Drain vent

[Alistair Wilson]

Hi everyone 

We are doing up our bathroom and one of the things we are doing is putting up panels around the room. In the corner we have a boxed in drain vent that runs floor to ceiling and then goes into the attic and then through the roof. We live in a one story bungalow. This drain vent is going to make the panelling installation more difficult as it also fish tails out at the point of the ceiling.

What I really would like to know is the possibility of cutting the vent off at around knee height in the bathroom then directing it out through the wall which would take it outside. The neighbors fence is around 4 meters away from the proposal of the new vent position . It will be knee height on our outside wall. There will be laws regarding these vents Im sure only I don't know what they are. Can anybody kindly assist.

[kandgmitchell]

I guess this is a 100mm dia taking drainage from some fittings in the bathroom. You can certainly change it's direction above the "wet" part and put an elbow out through the wall. It's to avoid pressure build up in the pipework so it just needs to vent to the external air. The termination should be a minimum of 900mm above any opening within 3m into your dwelling. So the neighbour being 4m away isn't going to be affected. On a totally blank wall and no dormer window above, you could just leave it where it exits the wall. However, be aware it vents the foul drains and having a direct 100mm pipe venting below head height may not be nice particularly in the summer. I'd turn it up the wall and vent it at the same height as originally. Oh and remember to put a cage on it to keep birds off.