Author Topic: $550 Sewage Lift Station  (Read 4677 times)

CmFtns

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$550 Sewage Lift Station
« on: February 27, 2017, 03:07:00 PM »
Story time:
Bought my house around 1 year ago and apparently what fell through the home inspection process was that the master bath addition's 4" sewer line had basically zero slope (maybe uphill slope) for 70ft all the way to the septic tank. Also, here's the kicker... It had never even been fully connected and had a 90 degree corner piece missing which was left unfinished and buried with the line ending into a wall of dirt (probably because they realized the problem here).

As soon as we moved in the master bath backed up within 1-2 days and I thought I was already having a septic problems. I then discovered the truth. I had been considering different solutions in my head throughout the last year but had been putting it off because I couldn't decide what to do and other fixer upper projects were taking priority because we had a perfectly working second bathroom.

So in the end I decided to build a sewage lift station with a sewage ejector pump similar to what is installed in basements up north. Living in Florida where basements do not exist no-one has uphill sewage problems and no stores stock any sump pump or sewage pump supplies. I had to order everything online which made me nervous to buy sight unseen but it all worked out very well. I would like to share some pictures from the project this past weekend. Total cost was $550 for pump, basin, lid, PVC fitting, electrical conduits, outlets, etc.







Original pipe dug up after days of excruciating excavation work due to crazy root infested soil:




Sewage Basin installed in ground with 4" bath drainage pipe installed:



Pump and lid installed on basin:




one-way valve and vent installed:




Entire line reconnected with new clean out access and a DOWNHILL SLOPE! =):




Finished!! complete with a cover (made from top of old doghouse) and enclosed electric wiring & outlet:

solon

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Re: $550 Sewage Lift Station
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2017, 03:12:10 PM »
Badass!

aerofreaky`

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Re: $550 Sewage Lift Station
« Reply #2 on: March 03, 2017, 06:22:47 PM »
Nice! Be thankful you're in FL. Wouldn't happen in NE with 4 food deep frost lines...

CowboyAndIndian

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Re: $550 Sewage Lift Station
« Reply #3 on: March 04, 2017, 06:32:43 AM »
Nice job.

It looks like almost the same sewage ejector pump I used when I built my basement bathroom.
Mine had an alarm in case the levels became high and the pump did not come on. I put the alarm on a separate circuit from the pump.
I guess you do not need the alarm, a leak outside has far less consequence than one in a finished basement.


CmFtns

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Re: $550 Sewage Lift Station
« Reply #4 on: March 04, 2017, 08:05:22 AM »
Nice! Be thankful you're in FL. Wouldn't happen in NE with 4 food deep frost lines...

Yea, don't have to worry about that when it basically never freezes

Nice job.

It looks like almost the same sewage ejector pump I used when I built my basement bathroom.
Mine had an alarm in case the levels became high and the pump did not come on. I put the alarm on a separate circuit from the pump.
I guess you do not need the alarm, a leak outside has far less consequence than one in a finished basement.

yea, I basically just followed the directions for a basement design but outside... I couldn't find anyone who had built an outdoor lift station with a sewage pump but there was no option to put it inside.

Dicey

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Re: $550 Sewage Lift Station
« Reply #5 on: March 04, 2017, 09:42:52 AM »
I don't understand. Why would one bathroom be functional and the other not? Do you have two septic systems? Or is the "good" one hooked up to the city sewer?

CmFtns

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Re: $550 Sewage Lift Station
« Reply #6 on: March 04, 2017, 10:48:22 AM »
I don't understand. Why would one bathroom be functional and the other not? Do you have two septic systems? Or is the "good" one hooked up to the city sewer?

The master bedroom is an addition which is lower than the rest of the house (pretty much at ground level) which I assumed they did in order to give that room tall ceilings. Also, because it is an addition they ran the sewer pipe 70+ feet around the exterior of the house instead of under the crawlspace and connected to the septic tank with a new hole so there are 2 entrances to the septic tank. The broken bathroom had a 70 foot run with zero fall and the working guest bathroom is located less than 10ft from the septic entrance and has more than 1 ft of fall.

At some point I stopped asking myself why and how someone could build something so stupid and started thinking how the hell do I fix it.
« Last Edit: March 04, 2017, 10:59:44 AM by CmFtns »

Dicey

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Re: $550 Sewage Lift Station
« Reply #7 on: March 04, 2017, 11:08:12 PM »
I don't understand. Why would one bathroom be functional and the other not? Do you have two septic systems? Or is the "good" one hooked up to the city sewer?

The master bedroom is an addition which is lower than the rest of the house (pretty much at ground level) which I assumed they did in order to give that room tall ceilings. Also, because it is an addition they ran the sewer pipe 70+ feet around the exterior of the house instead of under the crawlspace and connected to the septic tank with a new hole so there are 2 entrances to the septic tank. The broken bathroom had a 70 foot run with zero fall and the working guest bathroom is located less than 10ft from the septic entrance and has more than 1 ft of fall.

At some point I stopped asking myself why and how someone could build something so stupid and started thinking how the hell do I fix it.
Oh, boy. I reviewed your original post with DH, who's my resident expert and puzzle solver, earlier today. I actually showed him your post because I thought it might help us figure out how to solve a slightly different drainage problem we're experiencing. He's asleep now, but I can't wait to share this additional info with him in the morning. That is some kind of crazy-shit "solution" they came up with.

MandyM

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Re: $550 Sewage Lift Station
« Reply #8 on: March 13, 2017, 07:09:41 AM »
Entire line reconnected with new clean out access and a DOWNHILL SLOPE! =):

I assume that this is the line downstream of the pump...why does it need to be downhill if it is pumped?

MightyAl

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Re: $550 Sewage Lift Station
« Reply #9 on: March 13, 2017, 07:15:27 AM »
Entire line reconnected with new clean out access and a DOWNHILL SLOPE! =):

I assume that this is the line downstream of the pump...why does it need to be downhill if it is pumped?

It is not technically pumped.  This is only a lift station to get all the material to height that it can coast down a slope.  These are frequently used in basements with septic systems since the pipes are all a few feet below grade and the basement is several feet down.  The OP only needed a little bit of lift compared to a basement install.