Posted: 12/20/2007 9:13:23 AM EDT
| Ok, if there is no water nor power supplied to the house, the toilet should still be able to be flushed through city sewers if I fill up the toilet tank, right? I just want to make sure I am not missing something. |
Depends. If you're up high on a gravity system, yes. But if you're down in a bowl somewhere there is usually a lift station with a large pump and a limited place to store sewage. If there is no power for the pumping station, sooner or later it will start to back up. |
| Just pour about 2 gallons right into the bowel. It will look like you just flushed! Save a half gallon to add afterward to bring the water level back to normal. Around here most pumping stations have big backup generators. If you are gravity sewer or have your own septic tank you are good to go. If you have a sewer ejector you might be SOL depending on the level when the power goes out.!!!!! |
along these lines, something good to know is whether you have an anti-backflow valve installed on your sewer line. basically a one way valve btwn your sewer line and the city's. the older homes around here generally do not have them, but all new construction must have them. a while back something happened to the city sewer (city's fault) and filled the basements of some older homes w/ sewage b/c they did not have the anti-backflow valve. although the houses were grandfathered in and not required to retrofit the valve, b/c they didn't add the valve, the city was absolved of responsibility for the crappy (pun intended - sorry) situation. |
| if you have toilets on more than one level of the house as well, you may have a gravity system on top and a lift station for your basement sewage. This is commonly how we installed the basement systems with septic tanks. Then we didn't have to bury the tank 15 feet deep to the top. |
|
Add to that, when one is lucky enough to expect a long power outage, fill the bathtub with water to the top. This give you many flushes. Just add the water from the tub each time. Septic and a Well are really nice when this sorta things happens. City folks keep water pressure for a couple days but can loose sewer Country folks loose water but don't loose septic. With a generator, I can run my well pump to make my own water and gravity takes care of the poop, rather fool proof system. If you add a manual pump handle to the well, you are good to go. |