Chelan and Leavenworth Home Inspections- Stand Up

As a home inspector it seems you get a run on certain items that keep showing up. Recently for me it was the washing machine standpipes.

Many of the home inspections I have done lately are  from the 40's/50's era where clothes washing was not  like it is today.

Most modern washing machines use about 30 to 40 gallons per full load for a top loader and about 15 to 25 gallons for a front loader. So you can imagine how much water is being discharged in each cycle.

Today's standards for a washing machine standpipe should be 2" pipe. (Years back it was 1-1/2 inches.) Most modern plumbers have the total height of the standpipe to come out at around 42 inches.

The standard requirement is that the standpipe has to be between 18 and 30 inches above the trap weir. The trap should be 6 to 18 inches above the floor and a minimum of 4" trap arm to the waste/vent stack.

With todays washing machine ability to discharging soapy, foamy water in greater quantities you can easily overloading the capacity of the plumbing system. And we all like to clean up floods in our home, right?

Chelan and Leavenworth Home Inspections- Stand Up

NCW Home Inspections, LLC is located in Wenatchee Washington serving Chelan County, Douglas County, Kittitas County, Okanogan County and Grant County Washington and the cities of Wenatchee, Leavenworth, Cashmere, Orville, Cle Elum, East Wenatchee, Quincy and many more...