Before today I really had no clue how harmful not building a house to code really can be to your health. I am by no means a trades person, but if I were given the task to plumb, tile, dry wall and wire this house I am certain I could have been far more successful than what exists here today. I actually got to meet the builder of the house, it was one man, a jack of all trades and a specialist at none of them. Lets nickname him Jack.
On the day I received the pleasure of meeting Jack I was surprised to meet a small man in his 50's, years of working in the direct tropical sun had given his face a leathery look that aged him beyond his years, maybe he was only 35, but his life of hard work had etched his face to look much older and weathered. My landlord had brought him to the apartment to get him to repair the water heater which he installed. Jack was lucky my Hebrew skills were too weak to express my anger and frustrations at him, and since his English was poorer than my Hebrew there would have been no way for me to communicate everything I would have wanted to. Instead I watched them fix the water heater scornful and bitter. If given the chance I would have given him an earful of questions basically all starting with, "Why did you do it this way?". Where my landlord found Jack, I am not sure, but I bet he came at a great price. If there was a corner to be cut Jack made certain the opportunity was not lost. The following pictures are all instances of where Jack made sure not to waste too much time, energy or money.
This is where Jack decided to have my water and other utilities enter the house, above the door through the plastic window. It is rather common place in Israel to see the intake pipes sticking out of the exteriors of houses. There is never a chance they will freeze so the plumbing is oftentimes out and exposed, however in our case here in Yafo we have the pipes protruding from our plastic window, where you would usually find these pipes coming out of concrete, or bricks. However I bet you it's a lot easier to cut a hole through a 2cm plastic sheet than it is too cut through half a meter of stone and concrete. Not only easier to cut through but it is much less time consuming and if Jack can save on time it's cost effective as well. You may have already noticed that Jack does not know the meaning of aesthetics, he was merely concerned on getting the utilities inside the building as soon as possible.
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| backside of my toilet |
I am no expert nor am I a plumber but isn't the waste supposed to go down and out and not sideways? I just finished reading the chapter about toilet venting in the International Residential Code for plumbing vents and found two diagrams that will explain exactly what is wrong with this disgusting beast of a toilet. First lets take a look at my lavatory's construction. In the photo above we are looking at the backside of my toilet, have you ever really looked at your latrine? Please take a moment and go look at your toilet, if it looks like mine in the above picture, please close the bathroom door, evacuate the area and call a plumber immediately, your health may be at risk. If it does not look like my toilet than you are within the majority of those who own a loo built to code. There happens to be a vital error in the installation of my toilet, my commode has no vent and wasn't installed anywhere close to code. In the second picture below, we see the drain pipe at an angle that is level with the toilet, unless this is some super high-pressure, anti-gravity flushing system I don't know about, I am not sure if this was ever supposed to work!
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| drain pipe |
The diagram below explains the entire concept in three simple words, Trap, Drain, VENT! and please note the difference between the diagram and my photograph.
"Without those vents, bacteria and gasses from the septic system would be released into the house where they could make people very ill." Read more: About Plumbing Vents | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_4673213_plumbing-vents.html#ixzz1Hyt8eMhh
The toilet's lack of vent drove me insane, probably literally. I felt I was compulsively cleaning the bathroom, because it always smelt horrible. Now I understand what I was up against. Breathing sewer gas has a multitude of health symptoms and going mad happens to be one of them. I have taken the liberty of researching the effects of breathing in these toxic fumes, and it looks like we are lucky to be alive. Below you will find a chart of symptoms in relation to exposure. We will never know exactly how many ppm we were inhaling, but from the symptoms I experienced I would guess that we were inhaling somewhere between .5-20ppm, on a regular basis for approximately a year.
