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Basement floor drain/sewer smells.


irv

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In our basement in our laundry room we have a floor drain, which I assume most households would have, and we periodically get a sewer smell from it.
My routine has been to fill a bucket with hot water with some dish soap, vinegar, bleach, etc then dump it down the drain. I assumed due to lack of use, the P trap was drying out.

Today, looking further into things, I did some reading about a clean out hole and noticed the ones I seen all had a cap on them to stop sewer smells from coming back into the house.

In these pics you will notice ours doesn't but you can also see what looks like weeping tile inside this side pipe/clean out spot so I am stuck wondering what to do?

The floor opening drain is 4 inches as is the clean out hole. I am confused on this inner weeping tile and what it's purpose is?

What I am afraid of is, if I block/cap this hole and because of the weeping tile, will I be blocking something off? Could this possibly be from our outside weepers and could they possibly drain to this floor drain? I have never heard water draining into it but that doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't, does it?

So if this is just an inner weeper for some reason and it doesn't drain from here, what can I use to block/cap this off? My dilemma is both holes are 4" inches. Is there something that is available that I will be able to get down there, turn 90 degrees then cap this clean out hole off?

I've looked at a few plugs but because both holes are the same size, it is going to be difficult (maybe?) to get something down there to do this.

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57 minutes ago, Tinker said:

You can get a ball float for the floor drain, it's a reverse of a backflow valve that would let water down into the drain if you had a flood. 

I've thought about that as well, Mike, but I would just like to block off that vent to see what happens? The peculiar part and the thing I don't understand is, why is that weeping tile in there? 

I'm afraid to close it off in case the outside weeper drains to there even though it shouldn't as far as I know? 

Like I mentioned in the CE post, I have never heard any water draining to there even though it's in our laundry room, which, of course has a wash basin and the washing machine.

Could this drain not be fed from anywhere else and just be a "in case of flood" type of drain? 

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Yes it looks like the floor drain is just tied into the weeping tile by big O drain pipe (hose) not PVC or ABS with traps. Chipping out to put a trap set up in would be a bunch of work but you could tie in a 1/4" line from the nearest tap and keep the trap full like new homes set up. I'd go pail n hockey ball and see if that stops the smell. The source of the sewer gas coming thru the storm drain is unknown 

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40 minutes ago, Tinker said:

Yes it looks like the floor drain is just tied into the weeping tile by big O drain pipe (hose) not PVC or ABS with traps. Chipping out to put a trap set up in would be a bunch of work but you could tie in a 1/4" line from the nearest tap and keep the trap full like new homes set up. I'd go pail n hockey ball and see if that stops the smell. The source of the sewer gas coming thru the storm drain is unknown 

So, cut a hole in the bottom of a small pail and place a hockey ball in there? I assume the ball floats when needed allowing the water to drain into the hole on the bottom of the pail or do I have this all backwards? 

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Does your neighbourhood have separate sewers for water and waste water?

where do your downspouts drain?  Underground to you weepers?

 

In some older areas all the water and waste water went to a combined sewer. 

A lot of that has been eliminated over the years but not everywhere.

 

Best bet is to call your municipality and report an issue with the smell.  They should easily be able to identify any issues. 

 

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19 minutes ago, Sksman said:

Does your neighbourhood have separate sewers for water and waste water?

where do your downspouts drain?  Underground to you weepers?

 

In some older areas all the water and waste water went to a combined sewer. 

A lot of that has been eliminated over the years but not everywhere.

 

Best bet is to call your municipality and report an issue with the smell.  They should easily be able to identify any issues. 

 

I'm hoping to not go that route in case they tell me things need to be brought up to code, if there is a code about this?

Downspouts all drain to the lawn and I have no idea if all is a connected/combined system? The house was built in 74 so I am guessing everything all goes to sewer instead of dedicated grey/rain water system? 

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Yeah, nice clean fit where the ball sits should seal it up enough to see if it stops the gases from backing up. The drains should go out to the storm sewers at the curb for a house built in 74 but anything's possible. Who knows where the sewage smell is coming from, hopefully Griswald's RV didn't unload into your storm drain LoL. 

Any chance the smell can be from a dry trap in the basement or an improperly vented bathroom reno in the bsmt ? That would give you direct venting to sewer gas. Blocked or frozen vent pipes on the roof is a fuck up too. Vent pipe code sizes have increased over the years due to the down draft that can happen in the winter. 2-2-1/2" vent pipes can be a PITA

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18 minutes ago, Tinker said:

Yeah, nice clean fit where the ball sits should seal it up enough to see if it stops the gases from backing up. The drains should go out to the storm sewers at the curb for a house built in 74 but anything's possible. Who knows where the sewage smell is coming from, hopefully Griswald's RV didn't unload into your storm drain LoL. 

Any chance the smell can be from a dry trap in the basement or an improperly vented bathroom reno in the bsmt ? That would give you direct venting to sewer gas. Blocked or frozen vent pipes on the roof is a fuck up too. Vent pipe code sizes have increased over the years due to the down draft that can happen in the winter. 2-2-1/2" vent pipes can be a PITA

I just finished filling and draining the wash basin a couple times and noticed movement into this drain. At first it was receding back into the drain with the weeper but then it started coming out again. Not a lot but enough of a ripple/eddy to see movement. 

I also noticed, below the horizontal drain with the weeper, the drain itself veers to the left at 90 degrees. Clear water in there so it was easy to see it with a flashlight. I can't see a spot where there is a primer line going to this drain so it must be buried in the concrete?

I'm currently in the process of running my condensate line from my furnace to this drain. I need a joiner to complete it has the 2 hoses I have on hand aren't long enough. 

Edited by irv
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Know any plumbing buddies that have a snake and tracer to see what runs where? Any rental places rent these, doubtful....

How long you been there for? I'm guessing at some point possibly proper sewers were added to the street and each home owner had a timeline to tie into it or the town did it for you at an inflated cost.....perhaps if that was done by previous home owner, it wasn't done correctly. 

Agreed, keep city away from this.....just asking for issues....

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3 hours ago, Stoney said:

Know any plumbing buddies that have a snake and tracer to see what runs where? Any rental places rent these, doubtful....

How long you been there for? I'm guessing at some point possibly proper sewers were added to the street and each home owner had a timeline to tie into it or the town did it for you at an inflated cost.....perhaps if that was done by previous home owner, it wasn't done correctly. 

Agreed, keep city away from this.....just asking for issues....

We've been here for 18 yrs, Stoney, so I have no idea what has been done prior, if anything?

I just finished running my furnace condensate pump line to this drain. It will definitely help keep this trap from drying out but I'll give it a few months or until I smell sewer gas again before saying I fixed it.

Still have the dirt bike? If so, hopefully it is working well for you. :bc:

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2 hours ago, irv said:

We've been here for 18 yrs, Stoney, so I have no idea what has been done prior, if anything?

I just finished running my furnace condensate pump line to this drain. It will definitely help keep this trap from drying out but I'll give it a few months or until I smell sewer gas again before saying I fixed it.

Still have the dirt bike? If so, hopefully it is working well for you. :bc:

I do have the dirt bike still! Never got out this year on it, too busy with home reno's, camping & other stuff, the previous year, we were out riding most weekends. The few times I went out this year with the kids, I used the BIL's YZ125 instead. I do need to rebuild the forks though, last year I think most of the oi leaked out, so planned on doing that over the winter, but never did of course, maybe this winter or spring....it has been a lot fun getting back on a dirt bike, other than the odd crash here & there, that take a heck of lot longer to mend now a days.....

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