As a homeowner, you don’t typically worry about gas escaping into your home from the water and drain pipes throughout the house. But if you are hooked up to a sewer line, it’s a legitimate concern and one that any plumber must consider when running or replacing pipes. In fact, the typical type of trap under most sinks—known as the “s trap”—has a significant potential for trapping sewer gases and dispersing them into your home, a potentially dangerous situation. It is highly recommended that, if you have any s traps in your home, you replace them with the safer “p traps.”
How Gases Are Collected and Vented
When you run water down any drain in your home, it will likely carry with it additional organic materials…food items, soaps, even body hair and dead skin. All of those organic materials interact chemically with each other and can generate different types of gases. In older homes, with no venting pipes, those gases were typically trapped in the liquid waste and only left your house when the liquid waste went into the main sewer line or through dispersion into the air.
If you’ve observed any new home construction in the last couple decades, you’ve probably noticed some hooded pipes (other than chimneys) coming through the roof. Those are venting systems, designed to allow the sewer gases to disperse up and out of your house, and to allow air in to help wastewater flow through your drainage system. On some older homes, you may see vent pipes retrofitted on an outside wall of the house.
As a homeowner, you may not know what your venting needs are, but your plumber should be knowledgeable of such matters and should help you take the necessary steps to protect you and your family.
Contact Public Service Plumbers
To learn how we can help you, call (214) 753-4633 or contact us by e-mail and we’ll schedule an appointment.
At Public Service Plumbers, we answer our phones 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We can send our service personnel to your home or business anytime, day or night. All of our plumbers are trained and certified.
Public Service Plumbers
5610 Dyer Street
Dallas, Texas 75206
(214) 753-4633
We offer plumbing installation and repair services to individuals and businesses throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area, including Highland Park, University Park, Preston Hollow, Lakewood, Lake Highlands, Richardson, Plano, Frisco, McKinney, Allen, Coppell, Garland, Mesquite, Addison, Kessler Park, Farmers Branch, Grapevine, Southlake, Flower Mound and Lewisville.
