Kitchen sinks are designed to ensure fast and effective water drainage, but if they overflow, it can cause water damage and potential hazards in your home. To prevent overflow, check the drains for clogged and slow drains, which can be caused by various factors such as pouring oil down the sink, pushing food down the sink, not cleaning the drain, using boiling water to clear blockages, cleaning the sink with an abrasive sponge, or not turning off the water supply valve.
Clogged drain pipes can cause the sink to overflow, causing water to leak underneath cabinets and causing pipes to leak underneath the cabinets. To prevent this, purchase and install automatic shutoff systems to detect leaks and prevent kitchen and bathroom flooding. Clogged sinks can cause flooding and damage to your home, so it is important to keep them clean and clear of clogs.
If you notice that your kitchen sink draining into your bathtub and flooding it, it may be due to improper plumbing. The overflow hole in your basins is a small ditch where excess water passes through it to prevent overspilling and flooding. Negative slope allows sediments to collect in drain pipes, causing blockages and water backup in the sink and dishwasher.
To resolve this issue, eliminate the restriction or partial blockage in your shared drain line. These simple steps can help stop overflowing water and reduce damages in your home. By following these steps, you can prevent overflowing water and maintain a clean and safe environment for your family.
📹 Here’s Why “S-TRAPS” Are NOT ALLOWED Anymore! (And 3 Ways To Fix It) | GOT2LEARN
Here’s why s-traps are illegal now and 3 different ways you can go about fixing it if it’s causing you problems! Join my plumbing …
How do I keep water from getting behind my kitchen sink?
An anti-splash guard is an effective device for preventing water from splashing in kitchen sinks. The device can be affixed to the four sides of the sink and is straightforward to install. Once the desired outcome has been achieved, the item can be removed from the sink with minimal effort. In the event of uncertainty regarding the optimal choice between a high or low faucet, it is advised to select a flexible option that can accommodate both criteria.
Why does my kitchen sink keep flooding?
Over time, grease buildup in drains can clog pipes, narrowing pipes and causing water to back up. The sink trap can also clog easily, causing sewer gas backups. Homeowners replacing dishwashers may experience water backups in the sink due to their powerful pump and pipes’ inability to handle high water volumes. If water comes back up in the sink during a washing machine run, the pipe may be clogged. To avoid harming the plumbing system, it is recommended to call a plumber to fix the issue. It is essential to seek professional help when a clog occurs in your plumbing system.
Why do kitchen sinks not have overflows?
The necessity of having an overflow hole in a kitchen or laundry sink is not a significant concern. Drainage pipes in sinks are generally sufficient for smooth water drainage, as long as there are no obstructions or clogging. Kitchen and laundry sinks are typically deep enough to prevent flooding easily. However, having an overflow hole may be necessary for flood prevention when plugging a sink, especially with smaller sinks.
Even with an overflow, it is important to never leave the water running on the sink without supervision to prevent flooding. If you choose to have an overflow, it is essential to clean it regularly to avoid bacteria and grime buildup.
How to stop overflowing a kitchen sink?
In order to remedy a flooded sink, it is first necessary to turn off the faucet. The excess water should then be removed with a container, after which a plunger can be used to dislodge the obstruction. The sink’s drain trap should then be placed in a bucket and emptied. Finally, a plumbing snake or wire can be employed to clear any remaining clogs.
How do you waterproof behind a sink?
To prevent water damage on wood cabinets, consider using waterproof stain sealant, which helps prevent water damage under the kitchen sink and preserves the cabinetry’s elegant appearance. Sand and prime the cabinets before applying a food-grade varnish, allowing the varnish to settle for a few days before reinstalling contents. Peel and stick vinyl tiles, similar to adhesive waterproof liners, provide adequate protection against water damage by cutting them to fit the cabinet surface. These methods can help maintain the aesthetic appeal of your kitchen.
Why is water backing up into my kitchen sink?
Food waste, scraps, gunk, grease, and hair can accumulate in the drain, making it difficult for water to pass through. Over time, these small bits can become stuck, narrowing the openings of the pipes and causing water to back up and accumulate in the sink.
A new dishwasher with a stronger pump can overwhelm the pipes, as the dishwasher and kitchen sink use the same drain. If the dishwasher can’t keep up with the water, it can back up into the sink.
A washing machine can also cause a backup in the kitchen sink, as many pipes are connected throughout the house. If the backup only occurs when running the clothes washer, the blockage may originate from the washing machine pipe. This can be a tricky clog to fix and should be addressed by a professional plumber.
Is there a device to stop sink overflowing?
Nova-Flo is a flood prevention device that turns off water to a bath or basin when the water level reaches overflow. It’s fully mechanical, hidden from view, and automatically resets when taps are closed. Installed with hand-tightened plastic fittings and flexible hoses, Nova-Flo should be installed with the Nova-Flo Fixing Pack for compatibility. It’s a convenient and easy-to-use solution for those who forget to turn off bath taps.
Why does my kitchen sink splash so much?
