I am finishing my basesment myself and getting someone to help with the plumbing. If is already roughed in and has a white pipe for the toilet, faucet, and shower. Are these connected to the sewer already or are they leading to a tank my cement. I also noticed that there is a soft hollow spot underneath the concrete and there are two white pipe hanging down from the ceiling. One is large and the other is small.

What is the soft spot?
Do I need a pump to pump out the waste?
If I put in a kitchen, do I need a separate pump?

Hi Jligon

By your description it definitely sounds like you need to install a sewage ejector (or macerator pump) system. Here, the two pipes above the "soft spot" in the floor are probably the sewer ejector discharge pipe (should connect to sewer drain above the floor) and the dedicated pump vent (should go through roof by itself, in most cases (there are exceptions here)).

The only way to really tell what is going on will be to chase out the pipes over the soft spot and maybe even open up the floor there... may be an ejector pit already installed, if you are lucky! In this case, you would only need to install a pump (I recommend the zoeller pump... check it out @ Zoeller Corporation (http://www.zoeller.com) ) and run the pipes as per manufacturer instructions. The pump pit will need a cover, for sure... keep sewer gasses out, right?

In terms of a separate pump for the kitchen, that shouldn't be required... sewage ejector will handle everything!

Back to you...

Mark