Overflowing Laundry Drain

[codye123]

Hi,

I have an older home with a 1.5" laundry drain that frequently overflows. I'm pretty sure the drain itself is fine- it's just not equipped to handle the flow pumped out of today's washers.

The drain is conveniently located near a bathtub and a kitchen sink drain. I had a (probably bad) idea to tie the laundry drain into one or both of these drains to expand the laundry drain's capacity. I would also expand the washer standpipe to 2" or 3". I thought with this setup I might be able to avoid digging up the floor to perform a proper expansion. Could this work? Would it in any way be able to hold up to code? Other suggestions welcome.

Thanks!
Cody

 

[KULTULZ]

I think a laundry tub installed to accept the flow will get you away from having to go to a 2in drain (grandfathering).

 

[codye123]

Thank you for the suggestion. Unfortunately my utility room has no space for a laundry tub. I pulled back some more of the drywall today and saw that the standpipe goes straight down into the foundation, leaving me a little puzzled as to where the trap and vent may be (if they do exist at all). Think I may just call a plumber to get sorted...

 

[frodo]

pull the washers flex hose out of the stand pipe, using a tape measure,

slowly, feed the tape down the pipe till it hits the fitting.

you will be able, to "feel" if the fitting is a 90 or a ptrap by the amount of resistance on thhe tape measure

old country boy trick

 

[codye123]

Thanks frodo. My current plan is to have a new 2" drain installed above the foundation run to the soil stack which is only a few feet away (wet vent?). And the old drain can just be capped off and forgotten. Here are some pics of the current mess: http://imgur.com/a/TSDxj

I will try to add some more as the project goes on..

 

[codye123]

Well today I pulled out my toilet and knocked a new hole in my wall and found this: http://imgur.com/hnTtqZX

The vent behind the toilet is a 3" cast iron drain. The new laundry drain I had envisioned would come in from the left but the vent already has two connections (bathroom sinks) at about the height the laundry drain should come in. Even if I could come up with a way to redo all this with PVC, I would still need to pull my shower apart to get the pipe run in the first place. And on top of that I would then still have to figure out the laundry vent, install new box, and so on...

This is turning into a much larger job than I had originally anticipated! I'm all ears for other suggestions



Oh and note to frodo: I did the tape measure thing and the last couple inches of the tape came up very wet- so seems I have trap but no vent

 

[frodo]

In stead of a ZOR gun safety lock.

try this, you can keep your weapon loaded for an emergency, all you do is touch the safe to open.
only you can open it.

it is child safe, and instant access if boogy man tries to get you

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g0BDfkwWss"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g0BDfkwWss[/ame]