Splashing faucets can cause water damage to the sink basin, causing excessive force when water hits the basin. This can be a nuisance, causing water to splash and potentially soaking homeowners. To mitigate this issue, homeowners should understand the reasons for splashing, take correct action, and consider the best pairings of faucets and sinks. Common reasons for splashing faucets include improper water flow, improper water pressure, and improper water flow.
To solve these issues, homeowners should consider the type of faucet, the type of water, and the location of the faucet. If the faucet is too far above the sink basin, it can cause excessive force, causing water to splash and potentially causing a safety hazard. By understanding the reasons for splashing faucets, homeowners can take the right action to prevent water damage and ensure their safety.
How to prevent water pooling behind a kitchen sink?
The item is provided with a tray, which can be procured from a local dollar store.
How to stop water splashing and pooling at kitchen and bathroom sink?
This article discusses ways to avoid water splashing in bathrooms. It focuses on the importance of selecting the right faucet, adjusting water pressure, using a tap aerator, using a shorter faucet, using a deeper sink, and ensuring the appropriate position of the faucet. Water splashing is often overlooked but must be addressed early on. The main reasons behind splashing are related to the design, position, and installation of the faucets.
To prevent splashing, faucets should be designed according to the required flow rate, as unsuitable flow rates can cause water splashing around sinks and floors. Proper installation and selection of faucets can help prevent water splashing and maintain a clean and functional bathroom.
What prevents sink from overflowing?
Overflow pipes are essential in preventing household water supply overflows, such as those in kitchen sinks. They regulate water levels in the sink and syphon it off the drain if the level gets too high. These pipes are located at the back of the sink, underneath the taps and just below the rim. They are found in bathroom basins, baths, and kitchen sinks and are helpful in stopping sinks from overflowing if the tap is accidentally left running.
If the overflow pipe is blocked, leaking, or defective, it may be visible in the sink itself. If the pipe is blocked, the sink may fill up and flood. To fix an overflowing sink, pull out the plug and allow the bowl to drain. If the overflow pipe is not blocked, the problem may not be visible outside the house.
📹 Water Backing Up?
Is water backing up into your lowest drain? Maybe you’re on the lowest floor of a condominium in a condo building and water is …
The most common venting problem I’ve commonly seen is in otherwise properly plumbed bathrooms, the occasional kitchen, and in bar sinks: The trap dries out. Over many months or longer the water in the trap evaporates allowing the gases to pass in. If you have an unused bathroom, an empty apartment, a bar sink down in the basement that you haven’t used in a while. Just set an alert on your phone for every six months or so to “Check the Traps.” Then just run some water in the trap, flush the toilet. Don’t forget laundry room traps that haven’t been used in years. If the water is turned off. Just bring a bottle or bucket. It doesn’t take much.
Look, I’m a plumber, if you’re having issues with siphoning or evaporation or even pressure build up in the plumbing system that bubbles through your traps, you need to check a lot of things, the slope or grade of the plumbing, mainly that it is consistent, not up and down… the waste pipes need to be fairly clean, they can block up similar to your arteries, flow is important for pipe dynamics… The length of any waste pipe (not sewer) in my country is 3.6m from the trap to the outfall, which can be called a few names, I’ll use gully dish in my references. If you are over 3.6m you need to upsize your pipe to roughly 65mm, minimum, there’s still 80mm and 100mm in a typical home as other options, but a 65mm pipe can go 10m, you can add other fixtures to it like a bath,hand basin or laundry tub…before you need to install a vent on this waste pipe… every pipe above 65mm must be vented if it is 10m or more to the homes main drain vent, you can buy “vented traps” also, but as long as you also have a main vent on the house the drains are servicing, ie one main vent per dwelling. If you are banning ‘s-traps’ you need better plumbers, a trap is a trap, and each country has a code to how much water they shall hold. And there are also anti siphon traps for high velocity drain grades. It really is simple stuff… I’m surprised that you didn’t mention “through traps”. They are a straight piece of pipe with a rubber type hose in them, with no water at all…those should be removed, waste pipe fittings for baths and pools that are pleated plastic tubes are really bad at blocking, because the crap fills the grooves too.
In Finland, a special odor trap is used in toilet sinks, which is based on the s-trap, but the old s-trap is still used in the kitchen sink because it helps keep warm-seeking bugs and insects out of the house. Instead, installing pipes inside the walls should be avoided, because it is a risk of water damage if the pipe starts to leak or crack, allowing moisture to ruin the wall structures and insulation.
WOW! Fantastic information. We built our home “off grid”, with absolutely no knowledge, about 35 years ago (before the internet). No permits, no inspections, no brains. We had a problem with gasses from my septic system when we used our washing machine. I eventually got it fixed, but I never realized what was exactly happening….. but I did get it right.
I believe the 6″ above flood line of the fixture is if using the AAV as a stack vent. If you already have a stack vent an AAV can be used on an S trap and only needs to be installed 4″ above the top of the trap which should be able to go inside the vanity cabinet under the countertop. That is if your municipality allows AAVs. Many are just behind the times and don’t care to change. Mine are working just fine.
I repaired sewer mains and services for 12 years for a large city, and every year we heard of more than one person dying somewhere working on a sewer system from inhaling poisonous sewer gases. Confined space permits along with safety equipment are now required by most cities, but someone always seems to want to take a short cut, and it can kill them.
