I'm thinking about installing a toilet in my basement and from reading online, it seems the first thing I'll need to do is determine whether I can install a conventional toilet or if I'll require an up-flush system. I'm trying to get a sense of what my options are and what each would require so that I can determine what I can do myself and what I'll need to hire out.

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h151/grae313/IMAG0533.jpg
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h151/grae313/IMAG0530.jpg

This is the drain coming down from the only bathroom on the first floor. Is that flange on the side a place where I could connect a toilet? Clearly I would have to build something so the toilet would sit above the level of the flange but that seems relatively simple compared to hacking out cement and redoing piping.

I know venting is very important. There is a second pipe in my basement that looks sewer-related:

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h151/grae313/IMAG0536.jpg

The pipe leads on the left to the outside of the house where there appear to just be a perforated cap at the exterior wall, so I assumed this to be a ventilation pipe. To the right of the pipe where it goes into the cement floor is this:

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h151/grae313/IMAG0537.jpg

There is also a drain in the floor in another room in the basement, but my guess is that this is just a storm drain and doesn't go into the septic system:

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h151/grae313/IMAG0538.jpg

So what am I looking at here and what are my options? Your help is greatly appreciated!

Well I will offer this for your consideration.

7 years ago while we were living in Kentucky we had an upjohn installed in our basement.

We never had a problem in the two remaining years that we lived there.

It was terrific!

Where would the upjohn connect to the existing system? Is an upflush system required? It was my understanding that if the sewer system is below the floor level in the basement then a gravity drained fixture is required by code.

In our situation, the septic drain was above so in order to have a bathroom, we had to have an upjohn installed.

Hi Grae...

No doubt you can chop the floor up and install a gravity drainage system which is always preferred as you don't need pumps or replacement pumps or for that matter electricity to operate your bathroom.

That being said, if you absolutely dread the idea of breaking out concrete then you do have options. Here, take a few minutes and search out sewage ejectors (Zoeller Corporation (http://www.zoeller.com)) and macerator pumps (www.saniflo.com) on our site at the search bar... lots of information here on these systems.

Finally, as Donf said, his drain pipe was above the floor. He had no choice but to install the upflush system. If you can, invest a little hard labor now and the payback will be multi-fold... I promise!

You can always hire local laborers out of a local temporary employment agency to break up the floor/dig... I have great luck with these places and the workers come fully insured... ;)

Care to discuss more? Let us know...

Mark

Thanks for all the help so far!

OK, so digging up a bit of cement is certainly an option, but would it also be possible to place the toilet on a platform such that it connected to the soil stack at the cleanout flange shown in the picture?

As far as I understand it, it seems like the only advantage of a macerating type toilet in my case is that I could connect it to the soil stack via the cleanout flange without having to build a platform to raise the toilet to be higher than the flange. I feel like placing the toilet on a platform would be less expensive than chopping the concrete or a saniflow, and would also be longer lasting and more reliable than a saniflow. Am I right or wrong?

Obvious this is an older house that has been retrofitted with a PVC DWV. Before I did anything, I'd remove the screwed in plug-picture#4- and see if that is sanitary sewer connected. If so, you may be able to squeeze in a 10" setback toilet

Pardon the dumb question, but how does one tell if it's connected to the sanitary sewer? :)

Take off the cap and flush the toilet. If you see or hear water running, it's the sewer line. Not sure what the pipe next to it is . You don't normally have a storm drain in the basement.