I would appreciate some insight into potential causes of flooding / sewage back up in my basement. Over the last year, we've had three separate incidences of flooding, each with a seemingly different cause.
About a year ago, I moved into a 90yr old townhouse where the sewer line goes into the ground/pit in the front of the house (in the garage). Immediately behind the garage is a basement with a bathroom, and toward the other end of the basement is the mechanical room. In front of the garage is a big tree. The house is on a hill where the garage/front is street level, the basement is slightly above the garage, but is almost completely underground once you get to the mechanical room.
In late 2022, the sewage line in the garage backed up and flooded. The water in the garage pooled up in the area where the sewer line cleanout is until it spilled over into the garage. We called a plumber who snaked the line both toward the street and toward the rest of the house, and he said that there were tree roots that he cleared out.
In March 2023, the same thing happened, sewage line in garage backed up and basement bathroom flooded (we couldn't visually identify the source of flooding in bathroom), and this time a different plumber was called who snaked the drain and said there were multiple wipes but did not say anything about roots. We instructed everyone in the house to not throw wipes into the bathroom.
About a few weeks ago we had two straight days of downpour, and by the second day in the afternoon, the basement (and basement bathroom) had flooded (1cm of water in depth). For reference, prior flooding was not preceded by rain. We tried to mop up the water and after an hour of progress, a pool of water reappeared, spreading throughout the basement floor. It looked like the water was coming from the mechanical room in the back side of the basement/house. Interestingly, the garage didn't flood but the cleanout pit did have a bit of water visibly gurgling at the very bottom. There is a pipe that looks like the thickness of a sewer line coming from a wall in the mechanical room going into the ground, but it was very difficult to tell if the water was coming out of the pipe, or the ground itself, since there was about a centimeter height of water visibly exiting the mechanical room into the rest of the basement. A next door neighbor (in an attached house) did not experience any flooding.
I've talked to a couple of plumbers but everyone is suggesting something different whether it's snaking the sewer line, installing a backflow preventer valve, or installing a sump pump. Given the different recommendations, I wanted to check with this forum as to what the most likely issue is and how to best solve it.
About a year ago, I moved into a 90yr old townhouse where the sewer line goes into the ground/pit in the front of the house (in the garage). Immediately behind the garage is a basement with a bathroom, and toward the other end of the basement is the mechanical room. In front of the garage is a big tree. The house is on a hill where the garage/front is street level, the basement is slightly above the garage, but is almost completely underground once you get to the mechanical room.
In late 2022, the sewage line in the garage backed up and flooded. The water in the garage pooled up in the area where the sewer line cleanout is until it spilled over into the garage. We called a plumber who snaked the line both toward the street and toward the rest of the house, and he said that there were tree roots that he cleared out.
In March 2023, the same thing happened, sewage line in garage backed up and basement bathroom flooded (we couldn't visually identify the source of flooding in bathroom), and this time a different plumber was called who snaked the drain and said there were multiple wipes but did not say anything about roots. We instructed everyone in the house to not throw wipes into the bathroom.
About a few weeks ago we had two straight days of downpour, and by the second day in the afternoon, the basement (and basement bathroom) had flooded (1cm of water in depth). For reference, prior flooding was not preceded by rain. We tried to mop up the water and after an hour of progress, a pool of water reappeared, spreading throughout the basement floor. It looked like the water was coming from the mechanical room in the back side of the basement/house. Interestingly, the garage didn't flood but the cleanout pit did have a bit of water visibly gurgling at the very bottom. There is a pipe that looks like the thickness of a sewer line coming from a wall in the mechanical room going into the ground, but it was very difficult to tell if the water was coming out of the pipe, or the ground itself, since there was about a centimeter height of water visibly exiting the mechanical room into the rest of the basement. A next door neighbor (in an attached house) did not experience any flooding.
I've talked to a couple of plumbers but everyone is suggesting something different whether it's snaking the sewer line, installing a backflow preventer valve, or installing a sump pump. Given the different recommendations, I wanted to check with this forum as to what the most likely issue is and how to best solve it.
