basement drain -

Excuse my green horns..

There is a floor drain in the basement (laundry room), and it seems to maintain a certain level of water in it.. Is it clogged? or would there be a sub-floor (concrete) U pipe that would keep water in it by design (to prevent sewer gas escaping ?)

IT has what is commonly called a P trap. I believe you are calling it a U trap, no real problem, just a different term that plumbers normally use. Blocking sewer gas is exactly what it does. You should know that if the drain goes unused, that water will evaporate and you will get sewer gas. You should pour a quart or two of water into it periodically to prevent it from drying out. Every fixture drain has a trap. Basement showers and floor drains are encased in concrete, toilet traps are part of the toilet, and sink traps are located just below the sink.

I could use a better close up of the hole.Looks like no Fl. drain I've seen.
Looks like a hole in the floor and??? under it.

pipe

It looks like someone's idea of a place to connect a clothe's washing machine drain riser.

location is Ontario, Canada. And it is in the basement laundry room (washing machine is 3 feet to the right of the picture), and I did take the cover plate off it to get a picture of the water level.

Even still, it's all good? right ?

The trap shouldnt maintain a water level to that point.. Does this floor drain run directly into your plumbing off your house or is it ran out separately? My thought is that if it was stopping up it would have to be just in the basement line. You should be able to root it and solve the problem easily.

I'm assuming it drains/connects into the outbound sewer main at the street (full city sewers - not into septic)

The water level in the first pic is approx 3" below the floor..

So, is this ok ? I poured a quart of water into it, it rose to the top, and eventually returned to the same level..