Hello everyone,
In the basement of our multi-family house, we have a lifting station for the wastewater from the washing machines.
The pump of the lifting station is plugged into a standard electrical outlet located at the height of a utility sink.
Apparently, some time ago someone unplugged the pump to use the outlet for another purpose without anyone noticing. Because the water was not pumped out, a major water damage occurred, which only became apparent later, as water seeped unnoticed for days or weeks through the masonry into the entire basement floor.
Considering all the regulations in the construction sector, I find it hard to believe that such an installation is permissible, where a pump is simply plugged into a standard socket and there is no protection or warning system in case of unplugging or malfunction.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any information on this. Can you help me?
In the basement of our multi-family house, we have a lifting station for the wastewater from the washing machines.
The pump of the lifting station is plugged into a standard electrical outlet located at the height of a utility sink.
Apparently, some time ago someone unplugged the pump to use the outlet for another purpose without anyone noticing. Because the water was not pumped out, a major water damage occurred, which only became apparent later, as water seeped unnoticed for days or weeks through the masonry into the entire basement floor.
Considering all the regulations in the construction sector, I find it hard to believe that such an installation is permissible, where a pump is simply plugged into a standard socket and there is no protection or warning system in case of unplugging or malfunction.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any information on this. Can you help me?
Andii87 schrieb:
Considering all the regulations in the housebuilding sector, I honestly can’t imagine that an installation like this would be allowed, where a pump is plugged into a standard electrical outlet and there is no protection or warning from the system if it is unplugged or fails. Why not? What are you imagining? A pumping system secured inside a safe? A lock for the outlet powering the pump? An alarm button in case of tampering?
Andii87 schrieb:
Apparently, someone unplugged the pump from the outlet some time ago. That would be considered gross negligence, but it could also be covered by insurance.
We had a similar case ourselves: a pump was unintentionally and unnoticed unplugged over several years due to constant movement. The resulting water damage in the townhouse was covered by the home insurance.
In this case, the responsibility falls (only) on the property manager or homeowner. They should have insurance coverage.
And regarding the question: the outlet height is standard.
ypg schrieb:
Why not? What do you have in mind? A lifting station secured inside a safe? A security lock on the lifting station’s outlet? An alarm button for unauthorized access? Just a simple warning for a built-in rechargeable battery/battery, like the ones in smoke detectors that cost just a few dollars, which beep when they lose power or the battery is running low 😀
What also surprises me: The water damage wasn’t caused by the shaft overflowing. Instead, water migrated from the shaft into the masonry and screed without any visible water in the basement. That’s why I’m wondering if the shaft was properly sealed. Honestly, I’m not clear on the path the water is supposed to have taken.
There are also several interesting technical setups that can cause your basement to flood. For example, we have a Judo water softening system in the basement. It flushes occasionally and opens the water circuit when it does so. If the power goes out at that moment, it keeps flushing until you end up with a swimming pool in the basement. If we had known this beforehand, we would have chosen a system one level higher, which would have included a safeguard device. We have now added this manually.
Snowy36 schrieb:
If the power goes out at that moment, it keeps flushing until you have a swimming pool in the basement. Are you sure there was no fault in the system? The flushing water from the system normally drains away, since it is wastewater, after all. Even if the brine tank is filling and the diaphragm valve stays closed due to the power outage: the brine container also has an overflow to the wastewater connection.
Snowy36 schrieb:
If we had known that beforehand, we would have chosen a higher-level system where such a protector would have been installed. We have now retrofitted it manually. And how does it work without power?
It all sounds rather strange...
MayrCh schrieb:
Even if the brine tank is filled and the diaphragm valve stops working due to a power failure: the brine container also has an overflow to the wastewater connection.I need to add a clarification here. In split systems, like those offered by Judo among others, this wastewater overflow does not always exist due to the design. So during brine tank filling in a power outage, it is indeed possible for brine to overflow.Similar topics