connect toilet waste pipe to same sewer as gutter down pipe?

[sjws1888]

Hi,

I live in a Victorian terraced house. Bathroom and kitchen are at the back of the house, so waste pipes / drains all at the back of the property.

I have a small room at the front of the house where I'd like to fit a toilet and sink. There is no way for the waste pipe to get from the front to the back of the house so this is only possible if I can add a waste pipe at the front of the building.

Looking at all the houses on the street, the only pipes at the front of the buildings are the down pipes from the roof guttering. If I follow the down pipe from my own guttering where it reaches ground level, it actually goes through a step outside the front door, into the crawl space under the house. I've been into the crawl space and the down pipe (a modern plastic one) connects into a larger diameter cast iron pipe at ground level, which I presume is a victorian one, which goes off under ground.

So my question is - if I get a toilet put in, and have the waste pipe come out the front of the house and down to ground level, does this sound like I could connect it up to this pipe in the crawl space under the house? Are there different types of sewer? Might this connect up to a rain water only sewer for example, so that you wouldn't be allowed to connect a toilet waste pipe to it?

I'm slightly unsure about it - particularly because all the houses on the street are basically the same and I can see that no one else has done this already. The room that I want to put the toilet in is very small (you'd struggle to get a singe bed in there) so adding a 2nd toilet seems like such an obivous use for it, but nobody else seems to have done it.


Any advice much appreciated - just to be clear, I'm not asking about the possibility of fitting in the actual toilet and waste pipe - I'm asking about whether there are different types of sewers, or whether it is OK to connect a toilet waste to any available sewer


Cheers

 

[thompo]

Looked into this as we have a septic tank and were looking to connect to a main sewer. From my basic understanding it depends on the type of sewer that you are connected to.

More modern set up is to have a separate surface water sewer that take rain water etc away to streams or other run offs and a Foul water sewer that takes toilet waste etc, (no rain water) directly to treatment plants.

Older setup is a mixed sewer that take both surface and foul water to a treatment plant.

If your roof guttering is connected to a mixed sewer you may be able to connect a toilet but would have to change the pipe to a suitable size and probably have to check with your utility provider for permission and spec.

Im definately no expert, this is just what i could remember from looking into it. As it turns out there is still no mains sewage near our house so didnt look any further.

Probably best to call your utility provider and ask

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

Victorian sewers were often 'combined' i.e. foul and surface (rain) water drains into the same sewer and finds it way to be the works to be treated. Before making any new connection (which would need Building Regs Approval anyway), you'd need to ascertain if the pipe in question goes to a combined sewer.

Usual practice would be to use a drain testing dye and see if it appears in the foul sewer. If not, then idea maybe a non starter unless you can get another connection to the sewer somehow.