Sump pump drain clogged up

[R. Kannan]

Hi,

The drain for the sump pump seemed to have
somehow clogged up and the water was overflowing
through the inspection opening and causing
flooding close to the house.

I got a plumber to take a look at it. He tried to
snake the drain but said he could not get the clog
out after snaking about 50 ft of the drain pipe.
He provided a temporary 20 ft over-the-ground
PVC tube to take the water away from the house. He
says the clog could be because of a breakage in the
PVC drain pipe and he will need to bring in a 'camera'
to locate it. He says the pipe should be draining into
a swamp at the back and if we can locate the end of
the drain, he can try snaking from the other end.

My questions are..

1) Does these under-ground drain pipes always terminate
in a common area(/swamp)? My neighbor does not have a property
backing to the woods and so I am guessing the drain pipe
should just terminate under the ground within their propery line.

2) What is the 'camera' stuff the plumber is talking about?
Do I need that to find the clog? Can the plumber use a better
snake/water jet to clear the clog?

3) How safe is the temporary drain? Currently it does not seem
to be getting back a lot of water into the sump but the plumber
says it can freeze up (I live in Michigan) causing a flooding in
the basement and so I should take care of it right away.

Thanks for your help

[Zelda]

Your plumber is recommending a video inspection of your drain line. I
had this done to my sewer line last year. My house's main sewer line
was clogged, and we (the plumber and I) couldn't find the cleanout in
my front lawn. He came back with the video camera - it's mounted on
the end of a snake which he ran through the drain from inside the
house. The video camera unit also sends out a radio signal. We watched
the images on a small tv screen, and when he saw the cleanout on the
monitor, he went outside with a device that picked up the radio signal
and beeped. We found the cleanout under some bushes and a couple of
inches of dirt. The plumber located the clog with the video image and
the radio signal, about two feet past the cleanout. It was a mass of
tree roots.

I found this web page which shows a screen shot of a sewer line video:
http://www.laskowskiplumbing.com/newmoderntools.htm

I think he charged $150 for the video inspection. It was worth it for
me, because I was dealing with a sewer backup. YMMV.

"R. Kannan" <rka...@peoplepc.com> wrote in message news:<3F9DAEC4...@peoplepc.com>...

[v]

On Mon, 27 Oct 2003 18:48:20 -0500, someone wrote:

>... Can the plumber use a better

>snake/water jet to clear the clog?
>

Not if the pipe is collapsed. The plumber told you it might not be a
"clog".

-v.