Routing laundry drain to kitchen drain possible?

[orangetrader]

My laundry drain has a problem, after reviewing the line with video cam they discovered the drain line broke before the line ties into the main line. This caused sand to be pulled into the line when I do laundry and eventually clogs the line every once so often.

Solution offered by plumber is to repair the pipe. This pipe sits below the monolithic 8" concrete slab at about 6 feet from the edge of the house. They can tunnel under from the side and that will be like $4000, but according to my plans the slab is sitting on a footing that is another 2 feet deep, so they have to dig very very low, and here in Miami, I am 2 miles from the beach the soil is very sandy. I don't know how much they will have to dig and whether this will cause the house to be unstable after this massive digging.

Another option is to break from top, but this line is right at the wall between the garage and kitchen, and kitchen cabinets are in the way. Breaking the concrete from top will mean removing kitchen cabinets, and the floor is tiled there with no replacement tiles. Probably will be a lot of dust as well. This will be $1800.

I don't like either solution. Now the laundry drain is in the garage, along the wall between my kitchen and garage. What I am thinking is, the kitchen sink has a drain, and it is along the exterior wall that is 6 feet from the laundry line. Can I not work a line inside that common interior wall - have to probably cut holes through a few studs, and once it reaches the exterior wall, I can bent the pipe and then lead it to the kitchen drain. There is a garbage disposal there, if I can figure out a way to tie them together, can I not drain through the kitchen sink drain instead?

Is there any major problem with doing this and leave the other line just abandoned?

Should I have to fix it the other ways, I guess none of these can be claimed from Homeowner insurance?

Thanks,

O

[scott_z500]

This is not something covered under your insurance policy. Duh....

The only thing I would be concerned about is backflow coming up your kitchen sink if you do it the way you describe. You really don't want that.

[Speedy Jim]

You *might* get away with it. Depends on the actual size of the kitchen drain in the wall. If it's 2", I'd try it.

As Scott said, you may have backups (sudsy) in the sink. You'll have a better chance of success if you install a small laundry tub in the garage to receive the water, then it will drain (slowly) into the kitchen drain in the wall.

I'm not convinced that this is a DIY project; there may be serious venting issues which will need to be solved when the 2 drains are combined.

Jim

[SQLit]

option 2 dig up the concrete and do it right.

When selling the home you will have to disclose this and it could have the buyer back out. I would.

[orangetrader]

I cannot do a laundry sink. A laundry sink will result in a lower elevation than the kitchen sink, so there is no way I will be able to run a length of pipe about 6' long and still be able to tie into the kitchen drain at a higher elevation.

I understand that there might be back flow, but I saw a lot of dish washer has tie-ins to the kitchen drain or even garbage disposal, wouldn't that have the same problem? yet I have seen it done all the time.

O

[orangetrader]

But that will mean redo the kitchen! The place to dig is where I have cabinets, so that has to be ripped up. Kitchen is open style that opens to living dinning and hallway with uniform tiles and not a single spare available and I have looked around the area and found no close matches. So this means beyond the repair I have to redo the base cabinets and at least re-tile the entire kitchen area.

What equipment will one use to open a hole in a 8" deep RC slab? Will it be a jack-hammer? So may be the countertop needs to be moved too to make room to work?

I am having a nightmare.

O

[BobK207]

OT-

Never used this process or service but maybe it will work in your situation.

Seems like it would be worth a try rather than all that demo & digging

cheers Bob

[Speedy Jim]

Actually, you want to tie into the drain *after* the sink trap. That would mean *lower* than the trap outlet. And it would all be inside the wall.

The washer dumps a *huge* amount of water all at once. The drain has to be big enough to handle that without backup. As I said before, if the drain (in the wall) for the sink is 2" it *should* work to add the washer. But there are venting issues and (locally) the connection may not be permitted.

You're in uncharted waters here and I think you need some competent advice from someone local who can look at it.

Jim

[Anonymous]

Your washer-water is "gray-water"

In many areas it doesn't have to go into the sewer.

You could dig a hole in the yard, ( french drain ) fill it with rocks, and route the washer water there.

( unless you have long cold winters )

[orangetrader]

Jim:

Thanks for the comment. Yes there is a danger of backing up, but I don't think someone local can help either. I mean there is not additional information to be had if a local plumber or drain expert were to come out to the property. The kitchen sink is located against an exterior wall, and all I can see below the kitchen sink are the bottom of a double sink. The left side drains into a garbage disposal, then a trap and then ties into the right side drain, then a p-trap that connects into the wall. Behind the wall, and inside the CBS wall, is the drain down and I have no idea of the drain size there. I know there is a vent that goes straight up through the roof and the vent size is 3" in diameter.

So unless someone opens up the concrete block wall to see the drain size, there is nothing else that could help in formulating this decision, or is there? One thing I do know, the kitchen sink tie in is at the downstream most point to the street sewer. All other tie-ins are upstream of it. So I guess venting wise if a vaccum is created, it could cause upstream toilets to bubble? But the existing laundry line tie in used to be just upstream of the kitchen tie in, but that line had a crack in it, which is the cause of this whole thread.

The crack, as seen from those sewer line video cam, highly magnified, looks like two pipes that used to connect together, sort of bust open a bit. Downstream from it where it ties into the main line, around the bent, was a pile of sand. Which we deduced was caused by the laundry discharge pulling the sand in through the crack and down the line. We had to use a pipe with reverse spray to comb some of it out to the main sewer. I wonder, if I can reduce the flow rate of the water down that original line, will that help not pull sand in? May be just put a laundry tub and discharge the washer into the tub, and let the tub drain slowly down that line so as to not rush too much water in at once? Not sure if this will work or not. Just thinking out loud.

O

[Lillian Riddle]

[eckhard4]

I would like to know about how much do they charge for that type of service.

thank you