Plumbing - no sewer nearby for sink

[GigaNews]

We've moved into a subsection of a large commerical building with a concrete slab and no basement. We want to install a sink, but there is no obvious sewer nearby to connect with. Usually buildings like this have drains all over the place, but this one appears to have very few. The closest floor drain is 100' feet away. Maybe the others are buried in the concrete, but we don't know and the landlord has no blue-prints.

There is a sink in the warehouse about 50' away and it has been suggested that we drain into a 5 gallon pail and use a sump pump to pump the wastewater over to the warehouse sink. I've seen this done before and the pail water can be very rank. Is a sump pump arrangment like this code?

What other options are there? Is there a way to discover sewer lines buried in the slab?

Thanks, Tom

[Speedy Jim]

Don't use a bucket; there is a commonly-used sump (enclosed) just for this purpose. There are others, but start here:

You may have to provide a vent for the sump. Assuming that running a vent pipe to outdoors is not practical, you may be able to use a mechanical vent. If this town has building inspections, you better check with the inspector.

Jim

[Joe Bobst]

Easily done. Our village has one of the tools. They run a wire down the pipe, hook a tone generator of some kind to it and walk the location with a receiver. In my yard it worked down to a depth of over 8-9' so it ought to see through your concrete readily. Probably a common item with a state of the art plumbing contractor outfit, so call around. You could get lucky.

Joe

[Terry]

I'm not sure if I heard the story right; but ............ They attached a very strong magnet firmly to the end of a steel snake and pushed it down the drain. The magnet was strong enough to be sensed by either a hand compass or a 'dip meter' (I'm not sure which) through AFIK several inches of concrete. I understand that they were able to 'follow' the magnet location through the floor as it moved down the pipe. A sophisticated contractor or perhaps a technically oriented surveyor might be a good bet. And/or a university/technical college might be able to lend you a magnetic dip meter. Probably other ways to it but thought I'd mention it. Terry.