I worked in a lab that had 3 small sinks with aspirator faucets that nobody used anymore. We also had 5 machines in that lab that tested 10 medical gloves at a time for leaks. (Important that first responders, nursed and doctors do not contact sick patient blood!) Everyone was complaining about the stink from the glove testing machines, which seemed strange to me as I would stick my head over the tank at the bottom of the gloves being tested and it smelled like fresh water to me. After much debate and 3 meetings to determine what organism might be the culprit, I happened to be in the lab and heard a small gurgling sound. Took me a while to figure where it was coming from, but once I did the smell almost knocked me out. The water in the trap had evaporated over the years and was allowing low pressure sewer gas to vent out of these unused sinks. I filled all three sinks with water and a little cooking oil to slow down evaporation. Told my boss “I fixed the problem. No need for more meetings.” LOL
We have a vacation house that is 250 miles away. It didn’t get used for about a year. We arrived once and smelled sewer gasses inside the house. After running the water in one of the 2 sinks in the larger bathroom, I could hear the water draining and echoing in the other sink. I knew right away that the water had evaporated from the P-trap and allowed gasses back in. So every time we leave the place now, we run water in all of the sinks as it could be months before we return.
In our country (NZ) this is catered for by installing a terminal vent at the head of the household drain system. Appliance “S” traps are normally deep enough to not lose the seal, but if a toilet is flushed on an unvented system then the weight of the 4″ flow is more than enough to empty most appliance traps in the vicinity whether S or P. Install a 4″ or 3″ terminal vent and all syphon problems are solved.
Tyvm for this article. Very well spoken & presented in a way even I, whose plumbing experience deals with a plunger, a can of draino or digging longdrops out the back for my grandfather. He liked to change HIS thrones location, yes he built an actual throne for his outhouse. Now that man could do anything to do with a house. I miss that crazy bugger. I don’t miss his pet snake that lived in the outhouse tho lol.
Well, S-traps is more used than you think in most bathrooms. Way more. Even toilet closet is also mostly S-trap type. The only thing to reduce it is make fall part short as possible, or make somewhere corner to brake falling speed. The P-trap need done carefully, or you will have more residue in the horizontal part after some time.
Nicely done over all. Some clarification that I would like to provide though… A cheater vent or AAV does not have to be mounted above the flood level of the fixture. It does have to be mounted a minimum of 4″ above the trap weir. This is at minimum true for IPC 2018 (international plumbing code 2018 revision) The reason for this is clarified when your diagram of the AAV is corrected. The open position of the AAV is the diaphragm pulling down and away from it’s seat. The diaphragm (the little piece of rubber or rubberized material) that blocks the sewer gases in and is in the normally closed position and depending on the brand and age of the vent the rubber will be held in place either by its own elasticity or by a small spring. The diaphragm is able to let air in but not out when either negative or positive air pressure is applied. If you hold up an AAV to your mouth and breathe you’ll find that you can only inhale and not exhale. Positive air pressure (exhaling) forces the rubber to seal itself even tighter against the plastic seat. This means that if the pipe further downstream becomes clogged and a back up is occurring then the positive pressure created simply seals the AAV even tighter. This means that the air trapped in that 4″ long piece of pipe may get compressed but it is not displaced by the waste. This is called an air lock. Different AAV’s are rated for different amounts of air input measures in CFM or cubic feet per minute, they are also rated for how much back pressure (positive pressure) they are able to hold back, measured in inches of water column.
‘S’ traps are common in the UK, especially under kitchen and bathroom sinks. I’m not a pro but am an experienced DIYer, but I’ve never heard of any problems with them. Then again, we don’t have the same strict codes here. Lots to think about though; as usual the most informative plumbing article on the subject. 👍 🇬🇧
As a home owner from Germany who has done some plumbing I appreciate the effort you put into your tutorials. Our home is former farm house build in the 1920s and has a dedicated septic system. The lid of this system has some holes to allow ventilation of the sewer gases. The waste water moves through three chambers before the mostly cleared gray water is pumped from the last chamber into a small pond with plants for biological reduction of the remaining substances (mostly nitrates and phosphates). Twice per year a sample of the grey water has to be tested in a lab or the home owner could lose the permit to operate such a septic system on the property.
Here in England, we don’t have those problems 🙂 Fiirstly, the traps cannot be siphoned of all their water – the up part of the trap needs to be long enough to hold enough water to refil the trap once the air stops flowing. Also, whatever is draining usually still has remnant water in it that drains quite slowly – so this refills traps too. Secondly, much of our plumbing is NOT connected together ! Once the pipe has gone outside, it usually has a short spout on it pointing downwards into the next section of pipe. With the 2 pipes not being connected, it vents any sewer gasses – and this venting process occurs at floor level and ground level – so upstairs plumbing is vented twice before it goes into the underground sewer system. The only exception to this is the soil pipe from toilets. These are more like what you have – a vertical pipe going up to roof level, open vented at the top. Thes pipes can be used to connect other waste water pipes – but as their diameter is a fraction of the toilet soil pipe size, agin there is no chance of significant siphoning.
