Sanitize and open the sewage basin, disconnect the old check valve and pull the sewage pump.
This project is continued from Part 1.
How to Replace a Sewage Pump Check Valve
The basement bathroom sewage basin will have to be opened and the sewage pump removed to replace the water hammering sewage check valve. I haven’t opened the sewage basin since I finished the basement bathroom 3 years ago and was uncertain of what I’d find. To minimize odors and bacteria, I poured 1/2 gallon of laundry bleach down the basement toilet and ran the basement shower until the sewage pump had cycled 5 times. I figured 5 pump cycles should be sufficient to purge any nasties from the sewage basin and 12 feet of vertical sewage pipe.
Open the Basement Sewage Basin
The sewage pump electrical cord is unplugged from the wall outlet and the family is alerted not to use the basement bathroom.
Next, the ball stop valve is turned to the OFF position to prevent the 12 feet of waste water in the 2 inch PVC pipe from back flowing when I remove the check valve. This is a combo check valve and ball stop valve.
The PVC Union on the sewage basin air vent pipe running up to the roof vent is unscrewed to pull the vent pipe out of the basin cover:
View of the basement bathroom sewage basin and PVC plumbing for overall context:
The bolts are removed from the two halves of the sewage basin cover. The forward cover section is set aside out of the way. The rear half of the sewage basin cover is wiggled up the PVC pipe to allow room to maneuver the pump and stand pipe. The union nut unscrewed from the bottom of the check valve to separate the lower section of PVC pipe from the check valve. The wastewater in the lower section of PVC pipe will backflow into the sewage basin as the union nut is loosened, breaking the watertight seal allowing air to flow in.
As you can see in the above photo, the union nut is captive between the metal basin cover and the solvent weld union fitting on the 2 inch Schedule 40 PVC pipe. The solvent weld union fitting will have be sawed off.
In this next photo, I’ve sawed the solvent weld fitting off the sewage pump stand pipe. This is a demolition job and the lower ~4 foot section of PVC pipe in the sewage basin will be replaced.
Basement Bathroom: Remove the Sewage Pump
The main sewage basin cover is wiggled off the sewage pump stand pipe and set aside revealing the sewage basin. Ah – breath deep! Actually there was only mild dank odor. The bleach I poured down the toilet and cycling the pump several times appears to have a done the job! While it’s difficult to see in the photos, the 3/4 HP Liberty LE71A sewage pump has done a great a job evacuating the sewage basin and there almost no sediment on the bottom of the pit.
I put on a pair of disposal latex gloves, reached in and removed the 60 lb pump out of the sewage basin:
I was initially concerned by the large patch of blister rust on the sewage pump. I poked the rust with a screw driver in several places and found that it was just a cosmetic surface issue. The heavy cast iron pump body was intact beneath the puffy layers of rust and paint. I chose not to scrape off the rust because I didn’t want to make a mess on the cement floor.
This project is continued in Part 3.
Take care,
Bob Jackson