Drainage for Basement Kitchens

Location

• If you're adding a living space in the basement and you're trying to determine the layout, the drainage for the kitchen should be a determining factor in helping you decide where to put the kitchen. Because the rest of the home will likely drain through the basement, you can locate your existing drainage system for the rest of the house and place the kitchen as close to it as possible. This will allow you to tie into the existing drainage system with little to no additional cost or work.

Gravity

• Many basements are slightly sloped to accommodate the need for drainage in the event that there is a flood or that ground water happens to seep into the basement. Aside from tying into the existing drainage system, you should also ensure that wherever you install the kitchen you can take advantage of gravity and allow the water from the kitchen sink and the dishwasher to naturally drain. This means that you will need to locate the drain itself at the lowest point in the basement and ensure that you can run lines from a kitchen space to the lower drain.

Pumps

• Some homes are built in places where gravity cannot be utilized properly for the purpose of pumping water out of the basement. In these homes, some type of discharge pump is used to pump the water up and out of the house to a place where the home's plumbing ties into an outside drainage system. It may be necessary to purchase one of these pumps to ensure that your home is able to properly pump the water out, if you cannot take advantage of natural drainage systems.

Considerations

• When determining where to tie in your kitchen drain to your existing plumbing, take into account the fact that some of the water that will drain into this system may be stale or have noxious odor, especially if any of the upstairs bathrooms tie into this system as well. If your kitchen basement utilizes the floor drain, you may need to regularly clean the drain if food particles and other kitchen waste are drained into this system.