Nice vid as usual. In the UK, plumbing is different, every house has a 4″ vented pipe extended 1m above the highest window, into which all other connections are made, preventing any pressure / gas build-up from the mains. Obviously in a crowded city with old buildings in the US, that is hard to achieve.
Bro, Im not even a plumber I run my own hvac business and I cant stop perusal your articles Im on a binge. Best plumbing website I seen on YT idc I seen many articles and websites and yours is not only straight forward but visually pleasant, very informative and the timing of the article is perfect its short when need be or long when need be. Im 28 years old I’m not a old head or a youngin but your content is great for all age groups. I know enough about plumbing considering I install tanklesses, tanks, boilers, etc but I still learned a lot from your website 👍🔥 Btw that 30 min tankless/combo article was just perfect for beginners and visual learners.
Big fan of your website . My wife is a serial renovator. We have been reno fools for almost forty years. We do all our own work. Last year my son bought an old rough built house high up a mountain here in BC. Not occupied for ten years. Took a month to restore water from 5000 feet away from a cistern we had to hand dig. Just got back after two weeks replacing all the plumbing in the place. Your info gave us confidence we would succeed in the end. Thanks so much and keep the content coming.
I always thought the “S” was there just in case you dropped your wedding ring in the sink while washing your hands. lol. I did know about the vent to the roof. My dad used to run a high pressure garden hose down it to unclog a clog between the sink and the Septic tank. I grew up on a ranch and My father never called a plumber or any repair man for anything.. He just figured it out fixed it, or built it. I was a very lucky kid to be his helper. Having learned from the best. I have never had to call a repair man either. I must admit though of all the trades, plumbing is my least favorite thing to work on. It always seems like whatever you replace you end up going back to the hardware store to buy the part next to it. Then you go out back to the hardware store again to buy the part next to the part you just went back to the hardware store for. And on and on it goes… Perhaps this YouTube website will change all this. THUMBS UP!
Hi. Nicely done and explained.I live in germany an our main pipe has always a vent which goes up through the roof. we use s-traps, but right after the s the pipe (arm??) is bigger than the pipes you use for the actual s, so the arm will never completly filled with water and gets his air from the main housepipe to keep the water flowing without draining the s. so if your s-pipes are 1 1/2″ the arm needs to be at least 2″( just as an example) i hope i explained it well enough to understand what i mean.
My friend and I were talking one day. She was worried about her husband because he was peeling paint in the bathroom. Her husband was talking to my husband that he was worried about his wife for same. On the way home My husband and I talked about this and realized they hadn’t said anything to each other about it. My husband figured out the problem. Next morning, we went over and the husbands went up in the roof with a plumbers snake and removed the squirrel that had got stuck and died in the vent pipe. (Moment of silence for a squirrel that had a bad death.) Not sure what the moral of the story is. Maybe, don’t hesitate to give your significant other a rough time when they got the severe stank going.
Every lavatory I’ve ever seen has an S-trap, yet, despite the very rapid flow rate, never siphons all the water out of the bottom section, nor does it siphon all the water out of S-trap on the adjacent sink. In all the places I’ve lived, the only things fitted with a P-trap have been showers, where there isn’t enough depth below the shower tray for a S-trap – and I’ve never had a problem with sewer gases coming up the pipe.
Great article. Although I can’t speak for the whole of the UK, I can say that all the houses and flats I’ve lived in or know, have no direct link between the domestic waste water, i.e. from sinks and baths/showers and foul waste, i.e. toilets. Each of these facilities drain seperately out of a home with the two independant flows only coming together in an inspection chamber below ground level away from the house.
This is a good explanation and I didn’t know the connection between the greedy glass and traps. The diagrams make it clear. Methane is considered non-toxic; you may have meant hydrogen sulfide, the chief concern in sewage venting. Ammonia is toxic in high amounts. Methane can still be dangerous if it ignites, or if there’s enough to displace the oxygen in an area. Carbon dioxide can also build up and displace oxygen, but really if you have that much methane or carbon dioxide you’re probably going to smell the hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg or boggy smell), since our noses are generally highly sensitive to sulfur compounds. I will just add that I knew nothing about plumbing and watched some other Got2Learn articles before installing my own water heater. The articles really taught me a lot and the water heater has done great for many months now. The articles about recommended tools and tips & tricks were very helpful, as I had no experience going in.
Thank you for the Code update and the animations, but this is another Code BS, because the S trap vents the same way as the P trap. In order for the S trap to suck the water down the drain, the sink drain and all the rest of the piping should be the same diameter and you ahould pour entire bucket of water wchich is exremely unlikely to happen, since 99.9999% of the cases the sink pipe is smaller than the drain. For 30 years of experiance I never seen or heard that to happen. It’s much more likely to dry out if not used for long time than to suck the water from the S trap.
What a crock!! Water flows from the sink into the trap (both S and P) and fills the trap until it’s full enough to flow out the far side and down the drain pipe. The entire trap then stays completely full right up to the level where it can flow over and down the drain. These traps are designed to hold enough water to keep sewer gasses from escaping. The only way gasses can force their way through the S or P trap is if the system isn’t vented somewhere. This system was developed in 1775 and has been working fine all this time.
