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I am trying to move my bathroom wall back a bit (making room for larger vanity), and everything was going well until I took off the drywall and saw that there were vents back there.

  • Why are the vents here, and not closer to the drains? (I assume they are venting the toilet and tub) The vents currently connect at the top of the wall.
  • Can I chip out the cement and connect them right at the bottom?
  • Do I "y" them together under the slab (Parallel to the slab) or vertically in the wall?
  • Why would only one of these have an access port? (the port on the left vent is actually filled with drywall mud and painted over. enter image description here

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And here we have "whats on the other side of the wall!" Its a clothset. A useless clothset that someone made into a play house, but my kids are afraid of the basement, so they wont play in here. The plan is to move this closet wall back a couple feet, and turn it into a linen closet while adding room for a double vanity in the bathroom. enter image description here

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  • To be clear, these are designed to vent sinks located on the other side of the wall that we cannot see? Also, both vent stacks continue down into the floor, what's below them? Finally, it looks like a bit of an amateur hack-job remodel to bring the bathroom to its current state - the stud with the cut for the horizontal vent line is nearly useless because there's so little of it left and the 2 at the end of the tub only appear to be there to hold up the shower head.
    – FreeMan
    Commented Oct 5, 2021 at 13:43
  • Added picture of what's on the other side of the wall. There is no trace of a drain or anything else. I'm pretty sure these are somehow venting the bathtub and toilet. They go into the slab, so I don't think there's much "below them". Dirt. Construction scraps. Something horribly lazy and shortcutty. And "Hack job" sums up a lot about this house. I am constantly surprised by the random bad decisions, and also the total disregard for structure that plumbers seem to have.
    – izzmit
    Commented Oct 6, 2021 at 13:06
  • OK, that little play area for the kids is awesome!! I really like the curved plaster corners without trim, too, I think that's a great look. Doing that took some skill with a trowel. Too bad your kids won't use it. :( Not sure what to tell you about the vents, though, I hope someone else chimes in soon.
    – FreeMan
    Commented Oct 6, 2021 at 13:26
  • Right? All the shortcuts and halfassery in this house, but then theres this well made little closet.
    – izzmit
    Commented Oct 7, 2021 at 20:04

1 Answer 1

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A typical code requirement is that vents should not be connected together until they are at least 6" above the flood level rim of the fixtures that they serve.

A bathroom like this would typically be piped so that the bathtub and the toilet are both vented through the sink's vent via what is called a wet vent. However, there are so many ways to arrange drainage piping and depending on who did the work and their plumbing knowledge you could have a situation where each fixture is vented separately.

Unfortunately there is not enough information to know exactly how this has been piped or even what these vents serve.

To answer your question, if these vents are in fact vents for the toilet and the bathtub, then they should not be connected together until they are 6" above either the ledge of the bathtub or the rim of the toilet bowl, whichever is higher.

To answer your other question regarding the "access ports". These are called cleanouts and they allow cleaning out the below slab lines if they ever develop and clog. They both look like they have one. The one closest to the bathtub has a cleanout plug with a square head for unthreading it (it protrudes past the finished wall). The other may have a plug with an inverted square or slot so that it doesn't protrude past the finished wall.

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  • Wow... Great answer! Thank you for the info. This gives me some specific stuff to investigate, but sure is a disappointing thing. So frustrating to be thwarted like this. But....I guess I don't have to connect them. I could just put them right never to each other? (Angle the left pipe under the slab, and bring it up parallel to the right vent pipe. Still join them in the ceiling, so it's 6 feet up
    – izzmit
    Commented Oct 27, 2021 at 16:52

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