One of my residential renovation projects has high groundwater table, and we need design a sub-slab groundwater collection system with a sump pump. Since this town doesn't allow increasing storm water discharge into the city's sewer system, we may need install a dry well in the front yard.
My question is this design falls into which engineers' service scope. I reached out to two cilvil engineers. They both told me they only deal with site drainage system which is out of the footprint of a house. Does this belong to plumbing engineer's work?
Non Sequitur
Jul 2, 19 11:06 pm
A plumbing engineer? You must be referring to mechanical... and if that's the case, then no, they won't know what to do.
We've typically reached out to joint civil/geo specialist consultants that offer hydro-geological services. You're likely going to need a pump running 24/7 to keep water from pushing up through the slab. No an easy thing and not cheap either. Hopefully you're budget this in your project cost estimates or else the client will be pissed.
bowling_ball
Jul 2, 19 11:28 pm
It might not need to be that robust or complex, but we deal with this regularly. Typically the civil engineer, based on the geotechnical report, tells us what the volume of water is, and the mechanical engineer designs a sump system around that. What happens to the water after it leaves the sump pit, is another matter (usually expensive).
Non Sequitur
Jul 3, 19 5:55 am
Likely correct. I jumped to a commercial conclusion.
Appleseed
Jul 3, 19 4:16 pm
Are they requiring something like stormwater management report for permitting? Weird that Civil would brush it off like that - dealing w/ and designing around rainwater and subsurface hydro conditions, whether within the bldg. footprint, or beyond - is absolutely within their normal scope (IME, and regardless of being Res. or Com.). If the AHJ is allowing for presumptive / simplified designs re: the water-table issue, then I wouldn't even think a Mech. eng. would be nec.? Just spec'ing something off of mfg. guidelines, no? Design / Build per local M/E/P codes from there...
whistler
Jan 6, 22 3:04 pm
I would start with the geotechnical engineer and you may need a Civil Engineer if there is a need for something more robust and involves connections to a Municipal system.
One of my residential renovation projects has high groundwater table, and we need design a sub-slab groundwater collection system with a sump pump. Since this town doesn't allow increasing storm water discharge into the city's sewer system, we may need install a dry well in the front yard.
My question is this design falls into which engineers' service scope. I reached out to two cilvil engineers. They both told me they only deal with site drainage system which is out of the footprint of a house. Does this belong to plumbing engineer's work?
A plumbing engineer? You must be referring to mechanical... and if that's the case, then no, they won't know what to do.
We've typically reached out to joint civil/geo specialist consultants that offer hydro-geological services. You're likely going to need a pump running 24/7 to keep water from pushing up through the slab. No an easy thing and not cheap either. Hopefully you're budget this in your project cost estimates or else the client will be pissed.
It might not need to be that robust or complex, but we deal with this regularly. Typically the civil engineer, based on the geotechnical report, tells us what the volume of water is, and the mechanical engineer designs a sump system around that. What happens to the water after it leaves the sump pit, is another matter (usually expensive).
Likely correct. I jumped to a commercial conclusion.
Are they requiring something like stormwater management report for permitting? Weird that Civil would brush it off like that - dealing w/ and designing around rainwater and subsurface hydro conditions, whether within the bldg. footprint, or beyond - is absolutely within their normal scope (IME, and regardless of being Res. or Com.). If the AHJ is allowing for presumptive / simplified designs re: the water-table issue, then I wouldn't even think a Mech. eng. would be nec.? Just spec'ing something off of mfg. guidelines, no? Design / Build per local M/E/P codes from there...
I would start with the geotechnical engineer and you may need a Civil Engineer if there is a need for something more robust and involves connections to a Municipal system.