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city sewer backing up through the basement floor drain ???

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city sewer backing up through the basement floor drain ??? scale 05-13-2006
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Posted by scale on May 13, 2006, 6:52 pm
I poped of the floor drain in my basement because i started getting
water in the basement a few days ago. It appears that water came up
from there......i found what appeard to be toilet paper that had come
up through the drain not to mention some other weird stuff i couldnt
identify.

Would the city doing maintenence or somthing...cause this? I havent had
this happen in the 3 years ive been living here. IM not sure what to
do. I have tried to contact the city but havent gotten a response to my
questions yet.

it is making a damn mess to say the least. It appears to be clean
water......not black or anything. I tried flushing and turning all all
the water to the faucets everywhere and it didnt make anything come up
throught he drain........


Not sure where to start. If it was tree roots a clogged drain i would
notice water come up it when i did the aboved mentioned things but i
dont see the little bit of water i see down the drain rising at all
during any of this.

It has me more than concerned......

any ideas?


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Posted by Speedy Jim on May 13, 2006, 7:43 pm
scale wrote:

> I poped of the floor drain in my basement because i started getting
> water in the basement a few days ago. It appears that water came up
> from there......i found what appeard to be toilet paper that had come
> up through the drain not to mention some other weird stuff i couldnt
> identify.
>
> Would the city doing maintenence or somthing...cause this? I havent had
> this happen in the 3 years ive been living here. IM not sure what to
> do. I have tried to contact the city but havent gotten a response to my
> questions yet.
>
> it is making a damn mess to say the least. It appears to be clean
> water......not black or anything. I tried flushing and turning all all
> the water to the faucets everywhere and it didnt make anything come up
> throught he drain........
>
>
> Not sure where to start. If it was tree roots a clogged drain i would
> notice water come up it when i did the aboved mentioned things but i
> dont see the little bit of water i see down the drain rising at all
> during any of this.
>
> It has me more than concerned......
>
> any ideas?
>

Tough call.

It's not always easy to determine the cause of events like that.
If you were having torrential rain at the time, it would be
easier to blame the city .

Try this:
Run washing machine thru a cycle.
Just as the machine is emptying, flush all toilets.
Repeat once more immediately.

If that produces absolutely no sign of backup,
you may be able to rule out blocked sewer on your property.

Jim

Posted by Doug Boulter on May 14, 2006, 5:16 am

> I poped of the floor drain in my basement because i started
> getting water in the basement a few days ago. It appears that
> water came up from there......i found what appeard to be toilet
> paper that had come up through the drain not to mention some
> other weird stuff i couldnt identify.

> any ideas?

To add a bit to what Jim said. . .

You own the line running from your house to the main. If it gets
backed up, blocked by roots, or cracked, it will be your
responsibility. If the blockage or break is in the main, the city
owns the problem.

Jim was telling you that if you have heavy rains which raise the
water table, the pressure of the water can fill your line and cause
water to back up into your house--as well as whatever was in the
line at the time.

If that's the case, fixing the cracked/broken part of the line will
involve some heavy earthmoving equipment. They can use a camera to
locate the break, but they'll have to dig to replace the pipe at
that point.

The only way the city could cause the problem that I know of is if
they used a liner to repair the main and forgot to cut open the
hole for your sewer to feed into the main when they were done.
That's really a long shot.

Wait for the response from the city, but be prepared to get a
serious plumbing firm out to repair your sewer line.

No, there's no real way of telling if this problem existed when you
bought your house and, if it did, there's no way to prove that the
previous owners knew about it and concealed it from you.

--
Doug Boulter

To reply by e-mail, remove the obvious word from the e-mail address

Posted by hallerb@aol.com on May 14, 2006, 8:58 am
just snake your sewer line to the street, the plumber can tell you
whats up.

the blockage is probably downstream a little and partial, so some
clkean water gets by but solids dont.

if your home is older you probly have tree roots in the line, very
common with terracota pipes. a regular dose of rock salt water can take
care of that once the blockage is cleared


Posted by Chuck Reti on May 14, 2006, 11:49 pm

> The only way the city could cause the problem that I know of is if
> they used a liner to repair the main and forgot to cut open the
> hole for your sewer to feed into the main when they were done.
> That's really a long shot.

A long shot, but it did happen to me.
City contracted Insituform to reline sanitary sewers in our part of town
two years ago. Shortly after they had gone through, I was getting
backups and drain problems. Called the sewer guys I've used in the past
for clearing roots; they ran a camera down the line and we saw that the
cut made at the connection point was much too small, and also quite a
bit higher than the bottom level of my house to city line, so there was
blockage and no clear flow into the city line. I contacted the company,
they were very quick to come out, viewed the video and agreed it was
their problem. They did reimburse my expense for the sewer camera.
A few days later, they came out and sent their little robot down the
pipe to redo mine and all the cuts along the line on my street.
--
Chuck Reti
Detroit MI

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