I moved into a house in northern Wis. ( sandy soil on a hill ) the basement does not have a floor drain. It does have a 8'x8' area with no concrete for the floor. I would like to seal this area up. Can I put a dry well with a floor drain in that area, just in case of water pipe or water heater leaks.

Yes, you can put in a floor drain, providing that you run it to a sump bucket and install a sump pump, as for the area with no concrete, it can be done a couple of ways .

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Originally Posted by ;

you can put in a floor drain, providing that you run it to a sump bucket and install a sump pump,

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I have a different take on this. Why not install the floor drain and pipe it out to a home made dry well?(see image) This will be powered by gravity and no pump will be needed. Sound like a plan? Let me know, Tom

unfinished basement? I'm guesing the 8x8 open area is tub/or shower dapout. Dig down in the dirt in the open area and see if you find a pipe in under there. If you do, you can just use this pipe for connecting a floor drain, no problem. Let us know what you find after digging down in the open area.

Opps, I misread your post, I thought it said 8"x8", not 8'x8'. Sorry. Well, id say dry well, as suggested above, or sump pit with sump pump, which would most likely be less work.

I'm outside of the city, no sewer,septic system runs out the side wall 3' above the floor. The basement is dry, I'm just looking for a place for water to go just in case of a water heater or pipe failer.

Hi AK...

If I read this right...

You can:

1) Install a sump pump pit in the 8'x8' area and then install a sump pump in the pit and pipe a floor drain to it as recommended by coonrod.

2) Install a drywell outside as recommended by Tom.

3) Install a drywell right there in the basement... just remove dirt from the 8'x8' area and add lots of gravel... dig deeper than wider. Cover the gravel with plastic and then place a floor drain with a 6" pipe into the gravel... add concrete and you have a drywell right there in the basement. It will help to a point should a pipe or a water heater leak, but if you have a major leak this will only help in relation to how much dirt you removed and replaced with gravel. That make sense?

Otherwise, they also sell automatic water shutoffs... ;) These babies are great.. a bit costly, but work great. Here, using the LEAK GUARDIAN, for example, you can install the auto. Shutoff on the main water feed into the house and then place remote sensors at the water heater, boiler, any other areas of concern and then if anything happens the remote sensor senses the water and shuts the main water flow off to the house entirely... both hot and cold so pretty cool, especially if you are away when it all happens!

Let us know if you want to discuss more... OK?

MARK

Mark, you are reading it right.#2 would be a lot of digging to get the outside pit lower than the basement floor. It will be #1 or#3. The 8' sq. is in the courner of the basement. How close to the wall footings can one dig to put in a plastic 55 gal barrel?

Footing sticks out about a foot to 18" inside the building...

Could also just use the ground as the pit... just dig out, fill with rocks, and then plastic over that and concrete away... ;) This is what I would do if I chose this path.

If you do use a drum, drill large holes in it to let water drain away from the barrel over time... surround the barrel with gravel.

MARK

Mark, the big?? Was how close to the footing can one safely dig

No issue digging near or even right up against the footing. Heck, at times as plumbers we need to chip into the footing to bring a pipe up and into the room.. so no worries about undermining the footing or anything like that... especially if we are only talking about digging to install a 55 gallon drum!

Mark

Thank you for all the help