in the flexor housing that feeds the existing wall vent.

Thanks, I was just reading it there a few minutes ago actually. It says any vent within 3m of any form of air intake must be 900mm above it. So, if the extractor fan vent could be classed as this, it's totally wrong according to the regulation.

We've been up in the attic a few times and everything seems to be fine from that side. There's a bit of a floor put down up there though which means not much of the stack is visible.

manualskeleton

1.2.3.5 Ventilating pipes open to external air should finish at least 900 mm above any opening into the building within 3 m and should be finished with a cage or other perforated cover which does not restrict the flow of air (see Diagram 5).

Any opening. And if the agency had had their way, they would have just ignored me until I went away, or told me there was nothing that could be done because the first rubbish plumber told them that.