Basement sewer smell/Plumbers info req'd.

[Mr Nice]

Sent your alarm on cellphone and once a week add water to drain. Luckily no basements here in Florida.

 

[irv]

Thanks for the advice/tips everyone. I posted on a couple other sites and received some good information as well. Seems the weeping tile coming into that upper drain may in fact be a weeper from my foundation, window wells or footings? Common when my house was built, supposedly? With no dedicated primer lines going to this drain, I am likely going to re-route my furnace/AC condensate line to this drain to help keep it primed. From what I understand and since this drain is in our laundry room, this is dedicated drain in case of a hose breakage, flood and like previous mentioned, for outside weepers when the ground gets saturated? I am going to fill up the wash basin shortly with hot water and listen real close when I drain it to ensure nothing drains to this spot, however. Most are saying not likely but some say there is a possibility? 2 additional things I was told. Products exist, like a one way check valve that will stop the odors coming up these drains and another was to use Murphy's Oil Soap instead of vegetable oil to keep the P trap from drying out. Thanks for the info, everyone, I appreciate it very much!

 

[pezzy669]

Is your water heater down in the basement and if so does it have its own dedicated drain for the expansion relief? My early 2000's condo has a dedicated 1.5" drain line for the water heater blowoff and a/c condensate line, took me a year to figure out why I kept getting sewer odors towards the end of winter. No a/c condensate and water heater has expansion tank so the trap was just drying out all winter long. I now know to go open the relief valve for a few seconds a few times during the winter. It did not help that the drain is tucked way in the back behind the water heater where the base of the heater is mounted at my eye level (above a dryer), would never know there was a drain back there unless you hopped up on a ladder and looked around.

 

[irv]

Originally Posted by pezzy669

Is your water heater down in the basement and if so does it have its own dedicated drain for the expansion relief? My early 2000's condo has a dedicated 1.5" drain line for the water heater blowoff and a/c condensate line, took me a year to figure out why I kept getting sewer odors towards the end of winter. No a/c condensate and water heater has expansion tank so the trap was just drying out all winter long. I now know to go open the relief valve for a few seconds a few times during the winter. It did not help that the drain is tucked way in the back behind the water heater where the base of the heater is mounted at my eye level (above a dryer), would never know there was a drain back there unless you hopped up on a ladder and looked around.

I don't see a line anywhere coming off my gas hot water blower vented tank but I just filled the laundry wash basin a couple times and noticed water does come out the line with the weeper into this drain. The water, at first, seemed to recede back into this line but then started flowing out. Not a lot but enough to see a ripple/eddy in the water. I would assume doing it this way with this amount of water made it work so maybe when doing a wash, not enough of it goes to this primer line?? I can't see anywhere where there is a primer line so everything must be buried in the concrete? If that is the case then this primer line should also be active from the waste water from the kitchen sink and the dishwasher? I am currently in the process of running the line from the furnace condensate pump to this floor drain but I need to get a joiner as the 2 condensate lines/hoses I have are too short.

 

[dirtymudder]

Do you have a front load. washing machine? If so try using 1/2 of the amount laundry detergent. Too much detergent in those front loaders will cause bacteria to build up in the drain pipe from the machine. It will cause a nasty sewer smell.