After a failed attempt to snake out the drain line by a local plumber, combined with rising temperatures and predictions of rain I broke down and bought a proper sump pump (made in the USA by Wayne Water Systems, and containing a number of components manufactured at the factory I work at!). I bought it at 11:00 AM or so, but between needing a thread adapter and my busy schedule didn't get it hooked up until 7:00 PM. However it did the trick, and pulled the water level in the catch basin below the level of the basement...
Then, the very next day, I managed to get an appointment with Tressler's Plumbing. Rather than a drain snake they used a jet machine, which uses extremely high pressure water to blast through the obstruction. The entire process took less than five minutes, and pretty much as soon as they shut off the jetter the water level dropped like a rock!
Needless to say I am glad to have this problem resolved. The sump pump is probaly in that basin to stay, just in case...
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Black Water Blues...
Over the last few days my basement has been slowly flooding. It all started when I washed my uniforms, pushing something along the lines of 40 gallons of water down the drain. When I went downstairs that evening to hang up my uniforms I noticed a large puddle staring back at me in the southeast corner of the basement...
At first I decided to leave it alone, as I thought the kitchen/washer drain and the basement drain led to either a large dry well or the river. However over the next couple of days the water level rose, rather than falling. I decided to try plunging the drain, thinking that since I found a plunger in the basement when I bought the place that it might have been there for a reason...
This led to the next nasty surprise. When I worked the plunger, as expected, some nasty water came back up... However the level didn't fall. Instead the air began to reek, bringing my fears to light... This wasn't gray water (bathing water and/or wash water), it was black water (a kinder, gentler word for SEWAGE!!!)
This forced me to buy a cheap Chinese knockoff of one of the sump pumps that my factory makes parts for. Fortunately the pump did the trick, and within half an hour the water had dropped back down into the depression in the corner of the basement where the drain is located.
Even though that much is good news I am still left with the problem of why... Either my septic tank is backed up (a very real possibility considering the stupid behavior of the previous owners) or there's something bigger going on. I am going to have to do some investigation on this matter.
At first I decided to leave it alone, as I thought the kitchen/washer drain and the basement drain led to either a large dry well or the river. However over the next couple of days the water level rose, rather than falling. I decided to try plunging the drain, thinking that since I found a plunger in the basement when I bought the place that it might have been there for a reason...
This led to the next nasty surprise. When I worked the plunger, as expected, some nasty water came back up... However the level didn't fall. Instead the air began to reek, bringing my fears to light... This wasn't gray water (bathing water and/or wash water), it was black water (a kinder, gentler word for SEWAGE!!!)
This forced me to buy a cheap Chinese knockoff of one of the sump pumps that my factory makes parts for. Fortunately the pump did the trick, and within half an hour the water had dropped back down into the depression in the corner of the basement where the drain is located.
Even though that much is good news I am still left with the problem of why... Either my septic tank is backed up (a very real possibility considering the stupid behavior of the previous owners) or there's something bigger going on. I am going to have to do some investigation on this matter.