Special Basement Drain


  #1  
Old 10-20-04, 11:57 AM
uncoolcentral
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Special Basement Drain

The current scenario (http://www.uncoolcentral.com/images/...tupid_pipe.gif) is ugly, rusty, and requires occasional maintenance to be effective.

The goal is a simple, pretty, rust-proof, maintenance-free solution.

The prize? A laminated certificate of engineering achievement placard placed by the drain in your honor, and my eternal gratitude. (I'll even email you a pic of the placard in place!)


Read on.


When it rains a lot, (and it's rained more here in the past few months than any other few-month period I can recall,) the small hole in the foundation from the old oil tank (used to be used for heating,) sends a little rivulet into my basement.

I came home from work during the first hurricane to find several of inches of water near the basement drain. Damn. Then I pulled the pipe (diagram) out, and the water drained. Easy.

I knew the second hurricane was coming, so I removed the pipe. Rivulet of water came and went with little incident.

A few days ago, it rained all day and saturated the ground. Then, though there was only a "20% chance of showers" it rained cats and dogs last night. Rivulet returned, pipe was in the drain. Standing water ensued this morning.

So I plan to address the oil-tank hole as best I can in the spring. I need a solution until then, and in case I can't totally fix the problem in the spring.

Solution should:
1.-prevent gases (and water) from coming up through the drain
2.-allow for a similar pipe to accept a few drain-pipes (might add a sink in the basement)
3.-allow for "regular" non-pipe drainage w/out removal of said pipe
4.-not entail excessive digging or removal of the concrete floor
5.-not rust

I can't leave the drain open, because a nasty ass smell can pervade the house – and the GF sometimes forgets to put the pipe in when she does laundry (yes I’m lucky) and the whole-house humidifier drains into the pipe too.

I have a couple of ideas, but if you can think of anything, or need more fun diagrams, let me know.

Official rules:
If winning solution is a collaborative effort, individuals split prizes, except for my gratitude, as there'll be enough of that to go around.

I'm going back to my stinky, wet basement.

-Dan
 
  #2  
Old 10-21-04, 08:15 AM
A
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What if you installed a float mechansim that might open the drain when the basement is flooding. To do this you can drill a hole in the pipe just as it leaves the concete that will allow for flooded water to drain. To prevent sewer gas and water from laundy etc from escaping the drilled hole, you insert a plug that is attached to a pivot mechansim and a float. The plug is normally blocking the hole, until water floods the basement, forcing up the float, that is atached a to pivot joint that pulls out the plug. Once the water has drained, the plug would settle back into the hole.

But I wouldn't recommend this because it is probabally unreliable and certainly doesn't meet code requirements. I'd break out some concrete, and install a trap beneath the floor that leads to a floor drain.
 
 

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