Please help. I purchased my home about 3 1/2 years ago. The home was built approximately in 1950. My basement has two drains both have overflowed once each. The first time we called in Roto Rooter and he had used the snake to clean out one of the pipes and put a cap on it (the other cap was broken). We have another drain that is open on the East side of the basement, right next to the wall. This drain has now overflowed. It does not smell like it could be sewage back up, but, I'm not sure what it is. The overflow seems to smell a little musty and has black dirt and what looked like hair or fibers around the drain opening. I'm not sure what this drain is or where it comes from. I do have City water and sewage. I apologize if I sound naïve, the fact is, I am. However, I don't want to continue to have to deal with this as we have just finished our basement, thank goodness the majority of the overflow was only on the tiled portion of the finished basement. If anyone could help me understand what this might be or how to fix it, I would greatly appreciate it!!

You're going to have that line snaked out as well. Hair comes from showers,tubs and lavatory drains while fiber comes from the washer drain. The clogs will always be downstream of the place it backs up into and it will always back up in the lowest spot in the system. If you don't to continue to deal with this you're going to have to find out what's causing the clogs, roots, break in the sewer line, Something that shouldn't have been flushed or put down your disposal,etc. In the meatime have the line snaked out. Good luck, Tom