Hi all,
I would like to know if it is possible to move roof vents. We are looking at buying a new home and there are two roof vents at the front of the house and one on the back.
What I need to know is if I can run the PVC horizontally to link up with the vent in the back of the house. I spent some time looking on the web, but can't seem to find an answer.
Any help would be appreciated.
Chris
(not a plumber) I know that from the fixture to the vent there are code requirements as to how close the vent must be to the toilet, or to the sink. Once the vent goes 'up' I am under the (possibly mistaken) impression that you can run it any distance, e.g., from the front of your attic to the back. If this is incorrect hopefully someone will jump on this comment with the correct info.
Probably not if your talking plumbing vents. Check with a local plumbing inspector he can tell you for sure. Then you have the issue of patching the holes to match. Which will be darned near impossible.
I'd be interested to know * why * you want to move these items. They are plumbing vents, are they not?
As SQLit points out, there are collateral issues.
If appearance is a problem for you, are the stacks painable?
TB
Chris,
It depends on how close the vent pipes are to each other, how big the pipes are, and what type of roof structure you have.
If you have vaulted ceilings, you probably don't have an attic space to reroute the pipes through.
Vent pipes have size requirements depending on how many fixtures they vent. If you have a few 1-1/2" or 2" vents penetrating the roof, you could probably combine the vents into a single 3" vent instead. But, if you already have multiple 3" vents, you're probably out of luck.
When I plumbed my house, I combined all my fixture vents into a single 3 inch "trunk" line in the attic. I then ran a single 3" vent through the roof. Of course, everything has to be sloped downward so the air can flow "up" and any water that finds it's way into the vent can flow "down" (though technically, air also gets pulled "in" the vent as water flows down the drain).
A larger vent has more exposed area at the roof, so you might want to add a "mushroom" cap on the top to keep out leaves, squirrels, etc.
Check out the plumbing forum at
Of course, as others have said, once you move the vents you'll need to patch the holes left behind. I would assume you are planning on reroofing the house as part of this project?
What you propose is certainly doable, if you're willing to invest the time and money to make it happen.
Anthony
Appearance is the problem and since we will be putting new shingles on the roof, it won't be a problem to patch the roof before putting the new shingles on. I'll call the plumbing inspector though and see what he says,
thanks all Chris
The limiting factor on DWV pipes isn't the size or number of fixtures it vents, but rather how big around it has to be to prevent frost-up during the winter. a 4" vent will handle anything you're likely to find in a normal house. What you might have a problem with is reducing the pipe-size as you go down through the system.
I don't know what code says, though. Worst case, you can always cluster the three existing stacks together, and wrap some sort of cowling around them.
According to UPC, a 1-1/4" pipe can only vent one "fixture unit", 1-1/2" pipe can vent 8 fixture units, 2" pipe can vent 24 fixture units, and 3" pipe can vent 84 fixture units. The size must be increased if the vent pipe is more than 40 feet long, and a toilet requires a minimum 2" vent.
("Fixture Units" vary from 1 unit for a bathroom vanity, to 4 units for a toilet).
So, if you have four 1-1/2" pipes penetrating the roof, a safe estimate would be to assume each is maxed out at 8 fixture units (unless you want to calculate exactly what fixtures are on each vent pipe). To combine these into a single larger vent, you would need at least a 3" vent through the roof (4 vents x 8 units = 32 units).
Realistically, a house with 2 full baths, laundry, and kitchen sink with a dishwasher would total about 18 units. A single 2" vent would theoretically be adequate for that case, but I would still opt for the larger vent. There's no harm in going larger, but going smaller could cause a variety of problems. As Goedjn mentioned, smaller vents are more likely to ice up in cold climates (though based on the original issue of multiple small vents, I doubt that's an issue in this case). A larger vent will allow better air flow and is less likely to clog with debris.
Going "down" in the vent sizes is just like going "up" in drain sizes. Just think in reverse. You should have no problem finding reducing tee's and elbows to combine the smaller individual vents into a single large vent.
Anthony
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