Any plumbers on here?

Need a little help with a problem. My floor drain in my laundry room keeps backing up, but it’s not everytime we do laundry it’s hit-or-miss. I have had a plumber snake the drain 2 times now and they have never hit anything. My house is a colonial and the laundry room is upstairs near the bedrooms, so pretty soon I am going to have water coming through the floor also the house is only about 7 years old so I know it’s not because of old/crappy pipes. Also it happens through-out the year, not a winter thing. Last night after one load I had about 1/2″ of water on the floor and of course it comes out the entryway onto the carpet. Anyone have any ideas???

How long has this been happening?

I bought the house in April of 07, so since I have bought the house. Also, I am on my second washing machine, happened with both of them.

Mike W is he will more than likely be on today and chime in.

I ve seen instances where the plumbers forgot to remove the test caps on the vent lines on the roof after install.
That might be the case.Obviously a little icy up there right now.Your pretty sure lint isnt being caught up somewhere?

Mike W is a plumber. Im sure he will be on soon and hopefully be able to help ya out.

Could be the a issue with venting. Air needs to get into the drain line threw the vent Could be the drain line is not pitched properly or is under sized and causing a back up every now and again. The drain line should be 2″ inside dia. Atleast 1/4″ per foot of pitch.

I would think a floor drain on a upper floor most likely does not have a back water valve in it. That would prevent water from coming back threw the floor drain but may not solve the problems with the line backing up. A check valve installed in the drain line may take the place of a back water valve. Running the floor drain line separately to the basement would solve this also.

Checking the vent, size and pitch of the pipe might be where to start with this.

Pipe is 2″ PVC, it is on it’s own run to the basement, it does connect to a 4″ pvc pipe in the basement from by master bath/shower I believe. Don’t know if there is any type of valve in the line, I guess I could call the house builder to see if they even did anything like that. No way to check the pitch, main and upstairs level are totally finished off, don’t really want to start tearing sheet rock out of the ceilings

I’m not a plumber, but a couple of question and ideas.

City sewer, or septic tank? Maybe a brief “log jam” of paper, etc. that clears itself?

Could it be that the dishwasher is running at the same time as the washer, or a toilet is being flushed and the drain pipes are under size and temporarily over whelmed? Is there any kind of lift pump in your waste water system?

I have to admit that I’m suspicious of the washing machine, even though it has happened with two different ones. Is it a Maytag? I’ve replaced the flow control twice on ours, because of intermittent over flows.

Good luck.

Dan

No way to check the pitch, main and upstairs level are totally finished off, don’t really want to start tearing sheet rock out of the ceilings

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If the vent goes out the roof on its own that may be the next thing to check. A camera ran down the line may insure there are no blockages. Not sure how a person would check if there is to much water coming from the washing machine. May need to call there company for help with that.

If those items dont fix it it may be time to dig into the walls. Not what you wanted to hear but it may need to happen.

I am on city sewer, and the washing machine has it’s own line to the basement, not sure how it could be a “log jam”, nothing else is being used or flushed when it backs up. I even went and flushed all the toilets, ran the shower and bath tub when it backed up to see if it would send more water up. I was told I couldn’t do video inspection – must have 3″ pipe or bigger. Every time I have a plumber at the house the drain works flawless. But it now has happened about 5 times in the last 2 weeks.

if the ceiling under the laundry room is finished, and was before you bought the house, how do you KNOW exactly how the LR floor drain is run? I’d be willing to bet that the washing machine drain (or sink) and the floor drain are on the same circuit, so when the machine drains, if THAT drain is slow, the floor drain (if it is attached to the same vertical pipe heading down) allows the back-up some place to go. If I’m reading your responses correctly, the floor drain only backs-up when the washing machine is being used, correct? If you know which drain line in the basement is coming from the washing machine, put your ear to it, and have someone pour water in the LR floor drain. I’ll bet you hear the water flowing by.
HRG

Sorry, didn’t mention that, I know the washing machine drain and floor drain are tied together. The last time I had the plumber at the house (2 weeks ago) the drain had backed up that morning, he showed up, we ran 3 full water loads through the washing machine, while the washing machine was draining we stood in the basement and listened to the water coming through the pipe. Sounded like a good flow to us. And both times that he snaked the drain pipe he ran it all the way into the basement where it connects into the 4″ pipe that goes to the main sewer drain. I called the house builder today and they have referred me to the plumbing company that installed all the plumbing, hopefully they will get back to me sometime.

I did a little “Googling” on this problem, some of it may stem from the output of the washine machine can be so much-so fast that the gravity drain of the standpipe can’t handle the volume, so the floor drain acts as an overflow, rather than backing-up 3-4′ to the standpipe (if you have one. if you are draining in to a sink, forget this). One of the tricks is to restrict the washing machine drain hose, by inserting a brass “nipple” in the end, and cause the water that gets pumped-out to drain a little slower.
HRG

You may also consider an anti-back flow valve being added to the floor drain. Kind like the ones used on sump pumps.

thanks Kooty, I was going to suggest that. Earlier, on This Old House they had an article somewhat relative to this. It installs in the floor drain and is a back flow preventer. It’s a check ball design that’s made for flood conditions, but should work exceptionally well for your application jerr

One other thing.

I see that you’re from Holmen. I hope you didn’t have the “Not Very Able Plumbing” company involved in the service or construction of this system.

Let’s just say we’ve had them here for one SIMPLE service call, and to make a long story short it took them THREE trips to get it right. I’ve also seen how many trips they make to other people’s house for a service call.

I’m curious with the overflow. Have you seen the water coming up thru the drain? If not, a possibility is that the control valve on the washer is allowing the water to overflow from tub of the washer – a COMMON problem.

Good luck.

Dan

If you are at the last resort and decide to rip into walls you may want to try one other option. It sure seems to me that you have a venting problem or possibly an improper install of your plumbing system. When I did my home inspection I used an inferred camera to check my piping system for proper install and also check for moisture. Here is a suggestion I would make, hook a garden hose to your laundry sink and let it discharge into your stand pipe. If it can handle that for like a half an hour straight than probably your machine is dischanrging more water than it’s supposed to and the 2 inch pipe is not keeping up. I find this tough to believe though, because if you on the 2nd floor that water would be easily drained to the verticle 4″ stack unless it had a long distance to travel horizontially or your piping is not pitched correctly. Sometimes when your forced to go into finished walls you find an unexpected suprise and in the end it all makes sense. Hope this helps

If you have a Attic Go up and look to see if you have a vent stack,and if it gose horizontal at all. If it goes horz., check to see if it sags any place. If it sags you may have water traped in it and it is freezing up.
Remember Water comes down the vent when it rains snows and from condisation. Also you may not even have a vent line