Our client, a home and ADU owner in San Jose, came to us with a problem. The septic system for her recently built ADU was not draining properly.
The builder she used to add the ADU lacked the proper level of expertise in undergound plumbing, specifically septic systems. The builder had not installed the pipe from the ADU to her main home’s sewer utility line with enough slope.
California allows the sewer line for ADUs to tie into the main home’s existing sewer line but they need to be properly installed. In our client’s case, her ADU was three feet lower than the main home. This meant that the main home sewer line was simply too high to attain the required slope for the sewer line to work properly using gravity to drain.
The solution was to install a sewer pump that would pump the sewage from the ADU into the main home’s sewer line. We installed two new 1 HP pumps with a control panel so that if one pump failed, the other would take over. We also installed a new two-way cleanout in front of the ADU, and new ABS pipe to the septic pumps. Our client now has a functioning sewer system for her ADU.