Can someone help me identify what I uncovered in my basement closet?
Saw some mold in my basement closet, and when lifting the old laminate, uncovered this man-hole looking structure.
74 year old house, and it has 2 openings feeds into the pit that is filled with water.
Can someone help me identfy this, it's purpose, and what my next step would be (ie, leaving access to this, covering, repair, invovled with drain tile?)
Looks like a dry well. Unsure of the pipe, however. Unless that was meant to be a backup drain for times the dry well is overwhelmed by drainage.
Since it's been there since the house was originally built, I think I'd leave well enough alone, and just make a cover for it. Composite 5/4x6 deck planks might work well for this since they won't be damaged by moisture. Otherwise use pressure treated wood.
Then why are you asking what it is? Looks like a dry well if it has rocks in the bottom and there is no pump.
Your only concerns (besides mold and the musty odor) would be if it can't keep up with the drainage and overflows or if the sump quits working with no backup. You can't expect old houses to meet current codes but if done nowadays it wouldn't be a dry well, it would all be enclosed in a heavy duty plastic sump pit with a lid. And I'm not sure anyone would want to even attempt an "upgrade" to it.
There's no sump pump in the pictures. Did you take it out?
Thanks for the note. I didn't remove any pump, and my plumber just saw a photo, so I was hoping to get a second opinion as he wasn't 100% sure.
So sounds like the best thing to do then would be to cover it as you mentioned?
It's a bit awkward that it's inside the house. Would you suggest that I'm have a separate project to rebuild this outside and fill this in (eventually)
If you dig a new comparable pit outside and fill in that interior pit, you would have an equal need for a sump pump in said proposed outside pit.
If the pit on the inside as-is were to overflow and there was no sump pump, that would mean that the dirt surrounding the pit would be saturated up to above floor level. An outside pit that filled to that level would also signify ground saturation to that level which would cause unstable water table behavior and comparable flooding of the basement.
An exterior dry well is often suggested to take the discharge from an interior sump pump as well as collect water from around the foundation. What was meant is such an exterior dry well should be some distance from the house and downhill from the house..
You saw mold because the pit exuded moisture that came out into the room from a non-sealed covering over the pit.
Hi, I am looking to install a standpipe to drain the water from the washer. I took a picture of the current set up and my plan. I was wondering if this was correct or if there is a better way.
Sink->ABS P Trap->Tee (1.5 in x 2 in x 1.5 in) facing up -> elbow -> pipe to stack
2 in standpipe (min 24 inches in length according to washer manual) connected to tee
[color=#141414]Another way I thought was sink -> elbow -> Tee (1.5 in x 1.5 in x 2 in) -> ABS p trap -> pipe to stack[/color]
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In my basement there is a slow drip (1 drop per minute) coming from a T-joint in a plumbing vent pipe. It is at a low spot in slope, so I assume there is a bit of standing water at that spot. I can fix the poor seal but I am wondering where the heck the water is coming from? It is not constant, and can be dry for days.
02-03-23, 05:49 PM
