Hi,

My dh and I are new, first-time, homeowners and we have encounter this problem on more than several occasions. We have a 1951 Cape, with a basement utility sink. The washing machine is set up to drain into the sink using a flexible rubbery hose that is placed over the side of the sink. The sink is actually a double sink, quite large. I am not sure of the dimensions. The sink has a drain on both side and there are two holes that are between the two halves of the drain so there won't be any overflow.

The problem is that there is, and has always been some amount of overflowing. Sometimes the water gets to the top and then starts to finally, slowly drain. Sometimes it goes over the sides of the sink. It depends. Sometimes the washer tub has not drained completely even though the washing cycle is completely finished, the washer off.

Recently it is happening more and more often. So we have been finding a river of water going from the sink to the remainder of the basement. The drain is free of debris, at least the kind that is in the sink basin itself (like hair, link getting caught in the mouth of the drain).

My hubby is now going to take a plunger to the drain and see what happens. The previous owner had cleaned a large amount of paint in the sink. I am not sure how much, or how well he cleaned it out, but what is evident from what was left when we moved in, there was a whole lot of paint.

I was wondering how to alleviate this situation by having the washer drain into the main drain (?), bypassing the sink altogether. Is this possible? How costly?

Thank you for feedback! :)

TheMissus

You sink may have only a 1.5" drain which is too small for a washer but the sink should be able to hold any excess without overflowing. I would reccomend that your remove and clean the P trap below the sink and also put about 15" of rod into the drian pipe, preferably with a cutter head.

Power auger, drains need a good cleaning out is what that sounds like. Rent one or hire a plumber to snake it out.