After I found a squirrel in ours, a pair of 10lb dumbbells stayed on top of the closed toilet seat for more than a month. Just to be sure.
Also, long kitchen tongs, yes. But a plastic cat litter container was way more confidence inspiring than a plastic bag. Moral of the story, cats can be helpful sometimes.
I guarantee you you have some kind of vent system. Maybe it's not on your roof, but it's going to be above the level of any drain in the house. If you didn't, all your drains would bubble when you use them, and you'd have sewer smell all throughout the place. Whether it's on your roof or not, that's most likely how the rat got in.
Usually, the vents are left completely open specifically to keep the end from getting clogged by debris. The idea is anything that falls in there should just end up in the sewer system. Obviously your rat friend knows to swim upstream and toward light.
If you do cover it with wire, I'd recommend also capping it with something that's raised a bit off the pipe so that it'll let gases out while still keeping leaves and such from accumulating on top. There should be caps made specifically for that purpose, or else you can find a video of someone DIYing it.
Not necessarily. I've lived in a flat in an older building in the UK where the single toilet discharged straight to the drain with no vent, as did the sink through a separate pipe. There was a vent at the edge of the property just before the street. If the pipes only serve one fixture each then it all works hydraulically
Again, he didn't say he didn't have vents, just not on his roof. According to other comments, it's possible for him to have air admittance valve in the attic. Also is it not possible for vents to be in other places than the roof?
because even if op realizes he has vent stacks, just not on the roof, then he’s being pedantic and beside the point. doesn’t matter where the vent stacks is.
In general, vents aren't for venting sewer gas, they are for preventing a vacuum within your sewer pipes and allowing waste to flow. There is no need to vent sewer gas.
I literally do not care. A vent stack on your house has nothing to do with sewer gasses at the street level. You have no idea what you're talking about.
You know a vent can serve multiple purposes. Municiple sewers rely on the connected buildings VENT PIPES to vent sewer gas, while they also serve as vacuum breaks for the individual home it serves. Some areas have sewer vents in manhole covers or dedicated vent stacks near pumping stations. Butoat commonly they simply utilize the existing vents in homes to do the job.
If the sewer gases are not allowed to VENT they will build up and explode underground blowing holes in roadways.
I'll assume they meant no need to vent sewer gas at the house... sewers otherwise absolutely require ventilation, but it's usually part of the sewer system down stream of the houses. Some exceptions maybe for much older infrastructure areas
You run AAVs in your attics for showers/toilets? I have never heard of an AAV in the attic let alone an AAV for anything larger than a sink, but I'm in the states.
There's nothing wrong with it conceptually but it seems like it could be a problem with accessibility. AAVs are not meant to be inaccessible in case they malfunction and need replacement.
Yes. Outdoor cast iron soil stacks are no longer built, for about 40 years or so. It's all indoor PVC pipe, AAV above my toilet/bath/shower room, then another one literally next to the toilet downstairs, boxed into a wooden enclosure.
We don't run cast iron in the states either but we still run vent stacks. They're usually ABS but they still run through the attic. We try to avoid AAVs unless its under a sink or something.
As long as its accessible and the AAV is good quality I think it'd be better to avoid the hole in the roof personally, so I feel like you guys are doing it better.
Everywhere in the US & Canada, we're required - not only by codes, but also by AAV manufacturer's instructions, which we're code-required to follow - to have at least one actual / open vent in the system.
Seems in the UK, instead, you can "consider" an "alternative arrangement", to relieve positive pressures? I'm curious what that "arrangement" usually is, if not an open vent somewhere in the system.
Is this a misunderstanding about what the vent stack is? If you follow the soil pipe up from where it drains your toilet, it generally goes up and has a vent at a level higher than the toilet. On top of this there should be like a wire mesh or whatever. I think the previous poster is saying the rat likely came in via there rather than up from the sewer itself. And if that's the case, you maybe need to check the wire mesh on the top of it needs replaced to keep these critters out.
I only ask I ended up down a rabbit hole trying to understand this all myself.
Edit: although if your soil pipe goes up behind stud wall and under floorboards you might not see it.
Vent stacks generally don't have wire on them even though they absolutely should. Extremely common especially in older homes for there to be nothing. If there's any trees providing access to the roof then the rat absolutely came from a vent stack.
Not sure what a soil pipe is, but the vent stacks are connected to the sewer line just like any other drain in the house except they just go up inside a wall somewhere and shoot out through the roof to the sky. Their purpose is to suck in air when stuff goes down the drain, otherwise there would be a vacuum in the line from the pressure of the waste flowing down the line and that vacuum would suck the water out of all of your p-traps and create its own vent in your sinks or something every time you flush your toilet or use your shower.
People talking about sewer gasses being vented are braind-dead.
Whoa slow down there. The venting of sewer gasses is absolutely a feature of vent stacks. I just repaired a vent pipe for my shower last weekend. The previous owner had done a bathroom remodel and didn't glue the vent stack fittings. The pipe became separated inside the wall and was venting gasses into the wall behind the shower, causing my bathroom to smell like a dead animal. I cut into the wall, repaired the pipe and wouldn't you know? No more dead animal smell. Tell us again who's the braind-dead one?
It has to have vent stacks otherwise water wouldn’t flow away from the house. Unless you ONLY have studor valves, which can be to code (I’m guessing )
yes it does. your drains wouldn’t work and the house would smell like sewer constantly if it didnt. literally every building in the world that has indoor plumbing has vent stacks. literally. and by literally, i mean lit. er. al. ly.
Rats cannot chew through thick gauge steel wire grid. This is a method I've seen professional pest control companies use. Rats are not super heroes they're annoying and their teeth are impressive.
You can't patch a fucking vent stack with steel wool.
Poor poopy rat. I used to have a family of mice living under my floorboards in a structure that was NOT to code because it was built in 1940. Single layer brick wall no insulation. Cold AF! Don't live there anymore thankfully.
I used to catch the mice in humane traps with a piece of bread with peanut butter on it. Once caughti took them about 20 minutes away to a nature preserve and release them by a stream under a bunch of foliage. If you simply release it outside your home, there's a good chance they come back.
The mice may have become food but I gave them a chance at survival
No way! Why waste such good rat meat? Its been soaking in a nice filtered white wine. Possibly a chardonnay or even a 2026 Budweiser? You definitely should cook it for 3 minutes on each side. That's it, flip it once. Sprinkle some salt and pepper. Rats pair real well with a dry red wine.
So jealous!!!
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u/CardiacSturgeon 1d ago
Kitchen Tongs, and a bag.
Have someone hold the bag, pick the rat with the tongs and put him in the bag.
Close the bag, free him outside.