The soil vent pipe is essential for ensuring your home has clean, safe air. Unfortunately, we’ve come across homes where this was damaged, installed incorrectly, or not installed at all! Yet if it isn’t working correctly, your home is at risk of being exposed to foul-smelling, potentially dangerous gasses.
The soil vent is a pipe that feeds from your sewerage pipes and up to the roof. Its purpose is to allow sewage gasses to vent away from where they can cause harm to people. It also services to equalise the atmospheric pressure inside your drains. This equalisation of pressure prevents U-Bends in your toilet and other systems from being emptied by the siphoning effect.
Your Soil Vent, U-Bends and the Risk of Siphoning
U-bends are a critical piece of your drainage system. There should always be water in the U-Bend. This water acts as an airlock, preventing gasses from coming through the drains and into your home. As long as you have water in your U-bends, you are safe from gasses and bad smells in your house. The water in the U-bend stays put as long as there’s equal pressure on both sides. This prevents gasses from coming out through your drains, whether it’s your bathroom or kitchen sink.
How to Tell If There’s an Issue
If you notice bad smells in your bathroom, kitchen, or anywhere else in your house, the vent may be blocked or have an issue! The soil vent is tied to your sewerage system and allows the methane to vent out through the roof where it’s not exposing you to the bad smells or potentially dangerous gasses. Or if you find yourself troubleshooting drainage noises, such as gurgling in the drains that weren’t there before, this could be a sign that the air isn’t equalising correctly.
How the Soil Vent Is Connected to Your Drains
The vent should be attached to every drain in your home that has a U-bend. So you’ll typically have a main vent with smaller feeds coming from different parts of your house, such as the washing machine, the toilet, the kitchen sink, etc. The outlet on this even is typically seen somewhere on the side of the roof.
If you have a sewerage smell in your home, you may want to check for a blockage in the vent or potentially a leak. Leaks in the vent can be found by tracing odours through various techniques. We provide this service if you need it. We can also identify issues in your soil vent or anywhere else in the drainage system. If you need a hand, you can always give us a call on 1800 437 246.
