Hi all,
Apologies if there is a more specific forum I ought to have posted this in. My wife and I are new home owners dealing with a bit of a plumbing saga, and trying to figure out whether the people who sold us the home ought to be held responsible in some way for what we're dealing with. Here are the details:
We moved into a ninety year old home in Washington, DC about nine months ago, before which it went through a significant remodel. About a month ago we found sewage backing up into our storm catch basin, which until then had appeared to be draining normally. Multiple plumbers came out to look at the situation, and eventually one discovered what appear to be a series of major mistakes made in the remodel:
The house has two sewer separate sewer lines (apparently pretty rare?). All of the pre-remodel plumbing fixtures are on one line (and are functioning correctly), and before the remodel, the other only had the storm basin on it. In the remodel, a first floor half bathroom was added, and the washer and dryer were moved. Both of these are attached to the second sewer line, which had previously only been for storm water.
The storm water line has an incorrectly installed backflow valve that is now failing on it. Waste water from the half bathroom and washing machine hits the backflow valve and gets pushed back into the basin. So, we can't use that bathroom or do laundry. The backflow valve is 30 inches under the basement floor, accessible only via a 6 inch wide shaft, the walls of which do not extend all the way to the cap of the valve. The result is that it is caked in dirt, and essentially impossible to service without breaking the concrete.
Our plumber asserts that a lot of this isn't up to code. And looking at the plans for the remodel, it seems that the work done does not line up with what was proposed. I'm no expert at reading these sorts of plans, so I've attached the basement plumbing diagram included in the full remodel plans. It seems to acknowledge the existence of two sewer lines, and to show that the newly added bathroom drains via the same one as the pre-existing basement bathroom (which is not the case).
In order to fix all of this, we'll have to bust up the basement floor, remove the backflow valve, and run the two newest plumbing fixtures to the other sewer line. I'm hoping you all might be able to confirm that I'm reading this diagram right, and get opinions on the culpability of the remodeling plumber. I've spent some time reading through the DC code, but am still trying to sort through it all.
Thanks for the help,
Gennaro
Apologies if there is a more specific forum I ought to have posted this in. My wife and I are new home owners dealing with a bit of a plumbing saga, and trying to figure out whether the people who sold us the home ought to be held responsible in some way for what we're dealing with. Here are the details:
We moved into a ninety year old home in Washington, DC about nine months ago, before which it went through a significant remodel. About a month ago we found sewage backing up into our storm catch basin, which until then had appeared to be draining normally. Multiple plumbers came out to look at the situation, and eventually one discovered what appear to be a series of major mistakes made in the remodel:
The house has two sewer separate sewer lines (apparently pretty rare?). All of the pre-remodel plumbing fixtures are on one line (and are functioning correctly), and before the remodel, the other only had the storm basin on it. In the remodel, a first floor half bathroom was added, and the washer and dryer were moved. Both of these are attached to the second sewer line, which had previously only been for storm water.
The storm water line has an incorrectly installed backflow valve that is now failing on it. Waste water from the half bathroom and washing machine hits the backflow valve and gets pushed back into the basin. So, we can't use that bathroom or do laundry. The backflow valve is 30 inches under the basement floor, accessible only via a 6 inch wide shaft, the walls of which do not extend all the way to the cap of the valve. The result is that it is caked in dirt, and essentially impossible to service without breaking the concrete.
Our plumber asserts that a lot of this isn't up to code. And looking at the plans for the remodel, it seems that the work done does not line up with what was proposed. I'm no expert at reading these sorts of plans, so I've attached the basement plumbing diagram included in the full remodel plans. It seems to acknowledge the existence of two sewer lines, and to show that the newly added bathroom drains via the same one as the pre-existing basement bathroom (which is not the case).
In order to fix all of this, we'll have to bust up the basement floor, remove the backflow valve, and run the two newest plumbing fixtures to the other sewer line. I'm hoping you all might be able to confirm that I'm reading this diagram right, and get opinions on the culpability of the remodeling plumber. I've spent some time reading through the DC code, but am still trying to sort through it all.
Thanks for the help,
Gennaro