To those of you who have basements with water heaters, bathrooms, or other plumbing that requires a drain:
How deep is your main sewer line buried? It seems to me that if your basement is 8' deep then your drain line will be even deeper yet. Do people in areas with basements really dig down 10+ feet routinely to install sewer lines?
This is easily handled with an ejector pump. It is basically a system consisting of a ~20 gallon plastic container, with a lid that seals, and a float activated sump pump. The drain lines enter just below grade, so you will have to cut some of your basement slab. The top of the plastic container is about flush with the basement slab. The vertical outflow pipe can easily pump up 8 to 10 feet and contains a check valve.
-al sung Rapid Realm Technology, Inc. Hopkinton, MA
Picking up on what someone pointed put, an "8 foot" basement isn't usually 8 feet clear, and the 7 feet or so that it is, 2 to 3 feet are often above ground. In the northern climates where basements are most common, to be "below frost" the pipes could need to be 4 or 5 (or more) feet down anyway, so its not a lot more you're talking about.
The house I grew up in, had the plumbing lines under the concrete floor in the basement. The house was on a pretty significant mound compared to the street. By the time the pipes actually got to the street, they could have been quite shallow.
The townhouse I used to own, yup, basement apartment, full plumbing under the slab, this "basement" was half above grade (that's why we could have an apartment down there).
The house I lived in with my ex, had sink and washer in the basement, the main sewer pipe ran above the floor. A toilet tub or shower would have needed to be either raised (you see "thrones" like this sometimes when toilets are added) or used a pump.
The house I live in now, the house drain goes out several feet above the floor, if we wanted any sinks etc. down there we would need to pump up.
What controls is where the pipe is in the street. If deep enough, you can more easily have plumbing in the bsmt. Remember which is tail and which is dog here.
-v.
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