Minky

Lots of good suggestions, thanks all. The shower trap is actually one made by Jackoboard. I might try looking them up again to see if there is any guidance around the clearance. And it's a good suggestion about the open vent, although this would sit in the bedroom (in a cupboard) so is there the potential of condensation? At one point I considered a Hepvo as there is a rubber seal around the shower trap which is removeable, and when it is removed there was no issue with drainage (before the durgo was fitted). But there was a bit of a smell when we'd been away for a couple of weeks. But they didnt do the Hepvo in the size that we'd need for the soil pipe and my plumber suggestion a Durgo!!

Do you think this would really work? If the issue is also exacerbated by the force of the shower empyting not really being great enough?

Thanks Nick, it sounds like my shower waste pipe should really run across to the durgo pipe in order to get enough pressure up to the durgo to take the air it needs like CC45 and Jack have suggested. And then the option is to drop the pipe to the ground and then across to the left, or to take it across to the left higher up. All of this pipework for a little old shower!

So it's more of a 110mm opening in the garage floor. And it's not really directly underneath the shower, we've got a washing machine and worktop over it and units to the side. So to take a 110mm pipe up from it and from one wall across to another would be a bit of work. And the sink doesn't have an aav. Don't seem to have any issues with this.

Just re: the garage floor pipe, this was newly put in and joins the main drainage pipe under the house. The existing soil stack separately empties into the main drainage pipe. The reason why this garage floor pipe was put in was because we put in a sink in the garage and this was to drain into this garage floor pipe along with the washing machine (which empties into the sink trap pipework). When we realised we couldn't run the shower trap to the existing soil stack it made sense to have it emptying into these new pipes we had.

CC45 - i cant remember the actual diameter of the pipe but from memory it is around 110mm. Not sure if it makes any difference but a sink trap (in the garage) also enters and empties into this pipe.

Thanks Jack, and excuse my ignorance but how would putting another trap below the durgo help the pressure? (without being too technical if that is possible). CC45 - that would be an option, thanks for that.

Thanks Jack, if I understand correctly you're suggesting moving the shower trap to below where the waste pipe forks off to the durgo - as that might increase the force of the shower water entering the pipe? The problem is that this is a wet room so the shower trap is "built-in" to the floor. But I agree that maybe the force of the water moving through this isn't enough to force the air across to the durgo. CC45 - I see what you're saying here and it might be easy enough to try. It would be annoying having a soil pipe in the middle of the garage but probably not as annoying as a slow draining shower!

Thanks Carrerahill, can't really take the pipe out the side of the house as it's already up to the boundary of the neighbour. It is possible to remove the plasterboard and fit the T piece higher up though, but it would still need to run across to the left and then up that hole that's been cut out - to the right of that is the wetroom floor which is all tiled and it's just not an option to have the durgo coming up into that area. CC45 - I did consider that, looking at how the pipe is currently if it was the durgo on the left and the shower trap on the right I am assuming there would be no issue here. But unfortunately this was all an afterthought when we discovered we couldnt join the shower waste onto the existing soil stack. Are you suggesting to have the durgo pipe extend down further and across to join the waste pipe and the shower waste to a t-piece onto here? I guess it's possible although it would look pretty messy, as it's the garage wall we could get away with it.

Actually yes, as soon as we realised the first valve wasn't really having any effect we went to screwfix and got a McAlpine Ventapipe. Unfortunately we couldn't connect it to the pipe as it was a smaller diameter but just to try it we gaffer taped it on and there was a slight improvement - even though still not like without any durgo on. So that's why I was wondering, are there different "strengths" of durgo? This one you suggested, I can see it's had quite good reviews - have you used it before?

That's the challenge, pretty much from the hole in the ceiling on the left to the hole on the right is tiled floor (the wetroom floor), there is no where for a durgo to go up into the floor next to the shower trap. Potentially the tee off to the durgo could be fitted higher, maybe 8 inches or so, but it will still need to run across to the right and go up at that position. But I am reluctant to do this rework unless it's definitely going to solve the problem!

Thanks ProDave, are you saying that the Durgo needs to branch off higher than it currently is? Literally above the plasterboard you can see, is the shower trap so the Durgo couldn't go any higher on here, but maybe if the branch off for the Durgo happened here and then across to where it goes up into the ceiling - would that make it work?

Hi all, I've recently had a wetroom installed and at the time it wasn't possible to connect the waste pipe of this onto the existing soil stack which vents out the roof. So it drains via a separate waste pipe which eventually joins the overall drains under the house. Pretty soon we realised that we needed an Air Admittance valve as the shower was very slow to drain. This has now been fitted, however it hasn't resulted in the quick draining of the shower as I had hoped. So am looking for advice on what the problem is here. Removing the durgo (and leaving the pipe open at the top) enables the water to drain super quick, but when the durgo is back on the shower is slow to drain again. It's like maybe the durgo isn't powerful enough (do these come in ranges?) or the pressure produced by the shower draining isn't enough to push the air back up into the durgo and take the air that it needs? I've attached a photo of the pipe work installed for the shower waste and the durgo. The long white pipe to the left is the shower waste pipe, just above the ceiling it goes directly to join the shower trap. The pipe snaking off to the right is the one put in for the durgo. It goes through the ceiling into the bedroom next to the wetroom (there wasn't anywhere to put it in the bedroom) and ends about a foot above the bedroom floor. Would appreciate any suggestions as this is driving me mad!

Many thanks for this.

Hi, Does anyone know if having perpend joints along a blockwork wall, removes or reduces the fire resistance rating that blockwork would provide in general? From what I understand brick and block have quite a good fire resistance rating but just wondering if that counts for nothing if perpend joints are in a wall providing ventilation to a cavity? Would having cavity barriers make any difference to this? Can't seem to find any guidance around this online. Cheers