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I have a bulkhead or soffit above our kitchen cabinets that is being removed to make way for taller ones that will go all the way to the ceiling. I encountered a vent pipe that will be in the way of the new cabinets:

enter image description here

So here's roughly what it looks like now (this is on an external wall): enter image description here

And here's what I want:enter image description here

Will it be feasible & acceptable to run this 2" pipe through several 2x10 joists in my 2 story home? Or, any other ideas?

kthornbloom
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3 Answers3

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According to International Residential Code, you can bore a hole with a diameter one-third the depth of the joist. You have to keep the hole 2" from the top or bottom of the joist.

For a 2x10, you can bore a hole up to 3" in diameter.

9.25" / 3 = 3.08333" diameter

However, this is only for sawn lumber. If the floor is made up of engineered joists, you'll have to talk to an engineer.

Tester101
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https://www.familyhandyman.com/floor/how-to-drill-through-floor-joists/view-all

According to the above you could drill up to 3" diameter holes in the joists if you stay 2" away from the edges. You might or might not have to reroute some other pipes to accomplish this routing. This pipe appears to be ABS plastic drain or vent.

EDIT

Due to the recommendation in the link about staying 6" from any load bearing wall (pointed out in a comment) I withdraw my answer that this link supports the feasibility of rerouting the drain as described by the original poster. (I suppose this means that the 2x10" joist is, or could be, in compression within 6" of a load bearing wall. I was going by the widely noted rule to place penetrations in the outer thirds of the span of a joist.)

Maybe additional support to relieve compression would allow the penetrations as envisioned by the OP, but an engineer should be consulted.

EDIT2

So the rerouted pipe would have to turn laterally away from the load bearing wall so that the 3" holes would be more than 6" away from the wall.

Jim Stewart
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Consider accepting the current location of the drain/vent and cutting the cabinets to fit around it. This would reduce the capacity of the cabinets at the top back, but this might be the best course. The appearance of the cabinets when closed would be unaffected.

Boxing in the piping from inside the cabinets would remove the possibility of damaging the piping by ramming it with heavy objects and improve the appearance when the cabinet was open.

This would avoid any compromising holes in the 2x10" joists.

Jim Stewart
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