Basement drain with unremovable cap
Hi All,
About 4 years ago I purchased a home built in 1991. The house has been great and even though it needed work, it has been a great house. The one thing that is bothering me and I can’t wrap my head around is the basement drain. There are two drains in the basement, I can see the drain cap. There is one in the garage as well. However, all of them seem clogged. I’ve tried sticking a long screw driver in to one of the holes on the cap and the screw driver doesn’t go more than let’s say 1-2″ in. It just won’t go further in. I don’t want to force it as I am afraid I will break something. I just have no idea where the drains go or where they are clogged. The other thing that is puzzling is that it seems the drain caps are embedded in the concrete and were not intended to be removed. I’ve attached a picture of one of the drains in the basement. Since the furnace condensation “drains” into this drain the water pools and the cap rusts. See pictures.
I should mentioned that before I purchased the house, it had frozen in the winter, pipes burst when the original owner was away for the winter. So I am assuming there was some flooding. It is a 2 story house plus a full walkout basement with insulated concrete walls. My questions are, is it possible that the drain froze and the the pipes broke? However, the garage is not heated so I would think those drain pipes would freeze all the time? As you can see from the picture it seems the drain cap is embedded into the concrete. Should I break it free and see what’s going on? Just looking to see if anyone can identify what sort of drain I am dealing with. I should also mention that I see about a 3″ PCV pipe coming out of the house and draining into the woods. I don’t know where it goes in the house, but I know i never see any water coming out of it.
Any guidance is appreciated.
Replies
It’s a common occurrence for the caps to be embedded in concrete, you will probably need to chip around it some to get it out. Also, it looks like there’s a lot of corrosion, the cap has probably fused to the pipe. You can try some rust remover to see if that helps, but it may not do much. Will probably need to break the cap off, need a new cap anyway. Take care not to damage pipe below the cap, but you don’t have to treat it like a piece of china while doing it. The drains may have froze, it’s possible.
From what you are describing you will probably need to hire a plumber to jet the pipes clean. Most plumbers will camera into the pipe as they clean, so will discover what’s going on. It will cost a bit to do, but worth the expense to do it.
I bought a new house on a slab years ago. Turns out the floor drain in the utility closet was full of concrete from when they poured the slab. Hope that’s not your issue.
All of those floor drains have trap in them so if you stick a screwdriver in them you are going to hit the bottom of the trap...unless you have one them special bendy screwdrivers. You need to get that top screen off and underneath you will see the open drain that leads to the trap and you will see a cleanout plug. You need to take the plug out CAREFULLY.
I'm not really sure why but the enginerds that design those things make the plug small enough to fit down the drain and when they do they are a female dog to get out. If the plug is also cast of steel, you may have to get a cold chisel and beat it out. DO NOT replace it with another metal plug go PVC...much easier to break them out if they get stuck. Be careful not to damage the threads as you are beating the plug out. If you get a decent cold chisel and a good 3# or 5# sledge you should be able to fold it in on itself pulling the threads on the plug away from the threads on the drain. if you get the done in 1 or 2 spots, you can usually get on to it and then turn it.
Before I tried the beat it out method, I would get a propane torch and heat the crap out of it and then try to turn it. if you do heat it and your get it to turn make sure you cool it off before you take it all the way out...remember you cant drop it and a hot cap it not something you are going to hang on to.