[sqaman]

For the past year, I've been getting food stuffs in my laundry room floor drain. I've taken to vaccuuming the trap every few months and continue to find corn kernels, grapes and pistachio nut shells. Given that nobody in my house even eats pistachios, where is this stuff coming from? Someone told me that it's probably from squirrels in my roof sewer vent pipes and that the stuff then falls into my weepers and is carried into my floor drain trap. Is this likely as I have no other explanation? I've had the local utility run the camera through my sewer and found no blockage. Should I put screening over the tops of the roof vent pipes and is there any way to try and flush these vent pipes?

[massplumber2008]

Hi Sqaman..

My first thought was that your wife (husband) probably has a boyfriend (girlfriend) that likes pistachios... ;)

My second thought, a little more professional, I hope, is that the floor drain and the kitchen sink drains may connect together and the drain underground is backing up.

Now, maybe it isn't the kitchen sink at all. Maybe, it is squirrels dumping stuff down a drain and stuff is showing up at the floor drain, but that's the point... SHOWING UP AT THE FLOOR DRAIN!

For anything to show up at the floor drain tells me that the drain line the floor drain (and the vent or the kitchen sink drain) is connected to has a slow blockage... not the main drain, mind you, but the branch drain picking up the floor drain.

I would start investigating this by flooding the floor drain with water from a hose and see if you can get it to back up. If you can get it to back up, then you know you need to snake the drain... best done down the vent, perhaps.

If you can't get the floor drain to back up I'd run a few other fixtures connected to the same drain line (at the same time) and then flood the floor drain.. see from there.

Once the drain line is unclogged you can cover the vents with a chicken wire if you really think animals are dropping stuff down your roof vents... :p

Back to you...

Mark

[ma0641]

I had a similar problem with acorns getting down the vent pipes. I put a mobile home vent cap on them. You might have to trim it a bit but it sure solved my problem.

[speedball1]

Someone told me that it's probably from squirrels in my roof sewer vent pipes and that the stuff then falls into my weepers and is carried into my floor drain trap.

I second Marks answer. Nothing's going to back up into your floor drain trap unless it's pushed there by back pressure caused by a partial blockage. I would, however screen the roof vents. Good luck, Tom