The information presented here is in compliance with the IPC and IAPMO (plumbing codes). Adopted building codes not only vary from state-to-state, but more importantly, jurisdiction-to-jurisdiction (counties, cities and towns within each state). I am a building inspector (not a “home inspector”). I was also a master plumber.
While S traps can siphon like that, they often won’t as anyone who has had a siphon attempt fail can testify. I would think the circumstances for a siphon are quite rare, especially since the strainer will cause some flow restriction. Partially clogged pipes probably make it more likely. Note that in the cup shown, the supply of the liquid is plentiful and the drain hole relatively small. Not that p-traps being code is a bad thing.
Good explanation of the system that will help many folks. A couple comments – bath and kitchen sink plumbing is usually 1-1/4″ tough on our last house I did a mod to the tail pieces to the 2″ wall drain piping. Secondly, I would be surprised if an ‘S’ Trap system on a reasonably new house wouldn’t have DWV plumbing to the roof or at least a properly sited DWV such as the Oatey you showed that would prevent siphoning of the trap water
You’re never going to get enough explosive gas through a trap to cause an explosion in a house. It would be a bad smell at worst. Outlawing s-traps isn’t going to do anything. There is not enough pressure in a sewer to push gasses continuously into a property like a gas pipe. All waste systems (by law) should be expelled to the air at the head of each drain. If a rat causes an explosion in the sewer because it has bitten through an electrical cable ( in the sewer ) then I guess the problem is that the electric and sewer infrastructure being used as one in the same.
I see … Interesting, never heard of most of this stuff as a builder, even from a plumber teaching me things. I was wonder why I had not heard about how they handle the general system and why sewer systems have issues. But I see why after perusal this whole thing. Fortunately my local system uses isolation, so this is less of a concern but makes sense, it also explains why some P traps have such weird attachments.
Again, in my jurisdiction the AAV is illegal, we call in a “In Line Vent”. The correct nomenclature for your so called loop vent is Island Vent and this type of pipe arrangement are reserved for a sink install in an island in a kitchen with no adjacent walls in which to connect a vent. There are so many rules in this installation that a home owner would be totally confused, even some plumbers get 😂 lol confused.
Great articles as always, I have an S trap under my kitchen sink and I put an oatey sure vent But I couldn’t get it above the sink line because it’s underneath a granite counter. So I made it as high as I could, decided to do a little experiment and I removed it and replaced it with a cap and a clear trap. Turns out it doesn’t siphon the water out. Still thinking about opening the wall on the other side and running a vent up through the roof.
Where exactly are “S” traps illegal or “Not Allowed”? I’ve been a plumber for a lot of years now and I’ve never heard of this “law”. As far as I know, both types are “allowed” and they both have to be installed correctly to work properly no matter where they are located. Proper venting of a sewer system is the key to making them work properly.
I appreciate your articles as you do a great job with them. One suggestion… would you please state the codes you’re referring to, and mention that codes vary based upon locale? Here in the U.S., for anyone under IPC/ IRC, your statement about the AAV having to be higher than the flood rim doesn’t apply. Instead, it has to be a minimum of 4 inches above the fixture drain.
While you are correct about AAVs needing to be 6″ above flood level, you did not mention that is only the requirement in stack application. For branch application of AAVs, you need to be a min of 4″ above trap arm (which is vastly different than 6″ above FLOOD level). The latter also happens to be the most widely used application of AAVs…
4:05 I think the 6″ above the fixture flood level is for normal venting. If AAVs are allowed in your area, you would go by the manufactors instructions. 4″ above the waste arm is normal for AAVs. This allows for them to be tucked up into a normal sink cabinet, and allows for them to be unscrewed and changed for maintenance.
USA here. my house has both P+S traps. a P-trap will clog more easy vs s-trap. any trap will dry out if you dont use it. 1st thing to do if u smell sewer gas is run some water to refill the trap. IMO, a vented S-trap is the best. good flow from gravity, no sewer gas. edit: other than clogs on horizontal runs, i have never had any problems with either in this 60yr old house. although all the drains are clustered around the 2 main sewer lines so maybe that has helped that the sink drains are right by the toilet “stink pipes” or tied closely to the very large main cast iron sewer pipes. IDK, but the s traps work fine.
I have learnt so much from your excellent, easy-to-follow, no-nonsense presentations! Thank you! My bathroom suite was fitted by a builder’s plumber. They connected the toilet waste directly to the 4″ soil pipe, that leads straight down into the manhole. There is no venting at all. Whenever there is a torrential downpour of rain, the toilet trap empties out. Even flushing to re-fill it doesn’t help; it just keeps emptying until the main sewer has taken the storm water away. I have nightmares that I might find a rat sitting in the bathroom one morning, that has climbed in the house using the empty toilet trap! I am now looking into a plumbing supplies site, at an Air Admittance Valve solution – in your opinion, is this the best way to go? Not asking for advice, just an opinion.
