Another Basement Floor Drain Thread

[Maximus_Slime]

1912 House. Not sure what year this plumbing is.

Was doing laundry Saturday, little bit of water on the floor, I was hoping it was the machine leaking. Washer outflows into utility sink, then from there into the drainage system. Water receded into the floor drain relatively quickly.

I checked on things yesterday, and water was over the top of the pipe into the bowel area.

Upstream from this is another drain at the bottom of the stairs into the basement. No overflow there. It flows directly into this. ~20' away if it matters. There has been no significant rain the past few days.

I've been using my wetdry vac to keep the basement steps drain line clear, since the water all seems to fill up to that point. Just trying to prevent a biohazard mess in the basement.

My house is less than 60' to the city sewer line.

I've pulled out over 200 gallons of water. Based on this calculator, I've pulled out out something equaling 300' of drain line length. I picked up a very faint sewer smell, the last vac usage this afternoon. But what I did notice was afterwards I could smell a machine shop smell. The metal shavings and machine shop oil smell. I suppose it is possible my sewer line is being shared with a neighbor... Drainage crew is out first thing tomorrow morning.

 

[Maximus_Slime]

No water has flown into the drains since Saturday. I can't edit the original post.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Reach4]

I think you are saying that you are having a drain cleaning specialist clean your drain lines Tuesday, hopefully out to the street.

 

[Jeff H Young]

Good Luck you dont have any questions but Its not usual to have 2 houses on seperate lots to have a sahared sewer line to street but Ive heard of people bootlegging into the sewer

 

[Maximus_Slime]

Good Luck you dont have any questions but Its not usual to have 2 houses on seperate lots to have a sahared sewer line to street but Ive heard of people bootlegging into the sewer

Maybe five years ago, two homes, rock throwing distance from mine, on my street, turned out to have a shared line.

 

[Jeff H Young]

We dont run sewers on neighbors property often. Ive seen where a property is land locked a private sewer runs through an easment but its not usually secret and its recorded on deed.

 

[Maximus_Slime]

Situation has been assessed.

There is no sewer line backup, only the floor drain.

Running the wash machine was able to get the water level in floor drain pipe to rise. And it has not gone down any.

Running the tub upstairs full blast and flushing the toilet a bunch of times had no impact.

Recommendation was to get an alarm for water on the floor.

What I can't understand is how I've pulled out 200 gallons of water from the floor drain.

 

[Jeff H Young]

Ok did you determine if this line is connected to sewer? Id try to clear the blockage and repair the problem before installing high water alarm.
I guess you are collecting ground water as well as wash machine. did the" drainage Crew" do anything to fix it? free estimate or something?

 

[Reach4]

I am guessing he got the city sewer department to come out, rather than a drain cleaning person. The city said that it was not a city sewer problem, but was something in the customer plumbing.

So, Maximus_Slime, was my guess right?

 

[Maximus_Slime]

The initial thought was it was a city sewer problem...

After the plumber left, I turned the tub back on upstairs.

There used to be a bathroom in the basement, and that toilet pipe was capped off with one of those Oatey expanding rubber plugs.

While the tub was running I monitored these areas to see if water was going to rise.

It did. Floor drain filled up over the bowel, and the toilet waste pipe has about an inch of water in it currently.

When the plumber was here, we had the water in the tub running at least 15 minutes... I guess we needed it to run for another 5.

 

[Maximus_Slime]

So I believe I know now why the water eventually "drained" from the floor when I was running the wash the other day.

Initially the surge from the drain cycle overwhelmed the carrying capacity of the line, then the water was able to backfill into the the pipe running from the drain at the bottom of the basement stairs.

I'm glad I was able to catch this before having a mess.