Any plumbers here?

[Ranga]

I have a peculiar issue. My house is a bit of a crazy place, that's been added on to over time, I imagine using what scant resources they could come by at the time. Some would call it a knock-down. We like to call it home :cool:

Much to my chagrin, the downstairs is low - livable to a degree, but low. Luckily SWMBO and I are built low to the ground. ;)

For some reason, the laundry is sunken to the lowest level of the whole bottom floor - lower than outside by probably about half a foot, and lower than the rest of the surrounding floor by about 4 inches. This poses a bit of an issue when your washing machine decides to pack it in, and water floods the whole laundry by about 2 inches.

I came by some tiles at the right price, so I've decided to do the unthinkable and cover over the tasteful splotchy yellow painted concrete (thus making it even lower in height :eek:). Mad, I know, but anything to give the illusion of progress!

To cut to the chase, I'm curious about possible options (that probably don't exist), for providing some way of draining the laundry. The only thing I can think of - other than ignoring it and it pretending it'll never flood again :angel: - is a solution my mate has in his cellar/armoury/distillery. In the middle he has a small sump, about a foot square and a 18" deep, with a pump inside.

Would this be a viable option? If so, I imagine it would it be best to do it before the tiling, thus ensuring the fall heads towards the sump? The best place I reckon would be under the new feature tub I'm buying (to set the whole place off ;)).

Am I delusional, hence throwing good money after bad, or a true plumbing genius?

[mike_ie]

Start googling "sump pumps" - you'll find them in a lot of basements in the US to do exactly what you are looking for. They come in two variations - a submersible pump that sits at the bottom of the sump that kicks in once the water reaches a certain level, or a surface mounted pump that sits above the sump and does the same thing.

And yes, you'll obviously want to dig out a sump and line it before tiling.

[jc109]

Plumb your floor waste to a rubble pit outside. Much simpler and cheaper.

[Ranga]

Plumb your floor waste to a rubble pit outside. Much simpler and cheaper.

How do I do that when outside is about 8" higher?

[jc109]

Ive not seen it so hard to say, but you could run a long pipe to lower ground, or maybe dig a deep pit with higher than normal sides so that surface water doesn't pool in it. And if this didn't fix the problem outright you could still whack a pump in there. I would think it better than running the pump inside if you didn't have to.

[mike_ie]

How do I do that when outside is about 8" higher?

It's hard to propose an exact solution not being able to see what surrounds your house, but if your ground offers good soakage then you can dig a soak pit about six or seven feet deep and fill it with rocks or gravel - we used to drill holes in a 50 gallon drum and bury that, then fill it with rocks as it stops the soil backfilling it. Then dig a trench from the soak pit to the edge of the house and go underneath the wall. As long as the trench is deeper than 8", you'll be able to run a pipe in that is lower than the floor, and plumb a drain to that. However, depending on the terrain outside, and rainfall catchment, you run the risk of water from the outside flooding the basement...

Where is the washing machine draining to??? At some stage outside the house it must be draining lower than the basement floor, otherwise you'd have a washer half full of water all the time...

[Hoges]

Cutting the floor, digging a sump and lining it is good and fine. Adding a small submersible sump pump is also a good idea... however...you need to power the pump safely (in water!) and also (somehow) run a drain again across the top of the floor which people in their rush to clean up won't trip over....

FWIW: Try a different approach: If the washing machine is in a corner or next to an external wall, you could build a 6" hob (like a shower recess) in the corner, slightly larger in area than the footprint of the washing machine, but place the machine just behind the front edge of the hob, mounted on 4 besser blocks.

Excess water pools within the bunding provided by the hob. The pump sits on the "floor" behind the machine and its waste pipe could run through the external wall and out onto the grass or into a rubble pit as suggested by jc109. Take the power for the pump from the GPO which serves the washing machine. This way if the machine overflows, the water is all contained under it and you don't have soapy leaking all over your expert tiling job!:p;)

You may need a non-backflow valve in the waste pipe... alternatively, if the pump pushes the waste say 30cm (a foot) "uphill" to/through) the wall and once outside it's all downhill, then most of the waste water will syphon itself out...

[slug_burner]

Unless you will use gravity to drain the laundry, you don't need an external pit. The pump in the washing machine currently drains into the waste water outlet, your sump pump can do the same.

[bee utey]

Re: submersible pumps , buy a bilge pump and float switch from a marine store and power it from a 12V transformer or car battery type supply. I kept a basement dry for a year that way before I could afford to dig a looong drainage ditch to a lower outside level.

[Ranga]

Where is the washing machine draining to??? At some stage outside the house it must be draining lower than the basement floor, otherwise you'd have a washer half full of water all the time...

It's draining into the laundry tub trap, about 2 foot higher than the floor, which then drains to the outside drain.

I should have mentioned that the walls to the laundry are all besser block, and the surrounding area outside is all concrete, hence the difficulty in draining it directly outside. Water has virtually no chance of entering from outside, but also no chance of draining away inside.

In the 7 years I've been here, I've only had one episode of flooding, caused by a dodgy washing machine. Hence, a sump pump should last ages, given it would almost never turn on. Perhaps I'm over-engineering the problem...

[TerryO]

Having a drainage pit and pump inside the house for waste water means you always have dirty water in the pit. This will smell and I would expect (even in Queenslnd) does not meet basic drainage requirements.

Electric pumps are usually an expensive pain in the backside and often prone to failure after a couple of years. I take it this problem only arises after washing machine stuffs up? Do you ever get seepage coming up through the floor after heavy rain etc?

If no then The other way to fix it is raise the machine on a mantle and have made up a drip tray just like used to be put under water tanks when they were up in ceilings with and outlet through a trap so there is a water seal (thus no smell) if there is an overflow the water runs straight into the drain that already takes away the waste water.

Cheers Terry
Ex Plumber.

[d@rk51d3]

Check out Grundfos and DAB. They have a system where the wastewater goes to a sealed tub, a bit like like an esky. Inside is a float activated sump pump (can have cutters and grinders for toilet waste too). This then pumps the waste up and out to your sewer system as the need arises.

Its quite exxy for what it is, but it does the job properly.

[Tank]

Raise the floor to the level or higher than the rest of the floors and put a drain in the floor and run it into your nearest waste water pipe, Regards Frank.

[Collins]

Re: submersible pumps , buy a bilge pump and float switch from a marine store and power it from a 12V transformer or car battery type supply. I kept a basement dry for a year that way before I could afford to dig a looong drainage ditch to a lower outside level.

As suggested by Bee Utey, a bilge pump with a float switch will do the job quite well.
While living & working in Cairns I frequently utilised a bilge pump for pumping out pits etc, and my set up was often borrowed by work colleagues to pump out rooms after flooding. In fact, I made up a number of kits that were retained for use. They work very well and are not expensive,.

[Ranga]

Bugger it. All too much hassle for a risk that has occurred once in 7 years. If there's another leak, I'll mop it up again :eek:

[d@rk51d3]

http://www.dabpumpsaustralia.com.au/SideMenu/Products/UnderHandBasinPumpStation.aspx

Here it is.

EDIT

Never mind. I didn't read the OP properly............as usual.:rolleyes:

[Hoges]

My neighbour has moved their washing machine outside. It now sits in a secluded area of the back verandah (a paved area) under the roof line protected from the weather... the waste water goes into a shallow rubble drain and onto a garden bed... the clothes line is attached to the wall beside the machine...