"HEALTH EFFECTS OF SEWER GAS"
"Sewer gas is a generic name for a complex mixture of gases and airborne agents that result from the natural process of the decomposition of organic materials in sewage. Gases produced by domestic wastewater decomposition commonly include hydrogen sulfide (H2S), ammonia (NH3), methane (CH4), and carbon dioxide (CO2)."
| Exposure (ppm) | Effect/Observation | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| 0.0005-0.01 | Odor threshold | ATSDR 1999; McGavran 2001 |
| 0.01-0.6 | Increased eye symptoms Increases in nausea Increased headache, mental symptoms, diseases of nervous system and sense organs | ATSDR 1999 (see Appendix B) |
| 2.0 | Bronchial constriction in asthmatic individuals | WHO 2003; ATSDR 1999 |
| 5.0 | Increased eye complaints Mild respiratory, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, and metabolic changes | WHO 2003 ATSDR 1999 (see Appendix B) |
| 3.6-21 | Eye irritation | WHO 2003 |
| 20 | Fatigue, loss of appetite, headache, irritability, poor memory, dizziness Irritation of mucous membranes | WHO 2003 ATSDR 1999 |
| 100 | Olfactory paralysis | ATSDR 1999 |
| >560 | Respiratory distress | WHO 2003 |
| 700 | Death | WHO 2003 |
"The table was compiled from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry'sToxicological Profile for Hydrogen Sulfide (ATSDR 1999). These studies suggest that exposure to hydrogen sulfide from 5 to 16 ppm may cause respiratory, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, dermal, and metabolic health effects, while ocular, gastrointestinal, and neurological effects may occur below 1 ppm"
source : Center for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/
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| Exhibit A |
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| Exhibit B |
Alright moving on to the next health hazard/cost effective renovation done in my bathroom, in Exhibit A we see my bathroom sink's drain pipe and hot and cold water delivery pipes entering the bathroom on the side of the wall . In Exhibit B you can see clearly underneath my sink, and as you may or may not have noticed there is no trap. A plumbing trap is required on all fixtures with a waste water exit, if not the pipe will stand dry and allow toxic gas to float up from the sewer into the house. The job of a trap is to trap water in a 'j' or 's' shaped pipe, the water that remains trapped blocks any sewer gas that may enter through the pipe. I think the Romans had this figured this out. Besides not having a trap, the sink was also clearly not vented, Jack obviously did not have a Plumbing code book lying around when he built this bathroom. Below in exhibit C there is a diagram of what a sink built to code should look like, please notice where Jack went wrong. Why Jack Why?
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| Exhibit C |
Please let the experts explain
"The easiest way to understand the function of plumbing vents in your home plumbing system is to imagine draining a soda bottle. If you hold the bottle upside down at a 90 degree angle, the soda can't drain properly. As the bottle drains, it creates negative pressure inside the bottle because there is nothing to replace the soda flowing out. If you punch a hole in the top of the bottle, though, air is drawn into the bottle through the hole, keeping the pressure equal and allowing the soda to flow freely.
Plumbing vents serve the same purpose as the hole in the top of the bottle. If there is no way to introduce air into a closed plumbing system, negative pressure is created and the water can't drain freely through the drain pipes,[also trapping hazardous gaseous inside your home]" Read more: About Plumbing Vents | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_4673213_plumbing-vents.html#ixzz1HytfgpcM
This photo on the left is the underside of my shower, and once again there is no trap, thank you Jack your are an ass.
The one sink that had a trap was my kitchen sink, in the picture on the right we are looking underneath at it's plumbing. My sink leaked because the pipes weren't adhered together with silicon. I guess Jack had to save money somewhere since he put in the effort and installed a trap. It must have been frustrating for Jack because it's the only trap he bothered with and didn't even care to glue the fittings together. Maybe after this first trap he said,
"No way No how No more TRAPS!"
One thing is for sure Jack has taught us what could have taken us years of mistakes to learn. Cutting corners and ignoring code not only results in additional costs in the long run but may be potentially hazardous to yours and/or other's health. Thank you Jack for your effortless contribution.
... to be continued...
Emmmmmily. Part 6 ? Conclusion ?
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