I enjoy seeing how different country’s do things. I’m a plumber in Australia, our sewerage systems work a bit differently to yours, we are still allowed to use S traps but have restrictions on how far they can drop. Also interesting, we are allowed to install AAV’s up to 1 meter (40 inches) below the flood level of the lowest fixture.
When I purchased a home with some plumbing issues, it taught me a lot about plumbing. The most important thing I learned was that any time that water in your pipes needs to go down, you need another pipe to go up to vent it. If your plumbing isn’t properly vented, you will hear and hear it gurgling and glugging as the air that the water displaces on it’s way down makes it back up through the path of least resistance. It makes perfect sense if you consider the fact that it’s the same reason you can put your finger over the tip of a straw, and the liquid from your beverage will remain locked in place until you release it. Knowing this explains why siphons work, and more importantly why shotgunning a beer works. It’s also why you need to let the air settle out if a beer bong before it will work, if you don’t you will choke on air and beer and look silly. Once you’ve bled the system and relaxed your throat, the power of gravity and hydraulic pressure will power that beer down your throat faster than you can even think about swallowing or choking. Another cool trick is to use a long bendy straw with a glass bottle. You put the long end down to then bottom, then you form a seal around the top with your finger wrapped around the opening and the small end of the straw. If the straw is long enough, you’ll be able to chug that bottle way faster than any of your friends, and look like a genius. So, anybody who tells you that drinking a beer with a straw isn’t cool or manly, then tell them that they’re just doing it wrong, and if you’re in a winning mood, bet them that you can drink a beer with a straw faster than they can without one.
This really helps in informing people if they have an island kitchen sink for instance. I walk into houses that put the AAV in the kitchen cabinet below the faucet but above the drain pipes and I knew there was something wrong. So in that situation the proper by code thing to do is the loop which would involve tons of work but if you have an island and it hadn’t already been done then clearly it wasn’t up to code to begin with. And it’ll be harder to sell the house.
S-trap or P-trap is a clever device (or way of connection) to address the foul air issue effectively. It’s never banned. If you’re living in a multi-floor apartment, you’ll probably see a separate vent pipe going from ground to roof in the pipe shaft. This main vent pipe is for your household traps, be it floor trap, basin trap or WC’s sub-vent to connect to, so that the pressure fluctuation and siphonage issues are addressed. For standalone houses, pipe venting is not essential so long as you are aware all the floor traps and basin traps are constantly filled with water. Since basin is a frequently used apparatus, there is no worry of the trap being dry. And if your basin trap discharges to the floor trap, this makes the floor trap wet too.
I know two plumbers that will not longer do remodel work because of this. They will only do new construction. The cost and work to change out a “S” trap for a “P” trap in a lot of older houses is just too much of a pain for them. When a house was only built with ne vent for the toilet and “S” traps for everything else you are talking some time and work to fix. I use to help remodel houses. You would be amazed at the number of houses with no vent at all.
Well thank you, I learned something today. There are countries where you will get stinky gases out the drains whatever you do, and some of them are what you’d think should be “developed” countries. Simple way to fix it is pour a cup of water down the drain and if that doesn’t work put the plug in. Of course refurbishing the whole drain is the best thing but it’s not always in your control if it’s a rented place.
Question. I took out a bath tub next to my toilet since I never used the bathtub. The sink is right next to the toilet. The only thing I notice though is the toilet from time to time will siphon the water out of the toilet bowl if I use a toilet bowl cleaner and then I have to use a snake on the toilet. Did I create this problem when I took out the bath tub and when I capped off the drain line for the bath tub under the mobile home.
As a handyman I find this information to be useful and informative. I wish there were better solutions, homeowners are not going to be happy with the box or the price of the other renovations. If it doesn’t have a ptrap there’s not much of a chance there’s going to be a vent in the adjacent stud cavity, maybe a few cavities down at the toilet. That requires significant wall damage/repair and potential roof work. I’m also not entirely convinced every sink faucet has the pressure and drop distance, given the need for an air vacuum to move the water in a syphon, to push the water fast enough to leave air space. I can see where there can be places this, as described, occurs. That said every strap I’ve taken apart is full of water with no air gaps. Once someone makes the rule….
4th fix. Make a reservoir (vertical wide pipe) between both curves of the S-trap. If water gets sucked out, plenty water will remain in the reservoir whilst the air bubbles pass by. Afterwards, the water will flow back into the curve. No mechanical parts, easy solution. Edit: Just learned, traps need to be self-scouring 🙂
If I had the money I would design a house that allowed easy access to all the plumbing works. I would do this through different ways such as cleverly disguised access panel, positioning walk in closets on the back side of where the plumbing works are located or even a plumbing chase hallway like I saw in a library when I use to do contracted work there.
Do you have any articles on making PVC to cast iron hub connections? To convert the S-trap of the built-in lavatory in our powder-room to a P-trap, a 1-1/4″ trap arm would have to be extended 15 inches over to an interior wall and then down inside the wall into the basement directly below, where it would then connect to a hub on a 4″ cast-iron waste-vent stack about 48 inches away.
