Eliminate whole house trap?
It seems that the current NYC code requires a whole house trap: “P105.2 Building (House) Traps.-Shall be installed on all building drains …”. My research on the web indicates that traps are illegal in many areas and can be very dangerous. What’s the real deal? Is it safe to eliminate my trap so long as…
It seems that the current NYC code requires a whole house trap: “P105.2 Building (House) Traps.-Shall be
installed on all building drains …”. My research on the web indicates that traps are illegal in many areas and can be very dangerous. What’s the real deal? Is it safe to eliminate my trap so long as I provide access for snaking and trap all of the drains in the house?
it is hard for me to understand that someone thinks that a house trap is dangerous..where do people get this nonsense?…he is going to poison his entire family with sewer gas because of some bizarre irrational fear of exploding house traps…
For the novice, a good comparison to understanding how a whole house sewer trap works is to look at the toilet. They both work the same way, by using water in the “trap” to prevent gases from rising through the toilet or waste lines. If your toilet didn’t always have water sitting in the bowl your bathroom and house would soon be uninhabitable, and you might get methane poisoning as well. So just think about what would happen if you removed the water from the trap for the main sewer line of the house.
Anyone who recommends removing the whole house sewer trap is a complete moron – Don’t do it.
For the novice, a good comparison to understanding how a whole house sewer trap works is to look at the toilet. They both work the same way, by using water in the “trap” to prevent gases from rising through the toilet or waste lines. If your toilet didn’t always have water sitting in the bowl your bathroom and house would soon be uninhabitable, and you might get methane poisoning as well. So just think about what would happen if you removed the water from the trap for the main sewer line of the house.
Anyone who recommends removing the whole house sewer trap is a complete moron – Don’t do it.
I think OP may be confusing the contents of a recent segment of “Ask This Old House” with a common problem in the Midwest, and with his own configuration:
Program #717 • Preventing Sewage Backups • Host Kevin O’Connor makes a housecall to Chicago to help a homeowner prevent sewage backup in her basement by replacing her flood control system.
Among other reasons, because we often share walls with our neighbors that contain plumbing waste and vent pipes, the trap provides a seal that blocks sewer gases from entering our domestic piping.
A breach in your pipe and lack of adequate protection leads to methane gas from the street sewer in either or both homes.
I’ve never in my 27-ish years of plumbing heard of a trap “exploding” except for loosely-applied access covers in the event of a serious blockage. In NYC, that condition is often remedied by another smart addition to our code-based building practices: the fresh air inlet pipe found on every compliant trap.
from the nytimes archives, 1878 (you have to join for free to view) http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9804E0DC113FE63BBC4B53DFB4668383669FDE
M.P. Agreed, the drains are both storm and sewer. What protection does the trap provide? How can this affect my neighbor? I am just trying to understand and do the right thing.
Mr. Bond, the web has many posts saying that house traps have exploded from excess pressure, etc.
We use building-drain house traps in NYC because we all live on top of each other and what we do affects our neighbors.
Most of our old homes use combination sewer/storm water drains and the large water reservoir held by these traps
provides protection that your fixture traps simply can not.
The internet is full of bad information.
Please do not eliminate your house trap.
I’m confused. What danger is involved? I’m asking legitimately and not trying to be a wiseguy, I really don’t see what harm there is in a house trap.