I recently moved into a home in Illinois that has a basement. I’m coming from Arizona and have never had a basement or actually knew about sump pumps until I started searching for a home.
Me and my wife were out of town a few weeks ago and there was some heavy rain and some snow melting as well and water must have backed up because there was water in my basement. No one could have been in my house to run any water or flush any toilets while we were out. I identified it coming from a floor drain in the laundry room and could see the water pattern go out. It did not seep in from the walls because they were dry and there was still dust on the walls. The plumber said my drain out pipe must be backed up and he rodded it from the outside.
My question is if the water came from the outside into the drain why didn’t it go into the basin of the sump pump and it should have pumped out to my backyard? The area around my sump pump was dry so I know water didn’t go into the basin and overflow.
If anyone could explain this to me because I feel like I’m missing something or not completely understand how this whole system is suppose to work.
Best Answer
In some locations you cannot connect the sewer to the sump system, I understand this is not the discharge but sewage can be in that drain and pumping it outside could Create a health hazard. I have installed back flow preventers in the past to keep back pressure from entering, these do have there own problems but stop the city system from filling your basement with other peoples waste.