Terminating water softener overflow under the floor

[NWnature]

I was hoping to have a Harvey water softener fitted however when they came to install the plumber has said our waste is too high for the tank overflow to work correctly using gravity. We are terraced so he cannot terminate the overflow through the side and suggested drilling through our utility room floor and terminating into the ground. I was hesitant as we have just finished a full house refurb and this sounded like a bit of a fudge as I had been led to believe by the salesman that this was a super easy install process. Does anyone have any experience of terminating under the floor and any pros / cons? The other option was an electrical compressor pump but it involves finding an electrician and chasing it in. It’s also an additional expense and something else which could go wrong.

He also offhand mentioned we would need to turn it off when we watered our garden- is this easy to do as it wasn’t mentioned by the salesman either,

Annoying as I was so looking forward to reduced limescale!

Everything LittleOverWhelmed says really.

We had our little drinking water tap put into the corner of our utility room sink as the kitchen one was a heck of a long way from the softner unit and all the pipes. It overflows into the utility room sink, but I've actually never seen it overflow.

Its easy to switch off to water the garden - just flick a little red lever under the sink. But, like PP, there will be some salt residue in there anyway. Its never affected my plants or killed anything though.

Hi @LittleOverWhelmed

I foolishly have left it til the end of the refurb as I just had so much going on throughout.

It’s the water company themselves (Harvey) who have come to install rather than our plumber. I could get our builder back but I would prefer the specialist company to fit it so if anything goes wrong its an easier port of call for maintenance and so on.

Harvey’s were intending to fit it in our utility room which is where the stopcock is and put in a drinking tap next to the sink there. We do have an American FF with water and a Qettle tap in the kitchen both with integral filters so the salesman had said softener should go through them. The splashes around the sink are the bane of my life so I was hoping for softened water in the kitchen.

I haven’t paid our final invoice for the builder so I could get them back and explain what I want and see if they have any suggestions or can offer up more info on how they laid all the pipe work.

My fault for not insisting on it being installed during the work but they led me to believe it was a really easy thing post-fit.

From the sounds of your post it would be best to go back to Harvey’s in the first instance and ask them to set out their suggestions. They did seem to sound as though they would make it happen but the drilling through the floor just sounded a bit dodgy to me and I’m not sure I want the hassle of an electric compressor.

Thanks @thenightsky - that is what the plan was for our drinking tap too. Very helpful to know it hasn’t affected your plants from turning it off at source.