We bought our current house about 3 years ago. It needed a lot of work,

But that was the best we could find for my budget in the size house we

Wanted. I figured we could fix it up, and it's 3 years, and we're still

Fixing it up. The main delay is that I'm 100% disabled from military

Service and cancer. Most of my bones are destroyed, and my condition

Gets worse with time. I've always been pretty handy (mostly with

Woodwork), but now I tell my wife, or one of my brothers how to do

Something, and they do the work while I give instruction.

I've had a problem with a floor drain in the basement that has left me

Puzzled. I tried researching, but can't find much info on floor drains.


Our house has 3 levels, the basement, and two floors above it. In the

Basement there's an old cement laundry sink, and a floor vent a few

Feet from it. The washer hookups used to be there (have been moved to

2nd floor with new branch and plumbing). Above that area on the 1st

Floor is the kitchen. Above that on the 2nd floor used to be a 2nd

Kitchen (was removed, made into bedroom & bathroom, new plumbing). The

Kitchen on the first floor was under renovation for a year. Finally at

The point where we have sink and dishwasher installed and running last

Week.


When we first got water running, the sink was clogged. We worked for an

Hour to clear the clog, and the water started to run down the drain

Fine. Then I discovered that the basement floor was flooded. I traced

The source to the floor drain. We tried for hours to clear this drain.

I tried plunging, snaking, and high water pressure to clear the drain.

It seemed like it was clear. I was shooting water down it under

Pressure with a hose, and the water was going through. When we tried

The kitchen sink upstairs, it would back up through the floor drain in

The basement still.


I'll try to describe the floor drain. I looked online, and couldn't

Find anything that looked like it (at least not from the perspective I

See it). It's cast iron. When I remove the grate, it looks like a bowl

Inside about 6-8 inches in diameter. In the bottom, center of the bowl

Is the drain hole, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. On the side of the

Bowl near the top is a much smaller hole, less than an inch in

Diameter. I don't know what the smaller hole is for. I thought it might

Be some kind of overflow or something. With the aid of a wet vacuum, I

Removed all the water from the drain, and had someone upstairs turn on

The water. I was surprised to find that the water was not backing up

From the larger hole at the bottom of the drain, but from the small

Hole in the side of the drain. Then I thought, why wasn't it draining

Into the bigger hole anyway. I was able to shoot water from the hose

Down that hole. Maybe there's a P-trap under that hole that's partially

Clogged, and the hose can push through, but the relative slow flow from

The sink upstairs can't. I tried finding out how these floor drains

Worked, but had little luck. I tried sticking a rag in the small hole,

Ran the water upstairs, and it drained fine. There was no backup

Anymore. Its been running for several days with the rag in place, and

There's no further problem with flooding.


Can someone tell me how these drains work. Eventually we want to finish

The basement, and we don't want or need the drain. Can we seal it up?

How do we go about doing that? Can we just fill it with cement, or use

Epoxy? Thanks for any and all answers. I'm at a loss trying to figure

This out.


Regards,
Joe

The large hole is a cleanout and the small hole sounds like a opening for a trap primer. About the only way this could happen is if the trap was blocked and you have a partial blockage downstream from it. Then the backup would come out of the small hole. If it were my call I would snake the line through the larger hole. Then you can seal off the holes and fiill the floor drain with cement. Good luck, tom