In my country, waste mills aren’t allowed to be connected to water drains, resulting in much less wasted bio gas, as well as almost no gas explosion risk from the drainage system. It is also illegal to use water drains for anything else than water. If a restaurant dumped their used cooking oil in the water drain, that would be an environmental crime. That also really lowers the cost of maintenance of the drainage system. No fatbergs in my country! Instead, our bio waste are handled separately, mandatory by county waste and garbage collection services! This means that we can very efficiently preserve the bio energy in bio gas farms, instead of wasting that energy resource. It also makes water treatment plants much less complex, faster and cheaper when recycling waste water
Never heard of a greedy glass. I suppose when it’s over filled the weight of the liguid forces it up the short side and it starts a syphon momentum that keeps leaking as the air source comes from the top of liquid source. Adding an extra air vent source stops the syphon effect but seems it would still allow for some drippage in practical usage.
at the 1:15 mark, the wording should be “… that BLOCKS the sewer gases..” not “..that TRAPS the sewer gases..”. why do so many vids have poor and wrong wording? they are putting things out so fast to get likes that they do not have proof readers / viewers go over things as this might cause a delay in posting to get things corrected.
I was working at a cafe in a bookstore and the floor drains were always smelly. This was a national chain, and I’m sure they must’ve vented the pipes properly when the place was built back in 2005. But there was the possibility that the water in the traps evaporated, after all, no water really ever went down those drains and we’re in a very dry climate. But when I was trying to explain to the book floor manager and my coworker in the cafe, they just kept giggle-snorting everytime I said “P-trap.” I had to actually say that they’re not for trapping pee. 🙄🤦🏼♀️
To all that have experienced/witnessed the good fortune of a S-trap included in your/other sewer system, you need to understand that it does not indicate S-Trap is the ‘best choice’. It is only an indicator that the person placed/installed the S-Trap with care in your well design/installed sewer system. Nothing more, nothing less. S-Traps have a characteristic in their design that has proved problematic if installed without care into a any sewer system. All humans, now matter where you are on earth, please understand that your ‘local codes’ are the MINIMUM stipulations required to produce a close approximation of a ‘safe system’. As a result, all competent jurisdictions have stipulated that manufactured S-Traps no longer be sold in their area of influence since it is impossible to ensure/inspect that care has been applied.
There is a major flaw with all of these systems: they only work as long as water is regularly flowing through them. However, if you’re traveling a lot or leave your home for an extended period, the water in the seal dries up, allowing all the sewer gases to freely flow into your home. I wonder if there’s a way to either prevent the water from evaporating or keep the gases out by other means?
This would have been helpful a few years ago when a buddy got a new house. We were operating on the just replace what we already see under the sink with non broken new parts. I’m pretty sure both his kitchen and his bathroom have S-traps; and I’m also pretty certain that’s why his bathroom sink hasn’t worked in about 2 1/2 years. 🤷♂️ Ffs.
The reason S-traps are banned isn’t for the reason most are told. My step-dad was a plumber from 1969 until he retired in the early 2000s, He fought the ban because it was a bunch of Bullshit and it was about money not because they were dangerous like some plumbing companies claimed. When he retired he still refused to remove the ones in people’s homes where they were already installed unless they asked him to but he told them the truth first. the new traps were overpriced when they came out and most plumbers charged a full hour to half an hour of work just to install one that took less than 5 mins. My stepdad has over 100 plumbers working for him now and he will fire anyone of them if they rip off people with that scam.
I have a problem with my bathroom basin blocking, please help! I have a P trap on it. About 10 years ago we extended the bathroom, and because the :face-orange-frowning:idiot who did the work was not a plumber he did not recognise the need for the vent that was going up to the loft, so just blocked it off. I would have re-instated the main vent, but that is impossible as the extension now makes the pipework inaccessible. So for the last 10 years our basin has gone ‘glug glug glug glug glug glug’ every time you use it, which we just put up with. Recently I discovered a vented P-trap which just has a little valve on the top (SA10V McALPINE 32mm Anti-Vac Basin Sink Waste U Bend). This solved the gurgling, but now 6 weeks later the drain for the basin is totally blocked after the P-trap in the pipes under the floorboards. The toilet, shower, and bath are all fine. Maybe the blockage timing is just coincidental and it is nothing to do with the new trap, but it is suspicious. I have tried blowing compressed air down, but it’s hard to get a seal. What should I do?
You get this issue in germany as well, in some cases. The company I used to work for, also did the work on my parents house, and everytime you let the toilet flush, you could hear either the bathtub syphon or the sink “gurgle” and then whistle because of air going through it. The Boss back then said “nah, dont need a ventilation”, when it is GOLD STANDARD in germany, and in EVERY OTHER house we did plumbing we installed a vent shaft. So basically, the Boss back then scammed my parents and violated building regulations, but sadly, there was no getting back at him, otherwise it would have cost me my job most assuredly. So what can ya do. I got a warning later anyways, after the Boss argued about something with me in front of a customer, and you got to remember. You may be the Boss, but that doesn’t mean you do know shit. Sometimes you are just the boss because you passed your theoretical exams, but not because you actually know what you are doing when on site.
