A while back I did an inspection for a renter that was considering buying the home they were renting. I have done a few of these before and find it often helpful having the tenant being there as they can often provide “perspective” on concerns that I otherwise might not be able to get additional information about.
One of their concerns was that whenever they flushed the master bathroom toilet—not only did the toilet make a lot of noise when flushed, but the water siphoned out of the sink and shower traps—-or tried to anyway.
I said I would check it out and suspected some sort of venting issue.
In talking to the seller, they echoed the tenants concerns and stated that it had always been that way—-since it was built three years previous.
When I inspected the attic this is what I found.
Instead of the vents going through the roof all three vents were tied together and capped off. As a result, when the toilet was flushed, it was attempting to “vent” through the sink drain and the shower drain resulting in the siphoning.
One of the parties asked me how this could have ever pasted the city inspection. I simply said that it would be unusual for a city inspector to go in the attic, and added that this is just one of the many examples of why I have a job.
By Charles Buell, Real Estate Inspections in Seattle
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My question isn’t, “how did it pass inspection,” but rather, “what was the plumber thinking?”
Hollis, most likely the plumber merely did his pressure test and then forgot to go back up in the attic and cut the cap off and run the pipe through the roof.