I bought a place where the previous owner had built an illegal gazebo and installed a toilet/sink there. He got caught by the city and there is an existing violation with a running fine which I inherited.

I am going to demolish the gazebo to bring it back into compliance.

Before the city will grant me a permit to demolish the gazebo I must first hire a plumber to "cap off the water and sewer".

The fact is the sewer and water line runs from the gazebo to the corner of the main house, over a distance of about 100 feet, and use a sump pump (which is buried 8' deep underground) to tie in with the existing drain.

I wonder when the city say "do a water and sewer cap" do they mean (1) just remove the toilet and sink, find the locations where the water and sewer connections are at the floor of the gazebo, and cap them there? Or (2) find out where the illegal lines tie in at the existing lines are (which is now buried under the house concrete slab) and cut off the tie in and cap off there?

I would prefer to just cap off where the gazebo is, and abandon the rest of the system, and fill in the pit where the sump pump is. Instead of digging up and turning things upside down.

Any idea which way might the city require? Or is this a subjective thing depending on the individual inspector?

They want them capped at their sources so they cannot just be dug up and reused.

So sorry, sum, but the answer is #2.

OK, if it's the latter, I guess I could cut the pipe at the sump pump pit and cap off there.

I hope they won't require the entire pump container to be dug up and disposed of.

However, I have no idea where they might have tee offed the water supply line. For all I know that spot may be under the concrete slab now. This is going to be a real problem if I have to investigate where the original water line was branched off.

i would not worry about the water line.
put a hose faucet on it with proper backflow protection and water the grass with it.
nothing illegal about that..

Thanks Packy. I am going to have to permit this and find a licensed and insured plumber to do the capping. I hope this works as I haven't hire a plumber for 4 years. Last time it didn't work so good.

I hope the city won't make me jack up 60 feet of concrete deck to trace the line to it's "origin".



Edited 1 times.

quote; I hope the city won't make me jack up 60 feet of concrete deck to trace the line to it's ";origin".

The problem is that once something is done "illegally" they can require almost anything they want to, regardless of any inconvenience or cost to you. They can ever require that buildings be demolished if they were not done 'legally'.

A PHONE CALL TO THE CITY'S PLUMBING INSPECTOR/ OFFICE WOULD ANSWER YOU QUESTION / CONCERNS

I did call the city's plumbing inspector and he confirmed the opinion here - that it needs to be capped at the "source" i.e. within 2 feet from the house.

In any event I did a bit of discovery this morning and I think I found the "source" location. More to follow.