On Sunday, October 6, 2013 11:39:58 AM UTC-4, wrote:
On Sat, 5 Oct 2013 11:01:51 -0700 (PDT), "

wrote:



On Saturday, October 5, 2013 1:40:13 PM UTC-4, dpb wrote:

On 10/5/2013 12:21 PM, George wrote:



We have an older house (c 1920?). The cellar drain (only) goes to a



drywell, which has gotten quite slow lately. The drain is in the center



for the floor. It goes through a trap, with a clean-out access on the



other side. After that, it runs off more-or-less horizontally. A snake



has some difficulty about 6' in, but runs free after passing that.







So, my question: in those days, would there have been a rule-of-thumb as



to where they put the drywell - under the house, or out past the



foundation? ISTM, it would be easier to put it under, since the cellar



was already dug out.







Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks,







Sounds like either







a) you've got tree roots or,







b) the line has finally begun failing.







I'd suggest getting a plumber/drain service w/ a camera they can send



down to see what the state of affairs is.







As trader4 says, it's highly unlikely it terminates under the slab but



I'd suspect it's probably time that the slab's going to have to be cut



to repair, unfortunately. But, if you get the camera you're going to



find out.







You could always try the roto-rooter route first and see if they can cut



some roots out and solve your problem for a while...







--



Key question here is what the importance of the floor drain is?

I've never lived in a house that had a floor drain in the basement. I

know they exist and I guess if I could have one, with guarantee

of zero problems, it would be nice. On the other hand, in the

house I'm living in now, it has a basement. When I bought it,

I painted the basement floor. I use the basement mostly for

storage. Haven't had a single instance in 20 years where I

would have used a drain like the OP has.



Or a lot of people finish their basements. In which case

I don't see the compelling need for the drain either. You

don't have a drain in the kitchen floor, typically, right?

And if for some reason, like a torrential rain, the basement

has 6" of water, what good is a drywell, below that level

going to do you?



Sometimes these go to the sump, where you pump it out, or to daylight.

In this case, I see the use. To just dump into the ground, not so

much. It seems to be an unwanted source for ground water.


Remarkable, we agree on something. I wonder where the location is?
It must be somewhere with a low ground water level, ie far below
the basement floor.