Shower waste pump? Dilemma ???

[vivimimi]

Hi MNers - our building works have progressed a bit and now we are at the stage of installing the bathrooms.

Pls see the floor plan attached.

Problem
You will notice that we have moved the bathroom from back to front, and converting the old bathroom into a bedroom. In doing that, I'm facing a big issue with the shower tray. Due to the location of the soil pipe outside, my builders are saying we have to raise the shower tray by 30/35 cm () to get the appropriate fall for the waste. Its looking so UGLY . They will connect the shower waste pipe to the toilet soil pipe. But they need to raise the shower tray to get the appropriate level for gravity to work.
Whereas I wanted to have a lower profile or flush shower tray with the floor.

Solution on the cards
My builders are suggesting to go for Shower waste pump as a solution. They will also make a maintenance hatch to reach the pump from the room downstairs (which is a box room).

Im worried. Im noticing mixed reviews about Shower waste pumps on internet. Is this going to cause problems (smell, clogging) for us, given that this is our main bathroom that we will frequently use.

Im exploring few shower waste/ macerators pumps - Saniflo, Flo-force. Any suggestions for good ones.

Alternatives explored

1. I have explored whether its possible to run the shower waste from outside. The drop that is required will not be possible to hide under the tiles. Then we have risk of freezing.

2. nothing else

MNers - pls help ??? pls suggest any solution.

distance of the main soil pipe (red dot in pic) from the ensuite shower is roughly 6m. the recommended fall is 20mm per meter I think.

in your picture, is the front of the house (facing the road) on the left or the right?

the main sewer is usually under the road.

the soil pipe at the side of the house usually runs underground at the side of the house towards the seer in the road, and there is usually at least one manhole somewhere on the property (though it might have been paved over by some idiot).

It sounds to me like your bathroom fitters are not experienced in the use of a spade.

A picture of the side and the front of the house would also be useful, from roof to ground, and showing the soil pipe and any other drainage pipes.

the only good macerator is a dead macerator.

@PigletJohn you are correct my bathroom fitters need some class. pls see the side of the house.

• the front of the house is road facing
• the sewer and the manhole is at the rear of the house

pic1 - construction site is our house, see the neighbour house. our diff is the front is bathroom and back is bedroom.

pic2 - found another house on nearby road who have done similar, i need to find out how they have taken the toilet soil pipe from outside and connected to the main soil pipe at the back. When i zoom in I cannot see completely, may be then have concealed under the tiles of the front entrance.

The house looks to me like 1930's. looking at the other house, I think it possible that it has Combined Sewerage, and a pipe runs along the side oh the house, and both the new soil pipe, and the old rainwater downpipe, may connect to it.

A common sewer at the back of the house is more common in terraced houses, and goes forward to the road at the front between terraces. But in some districts there is, or was, a back lane, with the common sewer running under it.

have a look for any signs of drains and manholes at the sides of any other houses in the road. Sometimes you can find a large-scale OS map showing as-planned positions of drains, or it may be on the Land Registry plans, which you can download online for yours and your neighbors houses.

Stick your head down the manhole and see which direction the pipes, and the flow, go. if you have a gulley from the front downpipe, throw buckets of water down it and see if they run through the pit.

p.s.

you could also run a vertical soilpipe down the outside wall of your bathroom, then diagonally to connect to the old soilpipe, lower down. This is not considered very elegant.

@PigletJohn

p.s.

you could also run a vertical soilpipe down the outside wall of your bathroom, then diagonally to connect to the old soilpipe, lower down. This is not considered very elegant.

Possibly more elegant than cleaning out a macerator though?

I have a shower waste pump in a ground floor disabled bathroom.
It was the only choice we had as the waste is on the same level.
It is ok. The pump is behind a false panel behind the shower unit and the electrics are in the airing cupboard behind it.
It doesn’t smell or clog but I do clean out the trap every week. The shower is not used by the whole household thought and is for the sole use of the disabled person it was put in for.
It wasn’t cheap. I think the whole thing fitted came to about£1k

@PigletJohn thank u for the useful inputs.

1. see the drainage map, the public foul sewer is at the back garden, the manhole is inside the attached garage, the neighbours sewer are all connected.

2. ur suggestion to drop another soilpipe is good, however our main door is on the side hence to run another diagonal may not be possible. I have drawn an alternative in pic2. Will that work?

3. im against any macerator or waste pump.

@PigletJohn on second thoughts the only way the diagonal could work is if I dig under the driveway and then run diagonal under that. That will require excavation of the current driveway and more work i suppose.

I see from your map that the houses do not have combined drainage

your pic2 diagonal looks OK to me.

If you wanted to dig, you could go vertically from the bathroom then extend in the ground to join up with the underground pipe from the old bathroom. It is quite likely the old pipe will be cracked and broken at the first elbow so digging it up will do nothing but good. look for broken or sunken paving or ground around the old soil pipe, or wild tomato plants.

Im not in favour of digging, the drive is fairly new.
I have drawn another alt as attached. Short vertical drop and then a diagonal. The diagonal can be concealed by a box enclosure easily.

I don't think the short drop is necessary? unless it is to blend in with the tiling? You can paint the pipes to match the wall.

It needs a "stench pipe" extending your vertical up above window level.

@PigletJohn thank you so much. Yes for sure the stench pipe must be fitted. This will for sure bring down the rise of the shower tray.
Thanks a lot for this guidance.