Pre-licensed home inspector here. Attached is a picture showing the drainage for a residential washing machine. This drainage for a washing machine is missing an open air stack and P-Trap. Is this something you would call out?
Thanks,
Justin
Re-upload the picture, please.
You need to wait until it finishes loading before hitting reply.
2 Likes
Yes.
As fancy as it is, I would call it out as improper installation of the washing machine drain line.
Although it looks like they did install a check valve, I wonder how high up in the wall it goes.
2 Likes
Doesn’t look like the case here but when I find no traps on washing machine drains, sinks, etc. it’s often because they daylight (empty) into the yard and NOT into the sanitary system. Super-common here in Hawaii… I’d sometimes find it back in Oregon. Something to keep in the back of your mind.
1 Like
I’m guessing they had to get it up to the height of the sewer pipe leaving the home and did this instead on a lift pump. Just a guess though, based on extremely limited info.
3 Likes
What is this washing machine drain piping referred to as? A Standpipe.
Standpipe plumbing rules? (IPC) specifies that standpipes must be individually trapped, and their height must be between 18 and 42 inches (457 mm and 1067 mm) above the trap weir.
If a laundry tray is connected to a standpipe, the top of the standpipe must be at least 30 inches above the trap weir and above the laundry tray’s flood level rim.
That configuration does not need a trap or vent.
But, they are using the washing machine pump in place of a lift pump. There is a check valve in that mess, so there is no need for either as they are down (or up) stream.
I will assume that the main sewer line is above the washer.
I don’t know, but what is the lift capacity of a washer pump?
2 Likes
The washing machine installation instructions will tell you not to do this in the drain section of the manual.
Get the model number, grab the install manual and call it out.
4 Likes
I found one that dumped into a Rubbermaid trash can that had a sump pump in it to push it up to the sewer line.
I guess it worked but there was always water in the bottom of the Rubbermaid.
5 Likes
Morning David. Hope to find you well.
After a little bit of digging, the standard washers I gleaned, GE and Hotpoint models, can lift water up to 8’ feet under normal disposal conditions.
This setup is anything but normal, and would likely void the washer’s warranty I suspect.
In a proper laundry room washer drainage setup the stand pipe for the washer, to drain gray water into, would be mounted in a (WMOB) Washing Machine Outlet Box.
The check valve is retaining backflow or static head of previously pumped up gray waste water in that pipe. I do not think the washer motor, connected flexible plastic dispersal tubing, connected gaskets, fittings and seals therein, were engineered/designed to provide that extra static head force being pumped upstream to hopefully empty at a sanitary tee.
Dam. Even the circuit outlet/receptacle is a hazard and possible violation. Laundry room outlets/receptacles must be protected by GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) protection. Be at least one installed, and on a dedicated 20-amp circuit.
Someone mentioned a lift pump, for draining laundry appliances, washers, and/or other fixtures located below the main sewer line.
That would have been prudent as well as a verbal referral.
That’s my wag, David.