Having obtained a satisfactory lot of soil pipe and fittings, the next trouble comes with the lead calking. Unfortunately, it is frequently found that very shallow joints are made instead of deep ones, and hard lead used instead of soft. My rule is, soft lead, two runnings and two calkings. By soft lead I mean pig lead, and by hard lead I mean old pipe and scrap lead that may have been melted a dozen times. Incidentally it may be remarked that it is quite difficult to calk a tight joint on the heavy pipe; the process will crack the hub.
The fixtures used in a house are of minor importance—there are dozens of good patterns of every class. If they are carefully put in, and provided with suitable traps placed just as close to the fixture as possible, the result will usually be satisfactory.
Very few instances occur where traps are placed as close to the fixtures they serve as they might be, and yet a very short length of untrapped pipe, when fouled, will sometimes smell dreadfully. A set bowl with trap two feet away may become in time a great nuisance if not properly used. A case in point where the fixture was used both as a bowl and a urinal was in a few months exceedingly offensive—a fact largely (though not wholly) due to its double service.
I have never met two sanitarians who agreed upon the same water-closets, bowls, faucets, traps, etc.
Of course, the soil pipe will be carried, of full size, through the roof, and sufficiently high to clear all windows.
Avoid multiplicity of fixtures or pipes; cut off all fixtures not used at least twice a week, lest their traps dry out; have all plumbing as simple as possible, and try and get it all located so that outside air can be got directly into all closets and bath-rooms. As far as possible, set your fixtures in glass rather than tiles or wood. Carry the lower end of the main drain at least five feet beyond the cellar walls of the building, of cast iron.
Let us now look at the outside work. The main drain (carrying everything except the kitchen and pantry sinks) goes through a ventilated running trap. An indirect fresh air inlet is provided on the house side of the trap (example), to prevent annoyance from puffing or pumping, or, better still, a pipe corresponding to the soil pipe is carried up on the outside of the house.
The running trap ventilator should be of the same diameter as the main drain (4 inch), and serve as a main drain vent also. Carry this pipe on the outside of the house as high as the top of the chimney.
A grease-trap should be provided for the kitchen and pantry sinks. Formerly my custom was to put in brick receptacles; it is now to put in Portland cement traps (Henderson pattern), though perhaps I may succeed in devising a cast-iron one that will answer better. The brick ones were occasionally heaved by the frost, and cracked; the Portland cement ones answer better, and when thoroughly painted with red lead do not soak an appreciable quantity of sewage to be offensive, but are too high priced ($28 each). I have made one or two patterns for cast-iron ones, but none as yet that I feel satisfied with.
Beyond the running trap an Akron pipe should convey the sewage to a tank or cesspool.