Water seeps up from basement bathroom toilet drain

[1victorianfarmhouse]

In my old house (1894), a previous owner had a full bathroom installed in the basement decades ago. Sink, toilet were gone. When I bought the house, my plan was to make the bathroom functional again, Sink drain is capped off, so nothing could get in or out. Toilet drain was open, with just a loose cover on it. Inside it was dry. I put an expanding plug it several years aqo to prevent any gases, bugs, whever from coming in. .

A few weeks ago, I noticed water seepage from the expanding plug. Not quite gushing out, but seeping out. I've been soaking it up with a towel. We've been having drought conditions (near Aurora, IL), so it's definitely not from rainfall.

I am on a well and septic and a few years ago our town went from a traditional well and septic to a new system with a holding tank system, valves and and pumps. I was having this problem before the new system (see post of a few years ago) Veterans of the plumbing business might know better what I'm talking about.

I am questioning why there would suddenly be water coming up from the toilet drain (umm, health hazard, EPA?) , and before I mention it to the village or install a toilet, wanted to get some input from the experts here.

Thanks a bunch for any info! Vince

 

[bud16415]

Most septic systems are set up to let gravity do the work and that’s why you don’t see a lot of basement toilets in rural areas. Everything had to be extra deep unless your lot had a lot of slope. The leach field needs to be closer to the surface also. Years ago they did all kinds of things and in 1894 just about anything that worked was ok.



Sounds like when you were connected to the towns system they did some kind of a lift station for each home maybe with a grinder pump or maybe each house kept a septic tank and just pump the water off. Around here we have seen a few places where they have a community leach field and homeowners still have to get their tank pumped.



Was this all done before you owned the home?



The basement bath may have been taken out when this was switched over and is no longer connected.



As to the water coming in it is hard to say as you need a clearer understanding of where the pipe leads to.