Project Sewer Line

[Eugene]

Son's mid 1940 brick veneer house, is 32' x 32' sq ft on first floor, full walkout basement. Bath drain line is located about 6 feet from the northwest corner. Floor drain in the center of the basement. Kitched drain located about 6 feet from the northeast corner. Sewer exits the house about 4 feet from the northeast corner.

Original clay tile sewer drain broke. Cement saw, jack hammer, shovel, wheel barrow. Basement cement floor is 5 to 6 inches thick. Son started where the bath drain enters the basement floor cement. Followed the clay tile a bit, but the clay tile headed to the floor drain in the center of the basement.

Son cut cement and dug out new drain path from the bath drain to the house exit, northeast corner. The trench is 2 feet deep at the bath drain and about 3 feet deep where the sewer line exits the house and meets the line going to the septic tank, and 2 feet wide.

Digging out the new sewer line son ran across the kitchen drain line. Kitchen drain line runs from the northeast corner to the drain in the center of the basement floor.

Might as well while we are at it. Half bath in basement. New drain in center of basement floor with cement slightly sloping toward the drain. Kitchen drain under sink moved one floor joist to the west and line runs straight down into the main sewer line. Cistern sump pump drain line moved to tie into main sewer line.

[Peter Person]

Eugene,
I’m tired just reading this. That’s a lot of work!
Original builder didn’t make it easy for you.

[Eugene]

Eugene,
I’m tired just reading this. That’s a lot of work!
Original builder didn’t make it easy for you.

Tomorrow we will move the cement mixer to son's house, then pour from outside up to the basement door. That way we can seal up the opening under the walk out door.

Son started on another project before the sewer backed up again. Concrete steps to back porch were tipping away from house. Steps are about 3 1/2' wide and about 4 1/2' high. Son also wanted to remove a cement walk the same width as the steps and about 10 feet long.

Have in the past poured a lot of walks and a few hollow cement steps. Told son we would break them up with the jack hammer and haul off the cement with the skid steer.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Turned out the steps are made with stream gravel, reinforcing rod, and were solid concrete. The walk is 8" thick, same concrete.

Our jack hammer was to small to make much headway. Tried hammer drilling but the stream gravel is harder than the drill bits. Bought a much larger hammer drill to drill into the concrete and then filled the holes with expansion material to break it up. The expansion material works pretty well.

Still have about 1/4th of the steps to remove and about 5 feet of the sidewalk, - - after the sewer line is completed.

[Jim Becker]

. . . The expansion material works pretty well. . .

TNT?

[Eugene]

. . . The expansion material works pretty well. . .

TNT?

Nope. I just couldn't recall the name of the product when I wrote the piece.

https://www.amazon.com/Dexpan-Demolitio ... 4933&psc=1

[outdoors4evr]

Your project sounds like a huge undertaking! You guys really are going the distance!

I hadn't heard of such a product before. That looks like a workable solution to one of my giant rock problems.

[mcwinter]

And I thought I was sore from walking a golf course watching my niece play. Now I feel much better.

[Eugene]

There are other products similar to Dexpan. Lessons learned. Don't drill all the way thru the cement/object/rock. If you do the product expands out both ends of the hole.

This morning I told the dentish about the project. She, the dentist, said that was going to be an expensive project. Told her not so since we have all of the equipment and tools for the task. The major expense, if we hired it out would be the labor cost. Guess, around $1000- for materials.

[Eugene]

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Turned out the steps are made with stream gravel, reinforcing rod, and were solid concrete. The walk is 8" thick, same concrete.

Still working on removing the sidewalk. Turns out that the west end of the sidewalk is about 8" thick. The concrete is about 14" thick near half the length. Don't know how thick the concrete will be when we get to the east end of the walk.

Used wedges and feathers to break up the concrete we have removed. Back to Dexpan to break up the concrete because the wedges and feathers that we have aren't large and long enough break the concret all the way through.

Yesterday, talking with son's neighbor, explaining what we were doing, and the "V" shaped configuration of the sewer line. Neighbor said that his sewer line was laid out in the same "V" shape. And that his kitchen drain continuously plugged up until he replaced and relocated it.

The sewer lines for both son's and neighbor's house exit to a common "box" then to a lagoon. Guessing the sewer systems for both houses were installed at the same time by the same plumber.

[Eugene]

Have all of the sewer line layed and the basement toilet and lavatory line in place, most of the floor cemented. Tomorrow we should have all of the sewer line floor cemented. Monday will reinstall the wood burning furnace. Next will be plumbing in the toilet and lavatory. That will take care of the indoor big work.

Premix cement cost will be a bit under $200. Toilet and lavatory around $250-. Plumbing supplies on hand - no out of pocket cost. Edit: Add about $200- for the sewer pipe.

We have been trading labor for dollars. Hauling about 1/3 yard broken up cement to the acreage and dumping in a ditch. Then hauling back about 1/5 yard of sand/small gravel mix back to the house. Using the sand and gravel mix under and around the plastic sewer line, then topping with the clay soil, tamping down. Mixing 160 lbs premix concrete, wheel barrowing to sewer line trench, more concrete, wheel barrowing, screeding, troweling.

Weather is turning crappy. Don't know if we will get the sidewalk and steps removed from the north side of the house before really nasty weather. The sidewalk is around 2 feet thick, yup 2 feet thick, on the east end with a portion of the steps to remove. So, plan on taking the skid steer back to the acreage shop when the ground either dries or freezes up. Work on breaking up the concrete during decent weather.