Basement floor drain has cold air coming out
#1
Basement floor drain has cold air coming out
Hi, bought an older house built in 1952 and the basement drain always has cold air coming out of it. My first thought was the trap was empty and dumped buckets of water down it with no effect. Proceeded to pop the top off the drain and have a better look. Could see that the trap was full however discovered there was another 4 inch pipe coming in the side of the drain above the trap. After some investigating and testing I found out that it is a straight feed from my eavestroughs. My question is, Is there some sort of one way valve that will allow the water to flow through when it is raining, however closes up automatically when dry to prevent cold air from leaking into the basement.
#2
"IF" there was a check valve of that sort it would truly be cost prohibitive. You would have to chop up the floor and the valve cost itself would be high. Best bet here is (if possible) cover the floor drain with a thick carpet or rubber mat.Good luck.
#4
I think capping the drain is the best idea as all the things that go down the evestroughs goe's to your drain (including that sand that is on the shingles).You are bound to have a major plugging in the future. Good luck.
#5
You might want to be careful about doing any work on that line. In many places, it is illeagal to run gutter drains or sump pumps into the sewage system, as this causes a huge load on the sewage treatment system when it rains. Usually this sort of thing is grandfathered in, but repairing the system will remove that exception. I know in my house, we have an old sump pump that is hooked up to the sewage line, and if we replace the pump we are no longer allowed to hook it up.
Josh
Josh