Hidden catch basin

[SEWERRAT66]

had a customer call me out last friday for a sinkhole in the back yard.stopped out and after a little probing found out that a catch basin was capped off with a plywood cover and buried almost 2 feet down.the problem was that the down spouts and main sink line was still hooked up. today we went back out and built up the basin to ground level and cleaned it out.

[Ace Sewer]

Re: Hidden catch basin

At least you found it without falling in.

'Main sink line was still hooked up'....

What's a main sink line? For sinks in the house? Would be illegal here?

[SEWERRAT66]

Re: Hidden catch basin

the main sink line is the kitchen sinks and the basement laundry tub running under the basement floor and out to the basin.this was in a six unit condo building in chicago.

[Ace Sewer]

Re: Hidden catch basin

So, that's what I know as a drywell? It just leaches out into the dirt from there? Or is it like a sand/oil trap, with an outlet to san sewer?

Shouldn't that water go to the san sewer? Is that just how it was done back in the day, and they grandfather it?

[SEWERRAT66]

Re: Hidden catch basin

it ties right back into the sanitary sewer. it traps the grease and lets the water flow out .the amazing thing is that it was covered for over 25 years and it didnt need to be cleaned. the youngest person in the building was 75 yrs old, so not to much grease going down the drains.

[SewerRatz]

Re: Hidden catch basin

I ran into one like that in Wheaton. I discounted it since half the bricks fell into the basin. The down spouts where splashed years ago just tied the inlet to the outlet with a clean out and backfilled with grade 8 gravel. It was probably one of the last ones in Wheaton. Chicago they are still common and required for anything over a 3 family residence. My father used to make a good living knocking on doors in Chicago cleaning grease traps, and finding the occasional one that needed to be relined.

[Ace Sewer]

Re: Hidden catch basin

I understand now that it's just basically a grease trap... I don't see those here except in restaraunts.

What still strikes me as odd is that the downspouts are run into it as well. Here that would be a major issue. The san districts don't want to treat any more water at the plant than they have to and dumping downspouts to san sewer would get you some big trouble.

I'm involved in an issue with groundwater flooding a condo complex; their building sits low and there is no storm sewer in that street and there is nowhere to daylight their foundation drains. The sewer district guys have been hovering over it making sure they don't dump it into the san line. They are going to have to put in a pit and pump it up to an irrigation ditch IF they can get permission to do that.

[Swade Plumbing]

Re: Hidden catch basin

Ace,

The water reclamation district of Chicago has required downspouts to be splashed to the surface "whenever possible." The problem is that in a city that's as densely populated as Chicago, the houses are so close together and there is so much concrete on the surfaces, that there is often no place for the downspouts to be diverted to. Chicago and most surrounding suburbs are combined storm and sanitary sewers. The downspouts in the catch basins also serve a "wash down" for the basin.

The great thing about residential catch basins in Chicago is that they give you a means of rodding the sewer from the exterior.

[toolaholic]

Re: Hidden catch basin

Ace,

The water reclamation district of Chicago has required downspouts to be splashed to the surface "whenever possible." The problem is that in a city that's as densely populated as Chicago, the houses are so close together and there is so much concrete on the surfaces, that there is often no place for the downspouts to be diverted to. Chicago and most surrounding suburbs are combined storm and sanitary sewers. The downspouts in the catch basins also serve a "wash down" for the basin.

The great thing about residential catch basins in Chicago is that they give you a means of rodding the sewer from the exterior.

same in S.F.