1victorianfarmhouse
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Okay, I'll try to not make this too confusing. I hope.
My house is 118 years old and did not originally have plumbing. Natch, it was added later, but I'm not sure when.
The Chicago area had some heavy rain storms this week, and the unfinished basement flooded with an inch or two of water in some parts. No actual damage, just a few wet plastic totes.
The house is oriented with the front facing east, the back facing west, etc. There is a walkout basement stairway in the NW corner. The sump pump is right next to the door.
The house plumbing drain exit is on the SW corner. I used to have a septic tank and leach field system, replaced last year by an EPA-mandated holding tank and high pressure connection to a new village treatment plant (our old septics were contaminating a nearby creek). Here is the URL to a number of pictures of the equipment and facility, sadly, no real descriptions: http://www.flickr.com/photos/appliedtechnologies/sets/72157629337434082/with/7456617168/
There are three old floor drains in the SW quarter of the basement. Nearby is another drain that is used by the furnace humidifier and the washing machine. This drain tees into the main stack.
The NE corner has an old bathroom, with the fixtures removed but planned to rebuild it. It has a shower drain, a toilet drain, and a floor drain in addition to the sink drain.
When the flooding started, the water initially came in under the walkout door, and as the water moved further it brought the table level up and came in through minor cracks in the floor.
The new treatment tank and associated valves in the yard are in an area of the yard that got flooded.
Water came up from the old, unused floor drains after it started seeping in through the floor. I'm guessing that the new tank system shut down after being flooded.
The new Zoeller sump pump worked non-stop pumping water for 5+ hours and was simply overwhelmed.
My main question for now is that the one floor drain that the washer and humidifier drain into did not overflow or even raise the water level. Is there probably some type of J-trap built into the concrete in that section?
Thanks for reading so far....and any comments!
vince
My house is 118 years old and did not originally have plumbing. Natch, it was added later, but I'm not sure when.
The Chicago area had some heavy rain storms this week, and the unfinished basement flooded with an inch or two of water in some parts. No actual damage, just a few wet plastic totes.
The house is oriented with the front facing east, the back facing west, etc. There is a walkout basement stairway in the NW corner. The sump pump is right next to the door.
The house plumbing drain exit is on the SW corner. I used to have a septic tank and leach field system, replaced last year by an EPA-mandated holding tank and high pressure connection to a new village treatment plant (our old septics were contaminating a nearby creek). Here is the URL to a number of pictures of the equipment and facility, sadly, no real descriptions: http://www.flickr.com/photos/appliedtechnologies/sets/72157629337434082/with/7456617168/
There are three old floor drains in the SW quarter of the basement. Nearby is another drain that is used by the furnace humidifier and the washing machine. This drain tees into the main stack.
The NE corner has an old bathroom, with the fixtures removed but planned to rebuild it. It has a shower drain, a toilet drain, and a floor drain in addition to the sink drain.
When the flooding started, the water initially came in under the walkout door, and as the water moved further it brought the table level up and came in through minor cracks in the floor.
The new treatment tank and associated valves in the yard are in an area of the yard that got flooded.
Water came up from the old, unused floor drains after it started seeping in through the floor. I'm guessing that the new tank system shut down after being flooded.
The new Zoeller sump pump worked non-stop pumping water for 5+ hours and was simply overwhelmed.
My main question for now is that the one floor drain that the washer and humidifier drain into did not overflow or even raise the water level. Is there probably some type of J-trap built into the concrete in that section?
Thanks for reading so far....and any comments!
vince
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