OK–nasty subject–I get that, but what is an inspector to do?
These sorts of issues are considered life/safety issues and the purpose of modern plumbing is to keep “stuff” where it belongs. We like it when the drinking water stays in the pipes, the waste stuff stays in the pipes and the two don’t get mixed together.
This sounds like a good plan.
I don’t like sewage ejector pumps–but they exist so I have to deal with them occasionally. They are common whenever you have plumbing fixtures that cannot drain by gravity. The effluent has to be pumped up to a level where it can drain by gravity.
Homeowner installation of these devices is almost always obvious and tragic. At a recent inspection I found one in the basement of a home where a non-conforming kitchen and bathroom had been added. The bathroom properly drained to the sump below the surface of the basement floor.
The kitchen sink drain however was tied into what amounted to the vent pipe for the unit (the lower pipe that runs off to the right). However, because there was a big hole cut in the sump cover, no vent was really necessary for the pump to function. The vent is there because under normal operation a vacuum would be created if it was not there. A vacuum could suck the water out of the traps of the fixtures it was servicing. The hole in the cover eliminates any possibility of there ever being a vacuum created.
There also has to be a check valve to prevent water that has been pumped out from draining back into the sump. There also has to be a gate valve and unions so that the unit can be taken apart to be serviced. Most importantly there HAS TO BE A SEALED LID!
Without a sealed lid the sewage could flood the basement if the pump were to fail–not to mention the likely continual odors of sewage that would be present.
I can only guess why anyone would destroy a perfectly good lid to create this health and safety issue.
The installation needs a new lid—but more importantly it needs a licensed plumber.
By Charles Buell, Real Estate Inspections in Seattle
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