Tag: overhead sewer

Basement Updates

October 5, 2015 / / 3 Comments

I haven’t posted in a while because I’ve been trying to complete something before making a post about it, but I haven’t finished anything other than leveling the subsoil, which I already made a post about when I was a third of the way done with it. I didn’t want to write another post just to say I’d finished, especially since flattening dirt isn’t particularly interesting, even if it is a lot of work. Instead there are about five different things in progress, all basement related, so I’ll give a run down on where we are and what we’re trying to get done.

First off: the plumbers. We’ve signed our contract, paid the deposit, permits are being pulled and/or updated, and once that’s done they can get started. Rather than dig up the existing clay sewer pipe they are going to re-line it, a process where they run a scope, clean out the pipe with water jets, then shove an inflatable sock down it all the way to the city sewer main. They inflate it and then squeeze an epoxy resin around the sock, which not only creates a whole new pipe within the existing one, it fills any cracks or holes at the same time. The result is a brand new sewer line without any digging, plus it will actually be a larger 6″ diameter pipe than it would be if it had been if we had redone it in cast iron. The sewer line will be an “overhead system” meaning it will go up to collect the drains from the first and second floor, but the basement drains will go to an ejector pit which then pumps up to the level of the first floor before entering the drain. That prevents sewer backups from flooding the basement.

Next, the plumbers will need to dig a hole in the basement and a couple pits out at the street so they can horizontally bore a new copper supply line and disconnect the old lead line. Once that enters the basement at the front there will be a new water meter and an overhead copper line running along the beam back to the mechanical room. Finally, they will be canceling our old catch basin in the back yard and running the rough plumbing for the basement bathroom. The process should take about four or five weeks, depending on permits and inspections.

While that’s going on I’ve been working on the interior weeping system (aka drain tile). I’ve dug a trench around most of the basement that will connect to a sump basin. I picked up a large 24″ x 36″ crock that’s about twice what’s required by code. I’m still researching sump pumps to put into it. For now that will tie into our sewer system, as Chicago code allows combined storm and sewer, but once we’ve redone the back yard I plan to route this into a rain garden along with the downspouts and the drainage for the walkway along the side of the house.

I’ve talked to our concrete guy about getting the back steps redone while it’s still warm enough out. Our plans call for the exterior basement steps to go to the South rather than straight out or to the North as they do now, so we need them to knock out the existing retaining walls and put in a new one. The plumbers will install  an area drain at the bottom landing that connects to the weeping system. Hopefully he’ll be out this week so we can get that process rolling. We unfortunately had to fill in the pit we had dug for the steps with all the excess dirt from leveling the basement and digging the trench.

Lastly, I tried replacing the rest of the basement windows yesterday but discovered the brick around the windows and the sills are in worse shape than I had hoped, so I called our tuckpointers. We’ll have them replace the sills and clean up the window and door openings so we can get the rest of the new windows installed. I also ordered our new back door, since it will take a few weeks to get it in.

So despite not being good about updating the blog, we are keeping busy with the house. As we finish any of these projects I’ll write posts about them individually. The weather is getting much cooler as Fall sets in, so we need to get a lot done in the next several weeks!

Contractor Wrangling

August 12, 2015 / / 0 Comments

For the first part of the year, almost the whole first half, we were going like gangbusters on the house. After we returned the mini-excavator and the last dumpster was hauled away, we kind of ran out of steam. We’d go down to the basement and putter about for a little while, digging up the rest of the disconnected sewer pipe to the catch basin, hauling out some of the remaining dirt piles, breaking up the landing outside the back door, but for the most part, a sense of dread and just being overwhelmed took hold. Digging by hand in the clay soil is just terrible and with our dumpsters gone we didn’t really have anywhere to put it. A series of over-tonnage charges came through on the dumpsters that added up to a lot of extra money. We basically got screwed on the dumpsters and should have gone straight to the hauler instead of using a service.

There were some also simple realities of life going on: our son Derek is going to speech therapy twice a week in the evenings, which occupies a decent chunk of our work time. Until she got a new job a few weeks ago, Sarah was working at a temp job that put a lot of uncertainty into our house budget. As for me, I was just sick of the basement. It’s summer, there are all kinds of things to do, and our weekends were more often than not full of fun activities with friends and family. In short, not much got done on the house.

Now that Sarah’s permanently employed, we’re back to hoping we can move into the basement before winter sets in. The only way that’s happening is if we hire out a big chunk of the work: namely finishing the dig out and pouring the new concrete floor, and the sewer plumbing. So over the last month or so we’ve been in contact with a few concrete contractors, a GC, and a couple of plumbers. We got a couple quotes on the dig out and the floor, as well as the new exterior back steps, but getting a plumbing quote has proven elusive. The GC we met with first said he would give us a quote but he never did, plus a lot of what he said really didn’t align with what I understand code to be, even though he said he knows all the inspectors and does it all the time.

Then we met with a plumber that gave us a whole different idea for how to do the sewer plumbing. We were planning on having our sewer pipe run underground, gravity-fed, with a backflow preventer (since Chicago has a combined storm system and high rain can lead to sewer backups). The plumber told us that the city now has additional requirements for backflow preventers that makes them difficult and expensive, and to instead use an overhead sewer line from the main stack to the front of the house. The basement fixtures would drain into an ejector pit that pumps up to the overhead line. The advantage is that it’s unlikely there would ever be a backup because it’s much higher up, and even if it did it would just back up to the ejector pit. Better still, we could run the whole thing in PVC instead of cast iron (which the City requires for below grade sewer). As a result it would be cheaper as well as a performing better. The disadvantage is we would have a bulkhead along the outside wall, but I think we can make that work. Unfortunately, he also said we’d have to have a trench for the new water main, since the city inspectors want to be able to see that it’s one contiguous pipe.

Unfortunately they still haven’t gotten us a quote, and now they want to come back out next week since their “outside guy” missed the last appointment. Needless to say I haven’t gotten a quote yet. We have another plumber coming out on Saturday morning. Hopefully they’ll both get us quotes; after wasting most of the summer, now we need to get moving on this project, but without quotes we can’t plan or budget.