Sump Pump Direct Connect to Storm Sewer

[k75s57]

City installed a new storm sewer tee on house side of the sidewalk for sump pump hookup. It is ~ 46' of lawn between the new storm sewer tee and the house sump pump outlet. Where I also have 2 gutter downspouts. Yard naturally slopes towards the sidewalk. I will contact the utility marking company but do not expect any issue based on previous utility markings for that area of the yard. Code requires 4" SDR 26 pipe with SDR 35 gasket fittings, minimum 1% slope, pipe to be 18" below finished grade on top of 4" ca-11 stone bedding, rubber boot with steel bands for final connection into the storm sewer tee at the sidewalk, and 4" air gap at sump pump outlet. Previously the sump pump outlet was connected to about 8’ of flexible corrugated irrigation hose that laid exposed on top of the garden bed pointing towards the sidewalk.

Any tips on doing a self install? If I hire what should I look for in the hiring process? What would be a reasonable cost?

 

[Reach4]

From the yard point of view, it is best if the topsoil is kept separate from clay. Do not allow clay to be but back into the upper several inches. Or discard clay, and add topsoil. Do not buy "black dirt".

Store the segregated soil on tarps.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Jadnashua]

To help ensure no sewer backup will get back into the house, run your stand pipe up near the ceiling with enough room to get your air gap and the elbow to feed down to it. If everything is flat around you, that probably isn't an issue, but if there are hills around, it could be an issue...not likely, but it's easy to prevent in the slim possibility it could happen.

You'll want a trap in the line to prevent sewer gasses from getting back into the house. If your sump pump doesn't run for weeks at a time in say the summer or maybe winter, depending on how much rain you get, you may want to work in a trap primer so that the trap doesn't get dried out when the sump pump doesn't need to run. It would probably take at least a couple of weeks, and likely longer before the trap dried out, but if it gets really dry (low humidity), it could happen faster.

 

[Helper Dave]

We've done a few of these. It's a big job. Unless you have some good help, I dunno that I'd recommend it as a DIY thing.

How far down is the tee? Depending where that is, and the slope of your yard, it could mean the digging requires a mini-excavator over just doing it with shovels. Factor the rental costs in, and these jobs always run into a few thousand dollars, at least. It's a solid day, day-and-a-half job.

And while pitching pipe with gravel is always a little easier, plumbers are way more practiced at it. It's easy to bed the pipe wrong, and screw it all up without having the experience to do it well.

 

[Jadnashua]

An advantage of just using that line for pumping ground water is that you don't normally have to worry about other waste from clogging it up.

Where I live, a homeowner cannot make a direct connection to the utility's sewer line, it has to be done by a licensed plumber. That doesn't mean you couldn't run the line up to that point, but not all pros would be willing to do just that part.