What To Do If Water Backs Up From The Floor Drains In Your Basement
Having water backing up into the basement of your home, from the drains in the basement floor, is not a good situation. This is not just inconvenient; in some instances a considerable amount of damage can be caused. It can be an even bigger problem if it’s not just water and waste from your home that is backing up, but waste from neighbouring properties too.
Walking into your basement to find it flooded is not good, but how can you resolve the problem, using tools like a drain snake, and try and prevent future issues? We are going to explain the reasons why the floor drains in your basement may be backing up and talk about why you should seek expert help with the problem.
What has happened if your drain is backing up with waste from your own home?
If the drains in your basement floor appear to be backing up with waste from your own home this is usually due to one of two possible reasons; something has been flushed down the drain which is blocking it or roots have grown into the drain blocking it. If the former has happened it could be that chemicals poured down the drain may move the blockage.
Often, the blockage remains and it is necessary to feed a drain snake along the drain. If roots are involved it is usually necessary to use a power snake which has blades on it to cut the roots. As you can see, these are onerous tasks so it makes sense to call a professional plumbing service like Plumbing Detectives to help unblock the drains.
What is the problem if waste from other households is backing up?
It’s a bad enough situation if waste from your own home is backing up from the floor drains in the basement of your property; having problems with waste from other households backing up is even worse. This can lead to raw sewage being thrown across the basement, depending on the water pressure involved. This type of event happens when water levels are raised, usually due to bad weather and heavy rainfall.
The drainage system for the entire area becomes overwhelmed by the increased volume of water it has to handle. If your basements drains are lower than the elevated water level the water backs up the drains and into the basement of your home. It’s bad enough if this happens while you are home but if you are away from the property the situation could be left unattended and the results could end up being a lot worse.
You can have a gate fitted to the drains in your basement. Some of these gates require manual operation, which is not always ideal. Others are valve operated; as soon as the valve senses a backflow it closes off the drains leading to your basement and prevents them from being flooded.
It’s clear to see that any type of back up involving the drains in the basement of your home is a major issue. If you are unlucky enough to experience any such problems it’s a good idea to hire a professional plumber to deal with the issue for you.
12 Comments
Tamra Phelps
This would be the ultimate nightmare. I’d be on the phone to a plumber to quick to talk about, lol.
Kate Sarsfield
Right, that’s me put right off my lunch!
michele soyer
When I was a child we had a basement but never had these drains.. wow.. maybe in those days people used sump pumps…
Sarah L
Wow! That makes me glad I don’t have a basement.
Rosie
Our area had some big problems with the town drains, that caused problems on many streets in the individual homes – the drains were ancient for a small population. The town had to redo the drains, pretty expensive and help the people who had the back up in their homes.
clojo9372
Our family doesn’t have a basement either, and thank god for that! The very idea of raw sewage from my home or from my whole neighborhood seeping into my home makes me ill. Thank you for all of the advice! 🙂
Tamra Phelps
Oh, I always remember that episode of Dirty Jobs where the poor lady came home to find the entire neighborhood’s sewage had erupted out of her basement toilet. Nightmare!
Jennifer
When it rains the neighbors in the lower apts have water build up on the air vents some how. And the vents are in their ceiling, so water constantly drips on their furniture. Their landlord just said they have to have renters insurance, because they don’t pay for their belongings. wow
Edye
This happened to my relatives a few years back. Thanks for sharing your advice.
Geri Sandoval
We don’t have basement where we live, but a couple of years ago our neighbors were out of town and we had a very bad winter storm and everything froze. The pipes in their house broke and water start coming out of their front and back doors. We couldn’t get ahold of them so my husband just turned off the water at the start, that’s all we could do and left a note on the door.
KATE SARSFIELD
Years ago neighbours of ours came home from holiday to find that the water tank in the attic had burst. Everything was sodden and mouldy & the smell – ew! They had only recently moved in and hadn’t got around to insuring 🙁
Kristen
We don’t have a basement, but the very idea of this happening gives me nightmares! It must be very important to know how to handle this situation.