2022 Grinder Pump Installation Cost | Replacement Rates

While going through the process of remodeling your home, you may find that your household needs new pieces of equipment. This is likely going to be the case especially if you’ve remodeled your basement. One particular piece of equipment you may need is the grinder pump.

Depending on the layout of your property, the grinder pump may be more than just a useful addition. It could very well be required if you want to use certain fixtures inside your home. Installing one should be high on your list of priorities.

The average grinder pump cost is $2,050 for the pump, materials, and labor. Grinder pumps cost an average of $300, and homeowners spend $1,750 for installation and labor. Installation costs include $22 per hour for an electrician, $250 for permits, and at least $500 in contractor labor fees.

Adding a grinder pump to your property may have become a necessity. Find out everything that entails from a cost perspective by continuing with this article.

Before taking on any additional expense, it’s always important to check if you really need it. That holds true with grinder pumps. To determine if your household needs a grinder pump, you should check where some of your fixtures are installed.

Any fixture that uses water to function properly will need to get rid of wastewater somehow. Most of the time, the conventional plumbing system you have at home is enough to take care of that. The key phrase there is “most of the time.”

Fixtures that are located below the sewer line or septic tank will need help. The wastewater produced by those fixtures may not travel in the right direction without some assistance. The waste may just end up flowing back into the fixtures.

Toilets, drains, and bathtubs installed in the basement are examples of those fixtures. You can help them function correctly by installing a grinder pump.

Whenever you use one of the fixtures in your basement, the wastewater it produces will go into the grinder pump’s tank. The machine itself will not engage as soon as it receives the wastewater. Instead, it will continue to accumulate all of that waste.

The grinder pump’s tank will continue to collect waste until such time that its contents hit a certain mark. As soon as that mark is reached, the grinder component of the machine will engage. The grinder component will process the contents of the tank until they turn into slurry.

Turning the contents of the tank into slurry is crucial. In all likelihood, there are solid materials that are floating around in that wastewater. If they aren’t ground down, they could potentially cause clogging inside the pipes.

With the contents ground into slurry, the pump will then force the liquid into the plumbing using pressure. From there, the slurry should be transported to the sewer line or septic tank. The previously described process will repeat continuously to keep your basement fixtures in working order.

We’re combining two entries into one here. To process the wastewater properly, your grinder pump must be equipped with an appropriately sized impeller. The impeller housing needs to be big enough as well.

The sizes of the impeller and its housing are important because they determine what kind of waste the pump can process. If those components are too small, they will struggle against the larger solids in the wastewater. Grinder pumps with larger impellers are more expensive, but they may be what you need.

Using a grinder pump means you’re taking on another expense. Your monthly electric bills will go up because of it.

The good news is that operating a grinder pump isn’t nearly as expensive as installing one. Assuming you have an average-sized family, the annual cost of running the pump will range from $30 to $40.

That cost estimate assumes that you don’t use your basement fixtures as often as the ones located elsewhere in your home. If you spend a lot of time in your basement, the cost of running the grinder pump will spike.

There’s no way to get around it. Installing a grinder pump on a residential property is going to cost a lot of money.

$500 is about the lowest estimate any contractor will give you for a grinder pump installation. That only happens if your property is already prepped for the installation of the grinder pump.

If you’re getting a grinder pump installed for the first time, your labor expenses will be closer to $2,000. Don’t be surprised if that rises closer to $3,000 if your property needs a lot of work.

The workers will probably have to excavate your property to install the grinder pump. They will create excavations to house the grinder pump and the pressure building connection. Those excavations also need to be on the larger side. To accommodate the grinder pump, the workers will have to create an opening that’s six feet deep and six feet wide. Some tweaks to the size of the opening may also be required to fit your property.

Excavating your property is going to entail a lot of work. Beyond just the digging, a lot of planning also has to go into completing the excavation correctly. The workers may also have to utilize special equipment in order to dig through certain portions of your land.

Paying thousands of dollars for grinder pump installation will seem like a lot at first. Once you realize how much work has to be done though, it’s hard to be surprised by the cost of labor.

In addition to the contractor and the workers they bring in, you may also have to hire an electrician. The job of the electrician is to provide a power source for the grinder pump. They may have to install a 20-amp service to supply the electricity that the grinder pump will require.

Hiring an entry-level electrician to handle the aforementioned job is not recommended. Working on a grinder pump is probably not something they’ve done before. You want someone who is at least familiar with grinder pumps.

You’re probably searching for an early or mid-career electrician if you need a grinder pump wired. The hourly rate for the former is around $19 while the latter typically charges $23. Veteran electricians will charge $28 per hour, but you don’t have to seek them out.

Talk to the contractor as well because they may already have an electrician on the team. You may be able to get a deal on their services if that’s the case.

The wiring itself will take around three hours to complete. The final cost of the wiring will depend on which electrician you hired.

It probably comes as no surprise that permits will be needed if you want to install a grinder pump. The installation is a pretty big project after all. You will likely need both an electrical permit and a plumbing permit prior to installing the grinder pump. This is where partnering with a contractor will come in really handy.

Contractors know all about securing permits and which ones will be required for your project. Simply ask them to take on this task for you. They may charge you extra on top of how much the permits will cost, but that beats handling this task yourself.

You’re already spending a lot on the grinder pump and its installation. Paying up for maintenance is probably not something you’re looking forward to.

Thankfully, maintenance expenses are not something you have to worry about a lot when it comes to grinder pumps. For the most part, you can just leave the grinder pump alone and it should remain in good condition.

Even if a grinder pump is regularly used, it only needs maintenance about every seven years or so. The grinder pump will need to be pumped at that point in order to remove debris remaining in the tank. In some cases, the grinder pump may not require maintenance until after nine years have passed.

One of the first symptoms of a problematic grinder pump that homeowners may notice is a backed-up toilet. With the grinder pump not working properly, the wastewater from the toilet may not reach the tank. Instead, the wastewater may move in the opposite direction.

The basement toilet backing up is not necessarily a sign of trouble if it happens rarely. If it’s starting to happen regularly though, you should definitely schedule maintenance for the grinder pump.

Related Questions

How Long Can You Expect a Grinder Pump to Last?

On average, grinder pumps can remain in working condition for up to 25 years. Some models can last longer than that with diligent maintenance.The initial investment required for a grinder pump is indeed quite high. You can easily get your money’s worth from it though given how durable the typical grinder pump is.

Can the Grinder Pump Continue Working if There Is No Electricity?

During a power outage, the grinder pump will not be able to process the contents of its storage tank. However, it can still store the waste coming from the connected fixtures. The wastewater won’t be stuck in the fixtures.You should still avoid using those fixtures as much as possible while the power is out. Alternatively, you can also connect the pump to a generator to get it moving again.