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I am trying to figure out how to lay out my basement plumbing, and I wanted to use a double wye to connect my shower, toilet, and sink to the existing waste system in the house.

My question is, am I allowed to have the vent plumbing be behind a double wye since all 3 fixtures combine at this one point? Or am I required to have each fixture individually vented and then join the vents later into one common vent?

All of this work will be under the concrete slab. I am connecting to the existing waste system that runs under the concrete slab.

The existing waste system is connected to all the fixtures on the 1st floor (toilet, tub, sink, kitchen sink) of the house and then travels down into the basement, under the slab, and out to the road. This system is vented through the ceiling.

I should probably also ask if I even need to vent this new basement bathroom separately, or if the current venting system would be sufficient.

Basement Plumbing Diagram

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Around here the answer would be no. Our plumbing inspectors won't pass drain installations where a connection to a common drain line comes before the vent. The one exception would be the toilet, which can be wet vented to another fixture. The problem is that the air admittance valve is too small to vent the toilet, and the height of the toilet trap is above the height of the shower drain.

Keep in mind that local mileage on this stuff varies wildly, so I'd run it by your local inspector. Also, don't know if this is just a mistake in the diagram, but the wye connection to the cast iron pipe is upside down.

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  • Ok. What if I vented the shower close to where the shower trap is and used it to connect to the vent stack I have pictured somewhere in the basement rafters. I am trying to figure out how I can make this work. The Fernco Wye at the iron pipe is just a drawing mistake. I know it would have to be flipped the other way so the waste runs in the correct direction.
    – Erik
    Apr 17, 2014 at 19:44
  • @Erik That sounds like it would work. If you can put the shower on a re-vent loop to the main vent stack you'll likely be OK. Ideally, you'd re-vent the sink too (instead of the air admit valve) but it's hard to tell if that is a viable option without seeing the space.
    – Comintern
    Apr 17, 2014 at 23:02

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