Any of you guys seen anything like this? Bought this house this year. Got several inches of rain last night and now earthy smell coming from downdraft Jenn air vent. I finally found where it exhaust out of the house and I had to dig down to it…

The heck do I do about this? Is this normal?

Looks like it was originally in a pit.
Should probably re-plumb it.
Mine exits like this:

Thanks for the reply. That looks like a good solution

Hard to tell, but there is 4-5 inches clearance between the vent and the ground.

TexAg1987 said:

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Hard to tell, but there is 4-5 inches clearance between the vent and the ground.

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Thanks for the info. Is there a screen on your vent? Mine is a damper but no screen. Seems like it would be a pest highway

I haven't ever checked, but have never had an issue. I assume there is.

That would explain your "earthy" smell.

Excellent
All of these should have a snorkel solution such as this
Thanks for posting!

OP: avoid such builders as this next time

I have a similar problem with my vent. How do you attach a piece of PVC with the pipe coming out of the wall, if it is was cut flush with the wall?

ComeAndTakeIt said:

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I have a similar problem with my vent. How do you attach a piece of PVC with the pipe coming out of the wall, if it is was cut flush with the wall?

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I have the same issue. Mine is just cut flush with the wall.

Mine isn't fixed yet, we're having someone with a hydro jet pipe cleaner come out on Tuesday and clean all of the mud out.

After that, a neighbor that's a retired plumber is going to help me make the turn up. His idea is to use the thinnest 6" pipe available and make a coupling out of it by cutting it lengthwise so that it'll compress down small enough to hopefully slide into the pvc coming out of the wall.

Such a bone headed thing. How did anyone ever let this slide.

And the people we bought the house with lived with it for 20 years.

That sounds like a reasonable approach to the fix. There is really no pressure to speak of on the pipe.

I would just make sure the seam is sealed well and protected from the elements, so it doesn't leak water back into the pipe.

Well I lucked out that the plumber left the bell end flush with my wall. I just had to stick the elbow in the joint. These are six inch schedule 35 joints or sewer pipe joints.

I would attach some sort of rodent control so that mice don't invade. The hole is warm and smells like bacon. (at least mine does. lol.)

I have some tin cloth stuff in there now and a screen in the mail.

ComeAndTakeIt said:

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Well I lucked out that the plumber left the bell end flush with my wall. I just had to stick the elbow in the joint. These are six inch schedule 35 joints or sewer pipe joints.

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Plumber probably intended this and someone cut the corner and never installed it. I had two drains (one in a mop sink under a drip dry rack, and one under the washer both in my utility room) that were apparently just run to the edge of the foundation intending to just drip onto the ground. No one ever opened them up after they poured the foundation, so they didn't drain. I poured water in them and eventually saw a wet spot on the edge of the foundation. A few taps with a hammer and voila.