Vents
Dear Forum Members,
Believe it or not I do have a 13 story building where the whole sewage system goes down to the subcellar. Yes, there is not gravity system. Well, this is not the problem but what worries everyone are the terrible unpleasant odors coming out from the floor drains. The water seals get lost everytime someone flushes the water closets. I am being doing some research and I have found that each floor vent before connecting to the vent stack makes a kind of inverted siphon.
Could this be the possible reason why the building smells so bad?
Any entry or point of view will be highly welcome. The main question is how could I solve this problem?
Anthony Mo
There are two ways of lossing trap seal. They are evaporation and improper venting. Evaporation is self explanatory, just add water to the traps. The most common reason is improper venting. The vent systems purpose is to equalize the pressure on both sides of the trap so that the trap prime does not get "sucked out". The best way to identify the problem is to observe the floor drains & their venting. If there is a drip in the vent or if it does not continually rise from the waste pipe to an overhead vent, chances are the vent became flooded & is inoperable. Read through the applicable Plumbing Code on venting, it will be specific on how the venting should be installed.
Anthony,
I know you posted this question months ago, but I just registered today.
"Trap Guards" have recently been approved in our area to be used in lieu of trap primers. I realize this does not solve the vent problem for the building in question, but it might be a quick fix to solve the odor problem.
I agree with Mr. Bell. Obviously this is an existing building, and to retrofit a trap primer would be costly. The best solution would be to do so, but a more cost efficient solution (and one that works) would be to use a device such as the "Trap Guard".
Kozzi