Floor Drain Cleaning in Lodi, NJ
Basement, garage and laundry floor drains cleared before the next storm finds them.
What you are seeing
- Water pooling on the basement floor instead of draining away.
- The floor drain overflows when the washing machine empties.
- A sewer smell in the basement.
- Water rising from the drain during heavy rain.
When this is the right fix
When a basement, garage or laundry drain is slow, overflowing, or smells — and before the season it will be needed in.
The drain nobody thinks about
A floor drain sits in the basement floor doing nothing for years. It has no tap over it, nobody uses it deliberately, and it gets no attention at all — until the day water is on the floor and it turns out to be the only thing standing between a heating system and a flood.
Because it is ignored, it silts up. Dust, laundry lint, detergent residue, concrete dust and rust settle into the trap beneath it and pack down. By the time it is needed, a drain that should take a substantial flow takes a trickle.
Read the symptom carefully
If the floor drain overflows when the washing machine empties, the drain is not keeping up with a known, ordinary volume. Either the drain itself is silted or the line it feeds is restricted.
If the floor drain overflows when nothing is running, the floor drain is not the problem at all. It is the lowest opening in the house, and water is coming back up through it from a blocked main line. Cleaning the floor drain will not help, because the floor drain is the messenger.
If it only happens during heavy rain, the picture is different again — the street sewer may be running at capacity. That is common in the combined sewer systems in parts of Hudson County and the older cities, and the conversation there is about a backwater valve rather than about cleaning.
If there is a sewer smell but no water, the trap has probably dried out. A floor drain trap holds a small amount of water to block sewer gas, and in a drain that is never used, that water evaporates. The fix is usually a bucket of water poured down it, which is worth trying before calling anyone.
What we do
We clear the drain and the trap beneath it, clean out the silt rather than just opening a channel through it, and get the line it discharges into flowing properly. Where the cause looks like it is downstream rather than in the drain itself, we will say so rather than clean a drain that was never the problem.
Worth doing before you need it
A floor drain is the one drain in the house that is worth clearing on a schedule instead of on a failure, because its failure mode is being needed and not working. It also has no early warning — a drain that is 90% silted looks exactly like a drain that is fine, right up to the moment a water heater lets go or a storm puts water on the floor.
If yours has not been touched in years, and particularly if your basement holds anything you would rather not replace, having it cleared while nothing is wrong is cheap insurance.
Two things you can do yourself
- Pour a bucket of water down it every couple of months. This keeps the trap full, which keeps sewer gas out.
- Keep the grate clear. Boxes, storage and laundry baskets over a floor drain are the reason a lot of basements flood.
Call
(201) 315-6655, day or night, any day of the week. Tell us whether the water appears only when a fixture is running, only in heavy rain, or at no particular time — those three answers point at three different causes.
Common questions
Why does my basement floor drain smell?
Most likely the trap has dried out. The drain has a small water trap under it that blocks sewer gas, and in a drain nobody uses, that water evaporates over a few months. Pouring a bucket of water down it refills the trap and usually fixes the smell within minutes. If the smell persists after that, something else is going on and it is worth looking at.
Water comes up out of my floor drain. Is the floor drain blocked?
Probably not. If water is coming up rather than failing to go down, the floor drain is acting as the lowest opening in the house and water is backing up into it from the main line. The blockage is downstream. Cleaning the floor drain in that situation changes nothing.
It only backs up when it rains hard. Why?
That pattern suggests the public sewer is running at capacity during storms rather than your line being blocked. It is common where combined sewers carry both sewage and storm water, which includes parts of Hudson County and several of the older cities. The remedy there is usually a backwater valve rather than drain cleaning, and it is worth establishing which situation you are in before spending money.
How often should a floor drain be cleaned?
There is no universal interval, but the useful principle is that it should be cleared before it is needed rather than after it fails. A drain that has gone many years untouched in a basement containing a heating system, a water heater or anything valuable is worth attending to while nothing is wrong.
Can I clear it myself?
You can lift the grate and remove what is visible, and you should keep the trap topped up with water. Beyond that, the silt is packed into the trap below and needs proper clearing — and if the water is coming up rather than going down, nothing you do at the grate will make any difference.