What is this in my yard? Why would it have been installed?

December 23, 2020 10:40 PM

This looks like some sort of sump pump. I recently moved into a single-story duplex with individual laundry rooms. The washers in both rooms drain into this device. As you see, it is at ground level in the back of the unit, with an electric line feeding into it. The pipes come from the separate washers. Why aren't the drain from the washers tied into the rest of the sewage lines?

Background: This is a 30 yr old flat with normal separate city utility services for each unit, but both washers feed into this device. I think one laundry room is more recent than the other, and there may have been a 'shared laundry' arrangement earlier. The landlord and fellow tenant haven't said much about that as of now. The flat is near hilly open space & is on rocky soil & maybe near the end of utility lines.
Could this be some 'after the fact' hack to prevent a bunch of diggingwhen the new laundry room was made?


Bonus: this is in front of the house, in the planter bed. Looks like a vent cap. What's up with this? and btw it looks like the water service comes into the front of the house.

Thanks, have a happy healthy holiday!

posted by TDIpod to Home & Garden (4 answers total)

It looks a lot like a gray water drain field. Some examples here. Not sure what the electric connections are for, however. There could be some kind of a sump pump to pump the water somewhere if it exceeds a certain level, but usually in a gray water drain situation you avoid any kind of a pump at all costs.
posted by flug at 12:06 AM on December 24, 2020

This could be pumping gray water to a dispersal well. I have a similar setup for the drainage under my house. The pump empties to a perforated sump filled with rocks, to drain into the surrounding earth.
posted by ivanthenotsoterrible at 4:00 AM on December 24, 2020

Maybe there's bylaws for grey water/brown water waste capacity? If there's limited local sewer capacity and the possibility of a flash of grey water, the last thing you want is a basement full of shit.
posted by scruss at 6:59 AM on December 24, 2020

Are you sure it’s not tied in to the rest of the sewer line underground, out of sight?
posted by slateyness at 8:09 AM on December 24, 2020