What Lies Beneath

This Wednesday it will be one year since we purchased a nice little house in Canton, MI. In that year we have made some major and minor improvements. Painting rooms, replacing hot water heaters and circuit breakers, planting and removing things throughout the yard. New windows are also on the way very shortly (hopefully).

One thing that we have had a problem with since last November is some minor flooding in the basement. When we bought the house we were happy to find out that the previous owners had a basement drainage system installed, so when water appeared we were concerned. No fear though as the system came with a LIFETIME guarantee. As luck would have it we could not get in touch with the company using the numbers on the original paperwork, and and after much investigation, we found that not only was the company no longer in existence, the address listed on the paperwork was a residence in a nearby subdivision.

We've had a few plumbers out to look things over and give us an idea of what can be done. We weren't sure if we could salvage the system, or if maybe we should get a sump pump installed. The plumber we decided to go with suggested, after trying to run a camera through the drainage system, that our best bet was to open up the floor in a couple places so he could a.) install some drainage cleanout areas, as there were none, and b.) remove a grate in one of the drains that was preventing him from getting a snake through to clear it.


Holes number one (foreground) and two (in proccess)
This morning he started the work. When he opened up the floor around the drain with the grate, he found that rather than having a grate, it actually had a slice of corrugated drainage pipe blocking the drain along with a 5x7 sheet of thick plastic.

So basically if you stuck your hand down the floor drain prior to the opening of the floor, rather than there being a trap (like in any drain) your fingers would hit the slice of corrugated pipe (which felt like a grate) and behind that was the sheet of plastic. What the?! OK, very odd, but as he was planning on removing the grate and replacing the drain, not that bad.


The little floor drain that couldn't
Next he opened up the floor where that drain connected to the rest of the drainage system that runs around the entire perimeter of the basement. Nothing weird or shocking there, other than the water level was very high, and had also been so when he opened up the aforementioned drain.

From here he was able to run a camera both ways along the drainage tubing. one way he was able to go about 30 feet before hitting what looked like a wall of gravel. The other way he was able to go about 14 feet until the tubing was crushed a little. Not so bad that water wouldn't flow, but too much for the camera to pass by.

He decided to see if the snake would clear the gravel area as we still hadn't seen how this could connect with the storm drain. He was able to get the snake to the gravel area, and asked me to listen by the storm drain to see if I could hear the snake. I could hear it, but saw no resulting water flow in the storm drain.

As I could hear the snake right next to where we wanted the system to drain off, he decided to open the floor next to the storm and sanitary cleanouts. When he did, he found something very curious. The drainage tubing led right up to the outside of the sanitary pipe, and just ended in gravel. That's why I could hear the snake over there, and why the camera showed a wall of gravel when it stopped.


This is where the drainage system was meant to go?
So when they put in this drainage system they never tied it into anything to actually drain it anywhere. All they seemed to do was to put a 4 inch moat around the basement. Did they think that this would hold all the water that would seep under the house, or did they not care and this is why they are no longer in business?


See that pipe buried in the water?
Anyway, we now know why the water wasn't draining away. The plumber snapped the top of the storm drainpipe off so the excess water would drain away. He will return in a day or two to tie the drainage tubing into the storm drain, put in the cleanout, replace the floor drain, and close everything back up nice and neat.


This is the same pipe after letting the water drain.
The water level in the areas he opened up has dropped dramatically now that the drainage system is actually able to drain someplace. I can't wait until we are able to work on the basement without any worry of water damage to our things.

Owning a house is fun.