One of the most difficult remodeling jobs is replacing waste and vent stacks. Most plumbing vents penetrate the roof at some point. This has the potential of leaking. I try avoiding plumbing wherever I can. It is not lack of ability or tools, as I have a plumbing kit and have done it. It is one of those deals where a good plumber is worth every nickel.
One of the latest things I have discovered but not tried yet are Air Admittance Valves which I discovered from the folks at Better DIY. There area number of places where this would be just the ticket. Especially in eliminating roof penetrations.
Besides remodeling I think about building my dream house. One of the things I include is eliminating roof penetrations of any sort. And a Flat Roof scheme. I am an advocate of foam roofing. I live under an aircraft landing patterns and unless the wind conditions are just right, I just don’t hear the planes. My roof are 2×8’s with a 3/4 plywood deck, r 19 insulation and 5/8” drywall. Normally this would act like a big drum, but the foam isolates the noise very well. and The insulation is a plus also. The only current downside to foam roofing currently is needing to renew the roof coating every 5-10 years.
I will build the house once I win the lottery.
A classmate urged me to read this page, nice post, fascinating read… keep up the nice work!
I am building a geodesic,all concrete, dome house. Being a concrete dome, it has no shingles and thus nothing to blow off in a hurricane. However, that means the roof waterproofing is the paint. That’s it, just the paint. Works well but penetrations (for vent plumbing) are hard to seal just right. I used air admittance valves (AAV’s) on all the fixtures and put a single vent for the system just outside the wall, on the outside of the house, and it passed inspection. Not a SINGLE roof penetration!