Strange drain holes in basement

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Mette117

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Just bought this house from 1962 and wanted to put down new floor in the pool room of the basement. The floor is stick on vinyl tiles on top of some tiles that may be asbestos. Since the ceiling is plenty high I am thinking of just tear away the vinyl tiles (easy to remove), seal the suspicious tiles underneath and add new flooring on top. However, there are some strange drain holes spaced approximately 4 feet apart along the wall perimeter (pictures are of a single drain hole with and without vinyl tile) may or may not be connected by a drain in the foundation. I have not idea what the function is for these. The house is located on a hill so flooding is not an issue and there is no sump pumb.
Endless searches on internet have not been successful, the house inspector did not know what the drain wholes was for either. Does anyone have a bid for what these are?
Can I just cover them up when installing new floor?
vinyl covering.jpg

exposed.jpg
Does anyone have a bid for what these are?
Can I just cover them up when installing new floor.
 
Welcome to the site.
It is not suprising to find a floor drain at the highest section of a floor that should be level or slightly sloped to the drain.
For that age of house I would expect that a floor drain would be connected to the perimeter drain on the outside, which is fine until that all backs up into the basement.
Have the second one is strange, you may want to investigate where the water goes if they take water.
Can you lift the screens and see direction or any usable info? Type of pipe?
 
Thanks,
There are 5 holes. The screens are glued in pretty tight on top of the lower tiles that may be asbestos so I am hesitant to mess with that. I put a flash light to the screens, can't see any pipes in the hole. Looks like it was kind of drilled directly in to the foundation.
 
5 holes, could it have been a bathroom at one time?
Cut up a coat hanger or something and poke into the screen to see if there is a bottom.
BTW, asbestos is important and if you were going to remove it you would do it with all safety, but with that said, tile is pretty stable and does not release a whole lot of dust when you break a bit, so you can wear a mask and wet the area without any concern for a small area.
 
Thanks for the advice! I poked the holes. Between 5 and 8 inches deep. I did not hit anything that felt like a pipe, more like sand/cement, so now I am more confident that they do not have an important function.
I am pretty sure it has not been a bathroom, there is a full wall original fireplace and a big bathroom two rooms over. However, I can see that there are what looks like cement patched holes other places in the basement, all of them towards the outer walls. Maybe it was a terminated DIY project by previous owner.
 
At least then I would break out the screens and fill them with concrete and think about checking the basement for radon.
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1Zw73-HZxY[/ame]
 
I wouldn't close them until i knew more info. if they are drains for occasional flooding, you might like to keep them.
I don't think radon is a common problem in south NJ, but you may have had that test done as part of the home inspection. if not, get it tested; it's not hard or very expensive.
If you can get enough light directly over a hole, enough to see the bottom, you could pour a small amount of water in one and see if flows past any of the others. Actually, you could even check that with sound if you listen carefully enough. You'll probably need an asst. for that.
 
bud16415 said:
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/video/0,,20046344,00.html

Looks like you have or could have had a radon system at one time and those were some kind of vent holes to allow basement air to suck in and under the slab. The video above shows how that is to work.
Click to expand...

Thanks Bud: I couldn't find that for some reason. We don't have much of that here but I did see one like that when some one was dealing with an oil tank leak and they were venting the fumes from that from under the floor and another guy tried that for a sewer gas smell in the basement, that one turn out to be the floor drain trap had dried out.

So in this house I would be looking for a system like this that may have been removed to make it an easier sell.
 
Neal makes a good point if the house had a system and it was scaring off buyers and they pulled it out the worst thing they could have done is not plug the holes. Surprised the inspector didn’t pick up on that as you said he commented he didn’t know. You may have a system and just don’t know what it is yet also. If not and you test positive for radon I think you have a good case to go back to the seller and get things done over at very minimum.
 
Thanks for all the answers :)
We did have a radon test before moving into the house. The levels were very low, so that should not be a problem. Maybe I will have it done one more time to make sure.
Other than that there are no signs of oil spillage (oil tank is in the other end of the house) or flooding (as mentioned the house is built on a hill). A little damp which seems to come from the walls and just need some waterproofing.
I attach a picture of the other holes that are plugged with cement, there is shorter distance between those (the pic is flipped, the holes are in the floor, not wall as it could appear). The realtor mentioned it could be termite treatment, but there is no signs of such infestation. There is free access to the wood structures and they are in great shape.
I will try and ask our neighbor, he was the very first person to built a house on the street, a year or two before ours was built. He already mentioned that they have never had problems with flooding.

coveredwholes.jpg
 
To bad your inspector didn't ask these questions before you bought the house.
I would break a screen out of the bigger hole and see if there is a pipe in there. If there is no pipe, just concrete side, then someone cut a core out for some reason.

It may have been a leveling problem small holes for foam lift and large holes for mudjacking with concrete. But then I would expect to see cracks in the tile and full holes.
 
nealtw said:
To bad your inspector didn't ask these questions before you bought the house.
I would break a screen out of the bigger hole and see if there is a pipe in there. If there is no pipe, just concrete side, then someone cut a core out for some reason.

It may have been a leveling problem small holes for foam lift and large holes for mudjacking with concrete. But then I would expect to see cracks in the tile and full holes.
Click to expand...

Something like that, the neighbors had to notice. Just ask.
 
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