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simonizer_gw

Water coming out of floor drain in basement

simonizer
15 years ago

I live in Chicago and have a home that was built in the 1960's. I had problems with water leaking from the walls when I first moved in and had a waterproofing company come in and they broke up the concrete about a foot from the walls and installed a drain and a sump pump system. That part works fine. Now a couple years later the floor drain in my basement is starting to overflow with water when it is raining outside. There was a PVC cap on this 3-inch floor drain and the cap was seated about an inch below floor grade. I took out the cap and took a look inside and there was water about 3 inches below the cap. I took my shop-vac and vacuumed out the water to see how deep this is and to get an idea of what is the condition of the pipe. Once the water was vacuumed out I took a look inside with a flashlight and it looks like someone just set in a PVC thread into the top of the drain, so it's really not even water tight. Further down the drain I can see it's just the concrete of the floor (about 8 inches of concrete) and then it looks like it turns into a ceramic pipe. The pipe has a 90-degree bend and it looks like it turns into an oval narrow pipe after the bend. I think this is just part of the basement's original drainage system and it might not even be connected to the city sewer.

Anyway, what are my options here? I know I can consult the waterproofing company but they aren't cheap. I would rather try to fix this myself.

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