sewer collapse question

The HOA just sent out an email that there has been a sewer collapse and that the city was working on it. The city told the HOA that some might have problems with sewer gas getting into the house during the fixing because the workers would create a vaccum that might pull the water from the pipes in the house and that we should run water if we smelt gas. How far away from the construction should I be before I don't really need to worry about it?

Reply to
Kurt Ullman
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Until you can't smell it?

....

Reply to
Daring Dufas : Hypocrite TeaBi

Kurt,

Just do what they tell you. If you smell sewer gas, run the water in all of your sinks and tubs to refill the P traps. Takes about 10 seconds per fixture.

Dave M.

Reply to
David L. Martel

Actually , if the drains are properly vented there's no way a vacuum in the system can suck the p-traps dry .

Reply to
Snag

My problem is that we are traveling while they are working on it. Trying to figure out if I need to have the neighbor wander through a couple of times a day or not.

Reply to
Kurt Ullman

Hmmm, According to law of physics, I'd say. Any thing can happen to any thing any time.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

According to the laws of physics, perhaps you're correct. Highly unusual for it to occur though if the caveat "PROPERLY VENTED" is accurate.

I wonder though if the city was actually cautioning him about the storm sewers. Floor drain in the basement is generally (again GENERALLY) not supposed to be tied in the the sanitary sewer line which is vent, however it if is -as may well be the case here (hence the city's concern) - I don't think that that sewer drain is tied into the vent stack in the house. Perhaps it's supposed to be but I've seen too many where it's not.

If I was the original poster, I would check to make sure there's water in the p-traps and if I wasn't absolutely sure that the basement drain was NOT connected to the affected line, I'd install a pressure plug until the crisis passed so that whether they suck the line clear or try to blow it clear, the crap would take the path of least resistance and not fill up my basement.

Reply to
Unquestionably Confused

Hi, Wonder if area had heavy snow fall plugging up the vents?(remote chance) Sewage back up is covered by insurance. I have check valve installed on my basement drain. Here in June we had biggest flood in 45 years. My daughter's basement was total loss due to sewage back up. Tallied damage was almost !00K which insurance co. paid reluctantly. Feel sorry about folks who suffered over flowing surface water damage. Daughter had a sump pump but when power went out... Now she has new pump with battery and gen set back up installed for the next time in case...

Reply to
Tony Hwang

The email from the city specifcially mentioned waste water sewer and warned of sewer gasses getting into house. Wouldn't both of those together indicate not a storm sewer??

How would I do that?

Reply to
Kurt Ullman

Kurt,

Why? You can fill the P traps and air out any smell when you return from your trip. You are making a mountain out of a mole hill.

Dave M.

Reply to
David L. Martel

I've seen a situation where high winds blowing across a roof will create a vacuum in the vent stacks and suck all the P-traps dry. ^_^

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

There is an emergency sump pump system that's run by city water. I looked in to getting one for an old(90) customer of mine before I became too ill to do physical labor. ^_^

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TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

That is part of what I was wondering about. Although ehow.com suggested that there could be a buildup of methane causing the possibility of an explosion. That and the kids are flying back while Kay and I are driving and I don't want to have to Child#2 deal with it when I am still 600-700 miles away (or more to point I don't want to have to deal with C#2.... )

Reply to
Kurt Ullman

The only way it could happen would be for there to be a vacuum large enough so that the air from the various vents would not be sufficient to reduce it enough and there was still enough vacuum to pull the water from the traps. Given that we're not talking about just one house, but presumably many houses, it would sure seem to me that either a lot of houses would have to have no venting or it would have to be one hell of a vacuum being created on the sewer main. I don't see why they would be creating any substantial vacuum to begin with.

Reply to
trader4

See if you can remove the grate or drain screen on your floor drain. Most are removable.

Any Big Box or decent hardware store will have a suitable plug in the plumbing section. It's nothing more than a 3" high or so rubber "cork" slightly smaller in diameter than the sewer pipe. The rubber has a metal "washer" on the bottom and top and a threaded rod in the center. You insert the plug in the sewer/drain and snug it down with a wrench which expands the plug (the outside diameter of which has little rubber ridges to grip tightly) and effectively closes off the drain. Nothing passes either way.

Reply to
Unquestionably Confused

We have a finished basement and I honestly can't remember seeing anything that looks like that. Is it buried under the carpet?

Reply to
Kurt Ullman

to be better safe than sorry have neighbor walk thru a couple times a day, and to prevent a explosion leave a window on the top floor open just a litt le, so even if gas somehow accumulated it would have somewhere to go:) meth ane is lighter than air so it will naturally go to the highes spot in the b uilding. Leave all interior doors open for free air flow.

and let neighbor doing walk thru know why window is open a little and all i nterior doors are open

Reply to
bob haller

If they are working in a primary chase, they will want to rapidly remove the toxic gases (will kill you if inhaled) out of the system as rapidly as possible, and keep a fresh air inlet open while the vacuum is applied. A lot of this is overkill, but the hazard is there.

Reply to
Irreverent Maximus

Oh, to play the nit picker...

The vacuum does not pull the water. The water is pushed. :-)

Reply to
Irreverent Maximus

I just recently received a notice from my town about work they were going to do on the sewer lines on my street during one day only. The notice said they were re-lining the main sewer lines using some kind of chemical/plastic compound that is applied to the inside of the sewer lines and quickly dries. They said they would have to shut off the sewer lines briefly during the day. And, they said that the chemical smell is sort of like nail polish remover. They said that if the homeowners smelled the chemical smell inside their home to be sure to add water to the traps by running the water at each fixture briefly. I could smell the chemical outside while they were doing the work, but not i my house.

What they are about to do in your development sounds like no big deal to me. Just do what they said about re-filling the traps in the unlikely event that you smell sewer gas in your home.

Since you are in a condo complex, I doubt that there are any basement floor drains in your property. I thought that they were prohibited by more recent building codes, but I am not sure.

Since you said you will be away, and you want to be sure there is no problem while you are away, there is an easy solution. For each sink and tub, just leave the cold water on with a tiny drip -- something very slow, like a drop or two at a time -- while you are away. In the highly unlikely event that the traps do get low or emptied by the sewer work, the very slow drip will automatically re-fill each trap. That seems like unnecessary overkill to me, but if you are truly concerned, that will solve your concern. personally, I would not worry about it.

Or, if you wanted, you could ask a neighbor or two to keep an eye out (actually a nose out) for the smell of any sewer gases in their homes while the work is going on. Then, if they do smell something in their home(s), you could have them contact you by phone or maybe have them go in a re-fill the traps in your home. But, if they don't smell anything in their home, I see no reason to have them going into your home at all, let alone several times a days.

Reply to
TomR

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