I did not know S-traps are illegal now days. I do know I am not a fan and I’ve never installed one. As a matter of fact I recently changed my kitchen sink from an S-trap to a P-trap with a sure vent. I did this just because I believe S-traps slow things down and even though it was vented within code I just don’t like them. I’m not a big fan of sure vents except for kitchen sinks when they’re in the island because the vent is allowed to be 8ft away. Mine wasn’t quite that far but it was far enough.
I moved into an older apartment 2yrs ago, terrible plumbing is a common issue here in Tennessee. Fortunately, there are many access panels to reach the plumbing. My first easy fix was ACTUALLY tightening the joints. I found 3 drain pipes that weren’t even tight. And why are miss-cut PVC such a common thing?. For fu**x sake measure twice, cut once.
Just sliding by to remind YouTubers and others that: Not all people with access to the Internet live in the US Not only does the article author seem to have forgotten this, so do many of the commentators. E.g. don’t go recommending 1 1/4 inch plumbing in Metric Europe, including the UK. —- PS. Having watched a neighbours boat, and home, sink due to plumbing installed as if it were a building… Don’t do that. There was a reason my boat (and, again, my home) wasn’t permanently connected to the shore water supply (I topped up a tank every couple of days) – one leak in the night and you could be (bilge pumps permitting) literally sunk by the next morning. There are other problems. e.g. ‘Horizontal’ – what is that on a boat?
But, when you flush, the water continues to fill the bowl (with steadily decreasing flow) long after the main outflow. This ‘late-flush’ water trickles over the top of the S trap without creating a lock. If toilets are designed to flush sensibly and pipe diameters and vents are properly thought out, an S-trap should not have such problems. I’ve never heard of anyone having problems with sewer gas, and I’ve certainly not heard of explosions. But, hey, maybe our toilets are just built different in the UK… or maybe we just use a wider bore for the downpipes. Anyone?
Hi from france Mind-bending youtube algorithm ! It takes me from “government officials telling fakes news” to plumbing installation. At least i learn something today in this topic ! ( although some one could find them entertaining, not sure “fakes news in politics” would teach anything valuable ) A thumb up and a new subscriber
Look, I put part of an “S” trap, the strait part about 12 in long, in my radiator hose to keep it from bloating when over heating ! So I’m the f-ing devil for doing this now ??!! WTF….it worked and, by the way, I read how you should do this to high performance engines in Hot Rod magazine, OK ?!! It wasn’t only my idea and recommended by the magazines staff, and I trusted their judgment. Is that OK with you !!?? I mean WTF !? I didn’t install the entire “S” trap into the dam car OK just one short piece. The short piece was installed Into a 1971 400 Firebird, OK ?!? And for a reason, you didn’t want fires to happen in your f-ing sink did you !?? Figure it out, OK !!? And don’t start with me on this again, I’m warning you, and I ain’t kidding, OK !!??
Pipe sizing throughout a plumbing design is also important. I think AS3500.2, aussie code, upsize to make allowances for fitextures in the plumbing system (plumbers and hydrolic engineers that calculate volume, flow, pressure etc). Venting, alot of the fixture venting pipework can be omitted with adequate pipe sizing, in the walls and ceilings. Therefore there should be no real reason an S-trap should not work. 100mm in the ground Drainage 100mm, 65mm, 50, and 40mm branches or graded drains S- trap and P-trap commonly used – (WHAT EVER WORKS AND FITS IN AT FITTOFF STAGE). So basins 40mm with 40mm trap Kitchen sink 50mm etc Toilet/ wc 100mm pipe – you can use 80mm pipe but no more than 1 toilet per floor connected. In other parts of the world, US, pipe sizing and grades (fall or slope of connecting graded drain) would be a factor as to why S-traps fail. You are not going to replumb all the piping in within a building’s structure ie wall and between ceiling and floor, just to create a functioning S-trap. NB, the large pool of water in a US toilet pan (due to shallow toilet moulds) ?? I’ve always wounded why they prefer this. You can still achieve overall heights for ergonomics and adequate syphonage or drainage out of a pan without the large volume of water in a pan sitting in the pan. We here in Australia have this fear of what’s known as the Poseidon’s kiss. Its when the water jumps up out of the pan due to……haha I’m just a humble plumber)
Starting in 4:02 you state that the AVV must be placed 6 inches above the flood level of the fixture, but I believe this is wrong. The 6-inch requirement for the installation of an Air Admittance Valve (AAV) is above the highest horizontal branch drain connected to the vent system. This would typically be the drain pipe coming out of the P-trap of a plumbing fixture like a sink, shower, or bathtub. If we followed your instructions, there would not be any under-the-sink installation allowed.
Sewer gas may not contain much ammonia, because the sewage is probably more acidic than alkaline, so the sewage probably contains ammonia salts. Sewage gas is usually said to be mostly methane (like he said), but the smelly components are sulfur compounds such as hydrogen sulfide. It may only be about 1% hydrogen sulfide, but that stuff is so smelly, and toxic that 1% is considered a lot.
most people like the author cannot speak clearly the difference of P-trap and S-trap, in fact their behavior are very similar. US and other countries force venting – That is the difference. Both traps work fine with venting and not work properly w/o venting. Toilet has S-trap built-in, do we have gas reverse issue?