I have an apparent leak in my sewer pipe drain (PVC) where it exits the house in the basement wall and connects to the drain pipe leading to the septic tank. The basement wall under the pipe is wet. To rule out rain water causing the wetness, I dug outside where the pipe is exiting the house down to the top of the pipe and the ground is very dry. I’ve opened the cleanout to visually inspect the inside of the pipe and the only possible point where it may be leaking (that I can see) is at the horizontal joint between the two PVC pipes (the pipe leading to tank and cleanout tee).
I’m not a plumber by any means, and I tried calling one but never received a call back. While I’m waiting, I thought I would try something myself. I cleaned and caulked the joint with silicone II (as best I could as it was somewhat hard to reach – it's about 18†from the cleanout). I put a fan on the wall yesterday and had it pretty dry last night, but unfortunately, I don’t think the silicone did the trick as there's another wet spot this morning. RATS
I’d like to remodel my basement and put up walls, but until this leak is fixed, I can’t cover up the block wall. What are my options here? I hate the thought of having to replace the PVC sections since it would require busting out the concrete surrounding the pipe exiting the house, and digging down under the PVC in the ground. A big ugly expensive job. One more note, I don’t think this is a new leak since I just moved a work bench away from the wall and noticed how wet it was from the pipe all the way to the concrete floor.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Jerry
I’m not a plumber by any means, and I tried calling one but never received a call back. While I’m waiting, I thought I would try something myself. I cleaned and caulked the joint with silicone II (as best I could as it was somewhat hard to reach – it's about 18†from the cleanout). I put a fan on the wall yesterday and had it pretty dry last night, but unfortunately, I don’t think the silicone did the trick as there's another wet spot this morning. RATS
I’d like to remodel my basement and put up walls, but until this leak is fixed, I can’t cover up the block wall. What are my options here? I hate the thought of having to replace the PVC sections since it would require busting out the concrete surrounding the pipe exiting the house, and digging down under the PVC in the ground. A big ugly expensive job. One more note, I don’t think this is a new leak since I just moved a work bench away from the wall and noticed how wet it was from the pipe all the way to the concrete floor.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Jerry