Septic fumes in house

[RonMar]

As mentioned, if your house ventilation is not balanced IE, your house pressure is negative, or under a slight vacume with respect to the outside atmosphere, you will draw air down the plumbing vents, thru the "P" traps and into the house. This airflow would lead to rapid evaporation of the water in the "P" trap... You can usually detect this by placing an ear beside a door or window seal. As you slowly open the door or window, you will hear the movement of air as the pressure equalizes. What causes this? A furnace, wood or pellet stove heater with a clogged or inadaquate air supply duct which draws air from the space and sends it up the chimney when it is running. Clogged outside air supply filters on homes with forced air supply/exchange systems(required by code in most homes these days). I have been in structures so pressurized that your ears pop when the door opens

 

[BobRip]

Could you install a much longer P trap? It would hold more water and take longer to evaporate. This might be long enough.

 

[Richard]

Could you install a much longer P trap? It would hold more water and take longer to evaporate. This might be long enough.

Been away for a day, sorry for late response.

(a funny comment above about hot water in toilet!! )

Anyways, I only have a 3/4" pipe to work with at this specific location. The 3/4" pipe goes about 12", into a corner of wall, turns 90 degrees another 12" or so (I think) and then it feeds into a bushing an dit opens up to either a 1 1/2" pipe OR maybe a 2". I don't remember actual size but it's bigger.

Question...

On the side wall, after the 90 degree bend and where it turns into the larger pipe... could I put a simply "U" in that pipe.

What I mean to say, is... put a "P" trap in the pipe HOWEVER, the thing I don't like about this logic is, this is something that would ultimately be buried INSIDE the wall and I think it'd be quite hard to get to if it ever became plugged with anything (scale from handler drip pan??)

Then at least, I'd have something like a 1 1/2" pipe holding water in the "U" instead of a 3/4" pipe.


I would get a picture of this area however, I've got a fridge in the way and a bunch of 'junk' on this side of the wall. I plumbed it from the other side of the wall and then put drywall up. I don't have easy access to see/fix anything unless I just wipe out my garage moving things around to make space. I'll get there one day, just not this weekend. In the meantime I might just plug it, reattach the sump pump...

 

[inveresk]

Dry traps have been available in europe for some years. They work like a reed valve and do away with the need for vents and air admittance valves. They don't comply with building code in Canada so I haven't seen them here and don't know whether they're available in the States.

Info. on them attached.

 

[Richard]

Ohhhhhh, I think my lightbulb just went off...

Ok, I've got my drain pan that used to be plumbed into a little sump pump. Now, the drain pan is connected directly to a 3/4" line that is connected to a bigger line, ending in the septic system.

Well (insert lightbulb)...

What if I removed the 3/4" drain connecting the pan to the septic system. Put the pipe back to make the pan drain into the sump. Then, instead of having the sump PUMP the water up/over and across the room (storing enough water in the line to flood my floor when the power goes out), I could get a new section of tubing for the sump and simply take it across and over to this drain that I have installed (the one with the gas smell in it)

What this would do is first... DISCONNECT the sewage connection to my air handler, it would bring back the sump pump and the risk of "flooding" when the power goes out (flooding defined as a several foot puddle), HOWEVER, instead of having 40' of current drain pipe connected to the sump pump, I'd only have maybe 3 feet going from the sump over to the drain tube.

I'd only need $5.00 worth of parts and if the sump ever dried out during winter months, I can easily put some water in it instead of having to disconnect the front panel of my air handler to feed water down ITS drain.

hmmm... yep.... me thinks I'm onto something.

Hope that all made sense

 

[schmism]

we have somewhat the same issue in our trailer.

The second bathroom doesnt get used often, the shower has never been used (long story) and it backs up to the furness closet. So if we dont remember to run the tub every week the trap dryes up and it starts stinking in the bathroom. To add insult to injury, if you turn on the bathroom vent (to vent the stink) it creates negitive pressure, and draws in more stink....

so in short.... we have gotten in the habbit of at least using the bathroom once a week and running some water down the shower drain.

 

[Richard]

Though I intended on putting a picture up, I forgot to take it this morning

I did the re-direct of water flow yesterday and I think it's going to work like a charm. Not only is the drain line now, disconnected from the air handler, there remains a plug of water (seal) in the line from the sump pump to the drain line, keeping any fumes inside the drain line.

I also think it's not going to flood back because I've dramatically reduced the volume of water being held in the old drain line.

While this was going on, my air handler was operating. I was very impressed (amazed?) at the amount of suction that it pulled from this drain hole. It's EASY to now see why it was sucking fumes back into the house. I even had the wife put her hand near the drain so she'd see how much air was moving.

If I remember to take the dang camera home (that I brought with me today so I could take the picture), I'll try to post one later. It will make some of the commentary clear (so I think)

Regardless... it's nice to have that smell evicted from the house.

 

[Richard]

Here's the drain out of the pan and on the left, you can see where it used to be connected to. This is where it was sucking out the septic fumes.

Now, I routed the drip drain back to the sump on the right and the outlet of the sump is the clear tube heading back to the drain on the left.

Working, or even better, SMELLING like a charm!!