must sewer lines be buried? Florida

[toronto070]

Hi All, long time reader of these forums (thanks for all of the knowledge shared!) first time poster.

**Update** I contacted the city's chief plubming inspector and he confirmed that code does not require burial and that suspension of the lines was allowed**.

A 12-unit 2-storey building that I own a unit in is having sewer gas issues and there is standing water (and other stuff!) in large sections of the buried horizontal runs of sewer pipe. We are looking at replacing part or all of the cast iron. Trenching to dig out the existing pipes and replace with PVC would be very unpleasant / labour intensive work. My code question is, does code require the horizontal runs of sewer pipe to be buried, or can they be hung from the floor joists and sloped toward the connection to the city line?

If hanging of the PVC sewer lines is permitted, and we can forego massive amounts of digging, I'm hoping that we could replace all of the cast iron for not too much more proportionately that a small run alone. The building manager is saying that he spoke with a licensed plumber who says that code requires the lines to be buried (though the plumber can not provide any reference to the section requiring this.......). Can anyone please confirm what is required by code (burial?) and reference the relevant sections?

Thanks!

 

[Jeff H Young]

Almost never are lines buried under a house with crawl space they very typicaly are hung from the framing.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[GReynolds929]

You need to specify what your talking about. It sounds like you're wanting to replace the building drains, which is all drains located inside the building envelope and part of the main extending approximately 2' past the foundation. Most sewer lines are buried as they are the drain that connects the building drain to the city sewer. Both connections are generally underground.
As JeffH said, if you have a crawlspace and the space to maintain grade most of the piping won't need buried until exiting the foundation.

 

[Hefty_Bike3290]

You need to specify what your talking about. It sounds like you're wanting to replace the building drains, which is all drains located inside the building envelope and part of the main extending approximately 2' past the foundation. Most sewer lines are buried as they are the drain that connects the building drain to the city sewer. Both connections are generally underground.
As JeffH said, if you have a crawlspace and the space to maintain grade most of the piping won't need buried until exiting the foundation.

THIS MAKES SENSE. This explanation brings back memories of writing school papers. Whenever I had to write an essay, I'd turn to the https://chatgpt.com/g/g-a0ULgFcuZ-essay-helper service to help me do a good job. Even though my teachers did their best to explain the material, not everyone grasped it. That's why I'd spend my evenings studying on my own.

 

[toronto070]

There is a crawl space under the building. As I updated in my question, I contacted the city's chief plumbing inspector who confirmed that burying is not a code requirement / suspending is allowed.

 

[Jeff H Young]

There is a crawl space under the building. As I updated in my question, I contacted the city's chief plumbing inspector who confirmed that burying is not a code requirement / suspending is allowed.

so exactly what do you need help with?