"scale" wrote on 13 May 2006:

I poped of the floor drain in my basement because i started
getting water in the basement a few days ago. It appears that
water came up from there......i found what appeard to be toilet
paper that had come up through the drain not to mention some
other weird stuff i couldnt identify.

any ideas?

To add a bit to what Jim said. . .

You own the line running from your house to the main. If it gets
backed up, blocked by roots, or cracked, it will be your
responsibility. If the blockage or break is in the main, the city
owns the problem.

Jim was telling you that if you have heavy rains which raise the
water table, the pressure of the water can fill your line and cause
water to back up into your house--as well as whatever was in the
line at the time.

If that's the case, fixing the cracked/broken part of the line will
involve some heavy earthmoving equipment. They can use a camera to
locate the break, but they'll have to dig to replace the pipe at
that point.

The only way the city could cause the problem that I know of is if
they used a liner to repair the main and forgot to cut open the
hole for your sewer to feed into the main when they were done.
That's really a long shot.

Wait for the response from the city, but be prepared to get a
serious plumbing firm out to repair your sewer line.

No, there's no real way of telling if this problem existed when you
bought your house and, if it did, there's no way to prove that the
previous owners knew about it and concealed it from you.

--
Doug Boulter

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