Handling ground water in a basement shower - water in rough in location hole.

[johnfrwhipple]

I went to look at a new steam shower last night and straight off noticed that there was standing water in the rough in location. The pipe is a 2" black ABS and is not glued to the top side of the new PTrap. The pipe was rigged up with a wye "Y" fitting and this Wye left open. I was told it was helping drain the water away.

Needless to say this did not look great and my radar is going off.

The client would like to keep it and sees no harm in the system working this way.

Of course I want to fix it but this could be a $20,000 complete home drainage nightmare.

We both are hoping for something in the middle.

Is there any fittings, or adapters that can convert a 2" drain line into a mini ground water drain?

If we decide to just install a clamping drain what is the best way to glue this fitting? It's under water the connection?

What is the best way to do the repair?


What is the cheapest way?


The home has a sump which is located in a room about 16' away. The sump is far lower and the water level in the sump is much lower than in the shower. I fear that the water is entering somewhere and slowly draining to sump under the basement slab.

This is a pickle. Any help would be great.

[Terry]

Normally you would cut concrete over to the sump with pump, add some gravel around perf pipe, cover with plastic and repour the concrete over it.

The waste line "should" be tight. It is after all going to septic or sewer. The sump is just for ground water?

You can't really glue underwater, but you can pull the water level down with a vac.

[johnfrwhipple]

....You can't really glue underwater, but you can pull the water level down with a vac.

That's a great idea.

How long should I keep the vacuum running so the ABS solvent can set up? Maybe 2-3 minutes or perhaps longer?

I also like the idea a lot of running some new perf pipe over to the sump. That sounds like a plan to me!!!

Thanks Terry.

[Terry]

ABS is solvent welded. It doesn't take long. Often times in Seattle, I would be doing groundworks in the rain. Glue the pipe and push it down into the water filled ditch. Then weight it down so it doesn't float back up. Yup!

[johnfrwhipple]

That happened to me laying in the ground work for my home reno. Poured like a mother and the pipe was all lifted the next day when I came back.

Lesson Learned - Bricks and blocks are your friends until the pipe is covered up!

I won't make that mistake again! JW

[hj]

IF that is ground water from a high water table, you will have to drain the entire "city" to get rid of the water. But if the sump pump just dumps onto the ground it will eventually work its way back down to the water level. The city would take a dim view of him sending all that water to the treatment plant. We were doing a lead/oakum rough in an area like that, except it was flowing sand rather than water. We would dig like crazy for 5 minutes, the pour the joint before it got covered up. Then seal the ends every night when we left. The next morning you would see water bubbles coming out of the lead joints. One sump pump got covered with the sand, so I started to shovel it out. I took out two 52 gallon barrels of sand and did not lower the level more than an inch or so. LI had the company send me a sump pump cover, which just fit into the tile "crock" basin. I wrapped it with a burlap gunny sack, the the two of us started shoveling like crazy. When we go enough sand out, I shoved the cover down into the crock like a piston and put the pump on top of it to hold it down. About 8 months later they called because the sump wasn't working again. The burlap had rotted away and the sand came back.

[johnfrwhipple]

We are going to use the shop vac like Terry said and remove the Wye and tie the new drain into the 2" ABS line.

Maybe a waterproof cement patch of sorts.

Any good options Terry?

JW