Hi,

I just bought a 60+ year old home, and am a brand new homeowner. I know nothing about plumbing, but after a few washes in my washer, I noticed that water was leaking under the washer. Under the laundry tub, the hose was leaky, so I replaced it. Then, I noticed that water was still leaking under the washer, into a floor drain. So, I tested the machine, and noticed that soap and water are backing up in the sewer drain (not a whole lot, but enough to freak me out).

When I moved in, there was no standpipe in the sewer drain for the washer, there was just a plastic hose clamped under the laundry tub, and the hose went directly into the sewer drain. I had a plumber come look at it. He said it that since there is no standing water in the drain, there is no trap in this old iron sewer drain. He said that he would have to chisel up the basement floor, put a trap in, then put a standing pipe in for the laundry machine. He said it would cost around 300-400 dollars. There are no odors coming from the basement, even though there is no trap inside that drain. My question is, if there are no odors, do I really need to spend that much to put a trap in the drain? What are the risks if I leave it as "open sewer"?

Dacker7:

My concerns would be of the HEALTH issues of an open drain.

If you have a drain in the floor and you have a laundry sink there also I feel like the floor drain was meant for the laundry sink to drain into. Therefore when you drain the washer into the laundry sink that is what it was meant to do. I also feel like that you have a trap under the floor drain. To test for a trap either pour or run some water into the floor drain, then use a very bright flashlight and shine down into the floor drain if you see water standing it is because there is a trap. I think that is why you are not getting any odor from this drain. Now about the soap and water backing up in the drain, was there a lot of watter like it was flooding your floor or was it a small amount of water and a lot of soap suds. It is normal to have some soap suds show up in the floor drain as the washer drains, the same that it is hard to get a lot of the suds to drain out of a bath tub after a bubble bath.