Basement Drains and Sewer Pains

For those of you that don't live in Ohio, or don't have basements, or both, basements have an open sewer drain as part of the normal plumbing of the house. It's like a safety vent should pressures in the pipes or in main sewer line grow beyond safe limits. The drain basin is normally dry, it typically doesn't stink and it usually isn't much of a consideration. But occasionally it can generate some excitement.

Several years ago we had our line to the sewer back-up which was our first experience with the basement drain sending everything we thought was going out to the sewer into our basement. It was kind of ugly but we fought our way back into the basement with buckets, bleach, mops, and a wet vac then had the plumbers come out, snake the line, and explain the system to us. Since then we'd been good to go.

Until yesterday that is, when Karen went into the basement and found our sewer drain acting more like a sewer volcano. Jolly. Out came the bucket, the mops, the bleach, and the wet-vac and Karen waded in (Bless her heart, I was at MMS). Long story short, the plumbers responded in an hour or so and snaked until they couldn't snake any more and then called the City because our line was clean. If you ever need plumbing service in Coshocton, call James Plumbing (622-6862). They're great!

The City came out and discovered there was a blockage in the four-foot main line three manholes down from our house. They back-pressured the line to blow the blockage which may sound rather mundane, except that, as they explained to Karen, everyone on that line would come home to the "surprise" of basement sewer sludge because the pressure had to go somewhere (right out all the sewer drains). "Oh, and your basement is probably a mess again, too."

"Have a nice day," the City workers called out as Karen went back down in the house to gird herself once again with the mop, the bucket, the bleach and the wet-vac.