What is a vent stack and why is it important to your home?
A vent stack, also known as a plumbing vent, helps improve the drainage and water flow of your plumbing. Although a part of the plumbing system, water doesn’t run through the vent stack. Instead, the vent stack goes through your home's roof to allow gasses and odors to exit your pipes. Vent stacks are also designed to let in fresh air so your home’s plumbing maintains the proper pressure.
If you’ve ever looked along the top of a roof and seen the pipes that stick out, these important plumbing fixtures are what you’re looking at. The vent system these pipes provide is an important part of the plumbing code.
To help you better understand your home’s plumbing system, let’s explore the importance of your plumbing vent and its role in your home. We’ll walk you through what you need to know about this feature and how you can better protect your home’s plumbing.
Why are vent stacks important?
Indoor plumbing is a critical component of modern living. It allows you to maintain sanitary conditions in your home while also steadily supplying you with fresh water. When water becomes dirty in your home, you rely on your plumbing system to transport it to either the sewer or your septic tank.
Your plumbing vent plays a critical role in keeping this system working effectively. The same way the rest of your plumbing system rids your home of wastewater, the vent stack rids your home of harmful gases and odors. As your pipes carry the wastewater, they also transport sewer gases and odors. The vent stack keeps those odors from entering your home through your drains. For safety, building codes require this important component.
Additionally, the fresh air that the vent stacks bring into the plumbing system helps keep the entire system functioning. This airflow plays a vital role in regulating the pressure in your system so that when you drain a kitchen sink, for example, none of the dirty water stalls in the pipes.
Without these essential plumbing features, your plumbing system wouldn’t work as effectively, and you could easily develop problems with sewer fumes and odors in the home.
How do vent stacks work?
If you look up at your roof, you can find the vent stack. It’s a pipe that goes through the roof to the open air and connects to the plumbing system below.
A homebuilder will place this pipe strategically. Note that it likely doesn’t poke out near any air-conditioning units or windows. This type of location means that the fumes emerging from the pipe will simply dissipate into the air rather than potentially reentering the home. Depending upon when the home was built, these pipes might be materials like PVC or cast iron.
By providing the plumbing system with a fresh-air outlet, the plumbing vent prevents a vacuum effect from occurring. Through maintaining the air pressure within the pipes, the plumbing vent pipe encourages everything in the vents to keep moving so the dirty water leaves your home as efficiently as possible.
What’s the difference between a vent stack and a stack vent?
As they learn about the different features of their home, many homeowners come across the terms “vent stacks” and “stack vents” and wonder if these refer to the same thing. As we already discussed, the vent stack provides your plumbing system with a fresh-air access point. This vent carries waste in the form of odors and fumes out of the home.
A stack vent, on the other hand, has some slight differences from a vent stack.
In a stack vent, in addition to having the vertical pipe that goes up to ventilate the pipes and maintain the pressure, it also has horizontal drainage pipes. It connects to a soil stack or pipe used for the drainage system and goes down to the waste stack.
The difference between these two terms can be very subtle, and for many homeowners, they are nearly interchangeable. However, understand that, essentially, a stack vent will contain a vent stack. A vent stack, on the other hand, doesn’t contain a stack vent because it doesn’t have a waste pipe.
Understanding how these parts of your home’s plumbing system work can help you quickly identify and correct potential problems.
5 signs that you might have issues with your vent stack
If you have a blocked or broken vent stack, it can impact your plumbing in a variety of ways. As a homeowner, it’s good to know what these issues look like so you can better identify the source of a potential problem.
Keep in mind that your roof’s vent stack has two main jobs: venting the sewer odors and helping with the pressure in your pipes so the water runs smoothly. Therefore, a malfunctioning stack will likely reveal itself in several ways.
You may see signs, such as:
- The smell of rotten eggs or other foul sewage-like odors
- Water appears to drain slowly, particularly in the sink and showers. (When the vent doesn’t work properly, negative pressure can build up, causing these problems.)
- Standing water in areas throughout your home, such as bathtubs or sinks
- Low water pressure as you turn on your faucets
- Rumbling or gurgling sounds coming from your pipes
As you can see, problems with your vent stack can cause considerable challenges for homeowners by impacting plumbing throughout the home. Therefore, when you notice issues with your vent stack, you want to take steps to correct them as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, many people mistake the problems caused by faulty pipe vents for standard clogs. They think the water backup is due to something clogging that particular drain line, so they turn to solutions like Drano and a plunger to try and clear the drainpipes and assume they resolved the issue. If you notice continual problems with slow water in your pipes, particularly if it happens in more than one point in the home, check to see if it could be related to your pipe vent.
It’s important to note that if you allow plumbing problems to continue, they can worsen. If water moves slowly throughout your pipes, grime and debris can build up. This buildup can lead to clogs forming in the pipes, which will only exacerbate your plumbing issues.
Often, the source of your blocked vent stack comes from debris getting into the top of the vent. Rodents or birds getting into the vent to build nests can result in blockages that keep the vent from working correctly. Similarly, debris blowing into the top of the vent off the roof can block the vent.
Regardless of the cause, having a professional assist you by inspecting your plumbing, carefully cleaning out debris and examining your vents can help fix any issues and prevent further ones.
See how a Cinch warranty helps protect your home’s plumbing system
As you better understand the importance of your vent stack and how it keeps your home safe and comfortable, you can also see the importance of a home warranty that covers your plumbing system. Detecting the differences between the potential causes of plumbing problems and knowing how to fix them can require the skills and expertise of an experienced plumber.
Fortunately, you can get the normal wear and tear plumbing coverage you need with the Cinch Built-in Systems plan. If you have a service problem, a quick call can connect you with a vetted, qualified service technician who can help solve your problem.
Discover the relief that can come with knowing your plumbing system is fully protected. Reach out today for an instant quote!