Plumbing wye close to subfloor

[RatLabGuy]

I have a place in my basement where a vertical drain line, which was originally copper, has to immediately sweep into a horizontal PVC. It's cut really close to the subfloor so the pipe can remain above the joist bottoms the whole run.
Currently it is just a combo-wye held horizontally vertically with the top of female end of the sweep arm cut off, and joined to the copper with a rubber "multi-material" fitting. This is awkward b/c of the non-vertical angle of the PVC inside the rubber, but it does the job... sort of (see below)... but allows just barely meeting the minimum slope standard.
No rubber fitting in place:

and put back on.
What would be better way? Ideally to allow the end of that pipe to be higher up under the floor.

I've discovered, the hard way, that it is prone to getting backed up and blocking fluid flowing down. I suspect b/c the fitting slipped and the line sagged to too close to horizontal.

I will add a hangar for support, but surely there has to be a better way to connect this. I'm about 90% sure a 45 wye + 45 long sweep fitting is even taller. Short sweep 45 would not flow well (??).

 

[shawn]

I'm guessing you can't get to the pipe upstairs.

A short sweep would probably get clogged worse. Only thing I could think that might improve it is if you put a 45 on the stack, but rotated it CCW and fed it into a street 45 or street 22.5, then into a 45 tee from the side. I'm not sure if that would actually be any tighter. You'd have to mess around in the DWV aisle at lowes.

Where did it clog? In the lateral? What's feeding into the stack? Kitchen sink?

 

[shawn]

Also... looks like every house I've ever owned.... one photograph captures five different plumbing technologies.

 

[rockcity]

Tighten down a little extra on the fernco and leave it.

 

[braxton357]

Tighten down a little extra on the fernco and leave it.

Yeah you aren't going to get much better. You could try a street 45 into a wye to get it closer but more likely you should snake the pipe and quit putting things down the sink that shouldn't be. Is there a vent?

 

[RatLabGuy]

I'm guessing you can't get to the pipe upstairs.

Where did it clog? In the lateral? What's feeding into the stack? Kitchen sink?

Correct, pipe is inside a wall.
Yes, it is for the kitchen sink. We live on septic and use a strainer so don't really have much going through it besides fluids and small stuff.

It clogged at the bottom of the wye, then up into the chute. Didn't back up into the drain or anything; I learned about it b/c I noticed on the basement floor under it there was water appearing randomly, and some evidence of moisture around the hole in the floor.
Originally I was freaked out afraid there was a hole in the pipe inside the wall. But then I realized it was coming out around the rubber fitting.
Luckily the neuroscientist-turned-plumber-wannabe that put the pipe there put in a cleanout access on the end of the pipe. Pulled it off and could see it was full of sludge. So I'm 95% sure it's b/c the line wasn't steep enough and had slid off the fitting down to where it was not moving properly.
And boy let me tell you, that was a disgusting job to clean out. Especially when I dropped he bucket off of the ladder

Also... looks like every house I've ever owned.... one photograph captures five different plumbing technologies.

yep like about 90% of whats in this house

Tighten down a little extra on the fernco and leave it.

that's the current plan

Yeah you aren't going to get much better. You could try a street 45 into a wye to get it closer but more likely you should snake the pipe and quit putting things down the sink that shouldn't be. Is there a vent?

yep, it's vented. When I pulled the fitting up, I looked up into it (while wearing safety glasses...) and could see the sky.

 

[ManglerYJ]

Only thing I can think of is to chamfer the inside of the PVC to not have a flat edge for the "stuff" to bump into and slow down/clog. Aside from that, support the area where the cleanout is and torque the no-hub down well. and you should be fine.

 

[shawn]

Is there a vent on the line?

Assuming the copper pipe is in the wall, you could always abandon it completely and just bring a new pipe up through the bottom of the cabinet. Either cut back into the wall to tie to the vent, or (if no vent), just abandon it. You could leave the current pipe in place and leave it attached to the lateral.

It would be a good time to up the pipe size to 2", if it's not already.

