Help with backed up drain.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Floor drains, footer drains and sump pumps should be connected to storm drains if they exist, otherwise they should pump to a ditch. They never should connect to the septic system nor sanitary sewer system. The same goes for down spouts. And, they all should have back flow preventers so outside water or waste cannot come back into your house.

We are still allowed to have basement floor drains connected to the city sewer. On a septic system I can see that it would be good for them not to be, although they do provide a visual reference to the functionality of the sewer drain. A hack that is frowned upon is to knock a hole in the side of a basement KC drain to let ground water under the slab escape into the sewer. Our town has an ongoing smoke test program to help find violators, of which there are plenty.

Lee has reminded me of the reality of a city sewer turning into a high pressure fountain. It can happen in big rain events or blockages if your basement is lower than the nearest sewer man hole cover. DAMHIK. The smoke testing and installation of back flow preventers is an on going neighborhood saga for us.

[Robert Hartmann]

Just a follow-up. A few comments about city sewer, this is a septic tank. The system is called Advantex by Orenco. They were used around bodies of water (we have a lake in front of the house and small river behind) to do extra filtration.

We finally got it fixed. Apparently the pump went bad, the discharge tank filled up and shorted out the electrical. It took a while to figure where the electrical issue was. Poor design on the electrical system. The junction box is down in the discharge tank, so when it filled up it was submerged.

On another note, I asked about it backing up into the floor drain. My septic guy said that connecting drains to the septic tank was a common practice. The house was built in 2000, so maybe that has changed. Maybe just a local thing, but apparently normal.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Here is what can happen when there is no back flow preventer and the city sewer becomes overwhelmed, combined with the power going off with no battery back up for the sump pump. Big storms like to cause both. In hindsight, when inspecting homes I check the basement floor elevation to see if it is lower than the nearest sewer man hole cover. If yes I recommend a back flow preventer and battery backup sump pump. Even with precautions, buildings without redundant gravity drains are at risk of flooding.

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