bamichael
New Member
I'm new to the forum and have a question regarding some advice that was given to me a few years ago. I moved into a home about six years ago that was built in the 1950's on a basement. Wall leaks have been minimal and I've had a sump and under the floor trenching and weep holes put in on the wall that is the most problematic. However, this week, we got about 4.5" of rain in about 4 hours. The rainwater drains in the street couldn't keep up and water came up my basement drain to about 4 or 5 inches. This is the first time I've seen this happen.
The advice I recall a guy giving me was this. He said that if I had a problem like this, instead of sealing it and risking that the plug might not hold (this happened to my father-in-law), that I should look at extending the drain up a couple feet and make sure it is sealed well around the drain itself. He contended that in the situation I saw this week, that water would have only come up the extension about as far as it filled my basement (4 to 5 inches) and then it would stop instead of filling and overflowing the extension. He said something about the weight of the water and air pressure would not allow it to overflow. Does this sound right to anyone else?
The advice I recall a guy giving me was this. He said that if I had a problem like this, instead of sealing it and risking that the plug might not hold (this happened to my father-in-law), that I should look at extending the drain up a couple feet and make sure it is sealed well around the drain itself. He contended that in the situation I saw this week, that water would have only come up the extension about as far as it filled my basement (4 to 5 inches) and then it would stop instead of filling and overflowing the extension. He said something about the weight of the water and air pressure would not allow it to overflow. Does this sound right to anyone else?