Drain pipe regurgitating

[brasilmom]

Hello Everyone,

We have a drain in our basement that has "regurgitate" couple times now. We do nto know what caused it and rain is noe to be blame as we have not had rain for several days. The water that comes up has some sort of dirt, but it is not sewage. We called the city and they inspected their lines and said it did not have a problem and it may be the laterals which we will need to get checked. Anyone here has experience with such issues? What do you recommend? Thank you.

 

[Sparky617]

How old is the house? In modern homes (1950's and newer) floor drains would not generally be connected to the sanitary sewer, but to the footer drains and would run to daylight or in the case of a basement that was fully below grade a sump pump. It was pretty common in earlier times to tie them into the sanitary sewers. Usually gurgling water indicates that the vent stack is clogged and the sewer line is pulling air from a drain. That your drain is gurgling kind of tells me that it is indeed hooked up to the sanitary sewer.

This diagram gives a good basic description of a sanitary sewer system. You'll note the sump pump isn't connected to the sewer line. When the utility looked, they would have looked at the clean out closest to the street or property line. Are any of your other drains running slow? If you looked down one of the cleanouts in your yard do you have standing water in it? Water shouldn't back up at all in the drain lines.

https://ntpud.org/sewer-system-basic-info-pressure-tests
If you pour water down the drain does it flow freely or back-up and take awhile to drain out? If it doesn't drain quickly you might try one of these to force water down the line to clear any clogs. You might want to get it snaked out by a plumber or rent the tool yourself. Is there a trap? Do you know what kind of pipe the drain is made of?

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Cobra-Rubber-Bladder/1000765778

 

[brasilmom]

How old is the house? In modern homes (1950's and newer) floor drains would not generally be connected to the sanitary sewer, but to the footer drains and would run to daylight or in the case of a basement that was fully below grade a sump pump. It was pretty common in earlier times to tie them into the sanitary sewers. Usually gurgling water indicates that the vent stack is clogged and the sewer line is pulling air from a drain. That your drain is gurgling kind of tells me that it is indeed hooked up to the sanitary sewer.

This diagram gives a good basic description of a sanitary sewer system. You'll note the sump pump isn't connected to the sewer line. When the utility looked, they would have looked at the clean out closest to the street or property line. Are any of your other drains running slow? If you looked down one of the cleanouts in your yard do you have standing water in it? Water shouldn't back up at all in the drain lines.

https://ntpud.org/sewer-system-basic-info-pressure-tests
If you pour water down the drain does it flow freely or back-up and take awhile to drain out? If it doesn't drain quickly you might try one of these to force water down the line to clear any clogs. You might want to get it snaked out by a plumber or rent the tool yourself. Is there a trap? Do you know what kind of pipe the drain is made of?

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Cobra-Rubber-Bladder/1000765778

This is a very educational reply. Thank you so much. The house was built in the 60s. I cannot tell for sure what the drain is connected to but it is in the basement and below grade. We do have a sump pump and it is not far from the drain. We do nto hear gurgling; all we got was water couple of times around the drain. We do not notice any of the drains in the house running slow and the sump pump is not running as we are under a dry spell. We have the plumber coming on Monday to take a look but we will take a look at the info you sent out. This was very helpful. Thank you

 

[brasilmom]

How old is the house? In modern homes (1950's and newer) floor drains would not generally be connected to the sanitary sewer, but to the footer drains and would run to daylight or in the case of a basement that was fully below grade a sump pump. It was pretty common in earlier times to tie them into the sanitary sewers. Usually gurgling water indicates that the vent stack is clogged and the sewer line is pulling air from a drain. That your drain is gurgling kind of tells me that it is indeed hooked up to the sanitary sewer.

This diagram gives a good basic description of a sanitary sewer system. You'll note the sump pump isn't connected to the sewer line. When the utility looked, they would have looked at the clean out closest to the street or property line. Are any of your other drains running slow? If you looked down one of the cleanouts in your yard do you have standing water in it? Water shouldn't back up at all in the drain lines.

https://ntpud.org/sewer-system-basic-info-pressure-tests
If you pour water down the drain does it flow freely or back-up and take awhile to drain out? If it doesn't drain quickly you might try one of these to force water down the line to clear any clogs. You might want to get it snaked out by a plumber or rent the tool yourself. Is there a trap? Do you know what kind of pipe the drain is made of?

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Cobra-Rubber-Bladder/1000765778

The other time when we got the water on the floor, we did pour some hot water and it was at first a bit slow, then it was draining faster. This time we did not do any of that. I believe it is iron pipe. I think the cobra rubber may be the way to go. But at this point I am not sure if we can do it. I am not sure where the cleanout may be. Thank you again.

 

[Sparky617]

Since your house was built in the 1960s I doubt the drain is connected to the sewers and likely runs into your sump pump. You could try running a hose down the drain to see if your sump pump runs after a minute or so. If it backs up on the floor it could be clogged with any number of things. The Cobra might push it out if you have sediment slowing the drain. It won't do anything for roots, but they are pretty unlikely under your house many feet vertically and horizontally away from any trees. The plumber has bigger tools to fight any clogs.

 

[brasilmom]

Since your house was built in the 1960s I doubt the drain is connected to the sewers and likely runs into your sump pump. You could try running a hose down the drain to see if your sump pump runs after a minute or so. If it backs up on the floor it could be clogged with any number of things. The Cobra might push it out if you have sediment slowing the drain. It won't do anything for roots, but they are pretty unlikely under your house many feet vertically and horizontally away from any trees. The plumber has bigger tools to fight any clogs.

Thank you so much. The plumber will come Monday and see what is going on. Hopefully nothing serious.

 

[BuzzLOL]

Does the sump pump still work? Are you watering your lawn?

 

[KileSnow]

Hi there, I had a similar issue with my drain pipe regurgitating, and it turned out to be a bigger problem than I initially thought.