 

[rockcity]

At least put some blocking and straps on that pipe so the fernco isn't holding up your combo wye, pipe, and clean out.

 

[Reid]

And boy let me tell you, that was a disgusting job to clean out.

had to clean out the drain under the bar one night. wanna know what 20 years worth of old lemons and jagermeister look like?

 

[shawn]

@RatLabGuy ya gonna fix this shit this weekend? Lowes is only open for 5 more minutes....

 

[RatLabGuy]

@RatLabGuy ya gonna fix this shit this weekend? Lowes is only open for 5 more minutes....

Well seeing as how no real "fix" has been proposed... last weekend after posting these pics I buttoned it all up real tight, with the pipe pulled up into the rubber fitting as much as possible and called it a day.

 

[shawn]

Well seeing as how no real "fix" has been proposed.

Assuming the copper pipe is in the wall, you could always abandon it completely and just bring a new pipe up through the bottom of the cabinet. Either cut back into the wall to tie to the vent, or (if no vent), just abandon it. You could leave the current pipe in place and leave it attached to the lateral.

@CasterTroy - the man needs a riser diagram.

 

[rockcity]

Tighten down a little extra on the fernco and leave it.

@RatLabGuy this is the only real fix unless you plan to demo you walls and floor.

 

[rockcity]

How long had it been there? And your house hasn't rotted yet? Replace the fernco for good measure and snug it up good and roll on.

Quit making mountains out of mole hills.


You are a smart fawker but I swear that PHD mentality is causing you more grief than whats needed

 

[RatLabGuy]

How long had it been there? And your house hasn't rotted yet? Replace the fernco for good measure and snug it up good and roll on.

Quit making mountains out of mole hills.


You are a smart fawker but I swear that PHD mentality is causing you more grief than whats needed

OK just to be clear....

Well seeing as how no real "fix" has been proposed... last weekend after posting these pics I buttoned it all up real tight, with the pipe pulled up into the rubber fitting as much as possible and called it a day.

I did exactly what you said. Cleaned it out, tightened it down, blocked it and moved on with life.
I'd forgotten about it until @shawn brought this up again.

I did look into abandoning and re-running it. Not worth it. Big PITA to do properly. I see whats involved and when we demo the kitchen in a few years it will be done then. I'll revisit my choice if it gets backed up again.

 

[shawn]

Nah, it would take two hours to redo the trap and stack, tops. You could probably raise the cleanout an inch, too.

But if it were my house, I'd replace it all with 2". That might take half a day, but you'd never have to touch it again.

 

[braxton357]

Nah, it would take two hours to redo the trap and stack, tops. You could probably raise the cleanout an inch, too.

But if it were my house, I'd replace it all with 2". That might take half a day, but you'd never have to touch it again.

I see you don't factor Lowe's trips into your estimates.

 

[RatLabGuy]

The challenge isn't what you see here, its what you can't. The tile floor under the cabinet to cut through. The supply pipes that are where the new pipe would run that would have to be re-run. Having to now cut through a joist for the new pipe to run, but the hole wouldn't meet IBC structural for holes in joists. The fact that I have no access to the inside of the wall to properly vent it w/o tearing through a cabinet on either side of it. The vertical copper line is also the vent, with an open hole on the roof, so if I just abandon it and cap on bottom where the femco is, I have to cap on top too to avoid it slowly filling with rainwater. So that means getting on the roof.

If it proves to be a problem again, I'll do it. Right now I'm more worried about having consistent how water b/c that makes a much less happy wife.

 

[rockcity]

Nah, it would take two hours to redo the trap and stack, tops. You could probably raise the cleanout an inch, too.

But if it were my house, I'd replace it all with 2". That might take half a day, but you'd never have to touch it again.

Sounds like an architect.

Trying to get them to understand that while it always works in theory and on paper, things rarely work as planned in the field.

 

[shawn]

No, you tie the vent into the lateral with a tight sweep 90, and plug the hole in the tee where the trap was. That's where the extra inch of fall on the lateral comes from.

If that lateral goes through a joist as its shown right now, the joist is compromised anyway. IRC is irrelevant at that point.