Cheakamus
New Member
Hi everyone,
I've had problems with my basement drain backing up the past year or so. The drain feeds into an two-inch cast-iron auxiliary stack. My four-inch main stack is on the other side of the house, and the two side sewers meet somewhere out under the front lawn. Besides the basement drain, the only other "loads" on this two-inch stack are the kitchen sink (dishwasher), the clothes washer, the laundry sink, and one outside rainwater downspout.
So whenever we did a load of laundry or emptied a full kitchen sink down the drain, it would back up through the basement drain and then eventually subside. I had a guy come last year who performed a perfunctory routing, managing to get the water moving a little bit better, and telling me I had an 80-year build-up of kitchen grease and needed to have it "power flushed" ($600). He didn't have a camera available to confirm this because it was "out on another job." He also sold me a $70 gallon of enzyme drain cleaner, which I dutifully put down the drain every day or so for a couple of weeks.
Anyway, after a couple of months, the problem was as bad as ever, so I went to HD and rented a power auger to rout the drain myself. I routed it first from the rainwater downspout outside, going well past the point where it meets my four inch drain (which functions fine). I encountered no obstacles and brought up very little dirt or grease. I then routed it again from the clean-out in the two-inch cast-iron vent next to the basement drain. Again, nothing really seemed to obstruct (but the drain did flow more freely).
I was not able to rout the basement drain itself, which appears to be some kind of barrel trap to which there is no access. The thing is, the barrel trap seems to be the end of the line, so water from the kitchen or laundry shouldn't back up into it unless there is a block further down the line (I think).
So basically, I'm asking what I should do. I'm considering breaking up the concrete (easy to do — there's no reinforcement) around the barrel trap and replacing it with a p-trap so I can rout from there. I'm going to be renovating the kitchen next year and will probably be rerouting and replacing the cast-iron drain/vent anyway. I doubt, however, that that will fix my main problem, which is the drain backing up. Maybe I should just go ahead and order the power washing?
And one other question: the drain guy told me that the two-inch cast-iron pipe probably feeds into a three-inch side sewer, making it suitable to hook up a toilet in the laundry room, which I would like to do eventually. Any comment on that?
Here's some pictures:
I've had problems with my basement drain backing up the past year or so. The drain feeds into an two-inch cast-iron auxiliary stack. My four-inch main stack is on the other side of the house, and the two side sewers meet somewhere out under the front lawn. Besides the basement drain, the only other "loads" on this two-inch stack are the kitchen sink (dishwasher), the clothes washer, the laundry sink, and one outside rainwater downspout.
So whenever we did a load of laundry or emptied a full kitchen sink down the drain, it would back up through the basement drain and then eventually subside. I had a guy come last year who performed a perfunctory routing, managing to get the water moving a little bit better, and telling me I had an 80-year build-up of kitchen grease and needed to have it "power flushed" ($600). He didn't have a camera available to confirm this because it was "out on another job." He also sold me a $70 gallon of enzyme drain cleaner, which I dutifully put down the drain every day or so for a couple of weeks.
Anyway, after a couple of months, the problem was as bad as ever, so I went to HD and rented a power auger to rout the drain myself. I routed it first from the rainwater downspout outside, going well past the point where it meets my four inch drain (which functions fine). I encountered no obstacles and brought up very little dirt or grease. I then routed it again from the clean-out in the two-inch cast-iron vent next to the basement drain. Again, nothing really seemed to obstruct (but the drain did flow more freely).
I was not able to rout the basement drain itself, which appears to be some kind of barrel trap to which there is no access. The thing is, the barrel trap seems to be the end of the line, so water from the kitchen or laundry shouldn't back up into it unless there is a block further down the line (I think).
So basically, I'm asking what I should do. I'm considering breaking up the concrete (easy to do — there's no reinforcement) around the barrel trap and replacing it with a p-trap so I can rout from there. I'm going to be renovating the kitchen next year and will probably be rerouting and replacing the cast-iron drain/vent anyway. I doubt, however, that that will fix my main problem, which is the drain backing up. Maybe I should just go ahead and order the power washing?
And one other question: the drain guy told me that the two-inch cast-iron pipe probably feeds into a three-inch side sewer, making it suitable to hook up a toilet in the laundry room, which I would like to do eventually. Any comment on that?
Here's some pictures:
