Sudsy drain

[Joe]

Yesterday, we had a downpour after 5 days of a heat wave. My single family home has 3 sewer drains around the basement area, only one is the exterior near my basement door. As I was watching the downpour and welcoming it from my window facing that drain, I noticed that water was spouting out instead of draining...it was also very sudsy. I immediately went to the basement to check all the interior drains and they were all good. I have no idea why and where the problem is from. The sudsy part really confused me.... than I thought about a week or so ago we used the washing machine, which is almost adjacent to the exterior drain. My wife used some Borax in the washing with vinegar. ...so I was wondering if that could have been the cause of the backup? That was the first time in 32 years that the drain reacted that way.

[Joe]

My home is not in any rural area, its in the city.

[Marilyn Manson]

My grandfather lived in a house in a town where the storm sewers and sanitary sewers were connected. They weren't the same pipes, but the sanitary system was supposed to be the "back-up" for the storm sewers in bad storms. It never really worked and it caused more problems than it solved.

When grand dad built his own house on the same street, he installed one of these shut-off valves in his basement.

I remember as a kid that he would send me downstairs to close the valve when a heavy storm was predicted. It worked great to prevent back ups into the house but it also prevented the use of sinks and toilets since the waste water couldn't leave the house.

Eventually the town removed the connection to the sanitary sewers and increased the size of the storm sewer pipes.