Why is Your Floor Drain Backing Up?
Backups in your floor drain can be disgusting. When they occur, you might immediately believe that there is an issue with your floor drain. However, that is not the case at all. You should know that backups in a basement floor drain are typically a symptom of another plumbing issue.
Thus, if you’re having a problem with floor drain backups, here are several reasons why they happen. If you need help fixing the problem, you can always search Google for “plumber near me St Albans”.
Damage in the Sewer Line
Clogs have often nothing to do with the problem. Floor drain backups can occur when:
- The roots of a tree have penetrated or skewed the sewer line.
- A sewer line has holes or cracks.
- A sewer line is bent, drooping, or bulgy.
On all of these occasions, your sewer line will have a blockage that acts as a clog. It will force water to back up into your house.
Unfortunately, sewer line damage will require a lot more labor compared to a simple clog.
Clogs in the Sewer Line
Floor drains can also back up if clogs lie deep in the pipes of your house. This usually occurs if there’s a clog in your sewer line.
Just like drain line clogs, sewer line clogs will stop water from flowing freely. Since they’ve got no place to go, water will back up and will find the nearest hole. This can be the bottommost drain in your house, such as the floor drain.
Drain Lines that are Clogged
Blockages in the drain lines of your home can lead to basement floor drain backups. This is because since it is the lowest drain in your house, it will be the first place that wastewater can go if it can’t flow to the sewer line and primary drain.
Thus, with the primary drain backing up, water would keep on accumulating in the sewer line until it backs up and overflows out of your floor drain.
If your house does not have a floor drain in the basement, clogs in the drain line can lead to backups in your fixtures. This can include showers, sinks, and ground-level tubs.
Preventing Basement Floor Drain Backups
Because different problems can cause floor drain backups, fixing the backup starts with knowing what is the cause of it.
Unfortunately, this isn’t a job for a regular homeowner. You will need to hire a professional plumber for help. A couple of things a plumber will do to determine the issue include:
- Conducting camera pipe inspections
- Testing your plumbing fixtures
- Asking you questions
Because of this, you’ll need to be ready when the plumber arrives at your house. This will help make the process a lot faster. Be ready to answer the plumber’s questions. Also, you have to be honest with the answers. Your answers will help the plumber narrow down whether your house is experiencing a sewer line or drain line problem.
Once the problem is fixed, you should also ask the plumber for tips on how to prevent this issue from happening again in the future.
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