Drain question

[steuard]

I think I've mentioned before that the drain for our driveway and rear walk sometimes has trouble, well, draining. This was a problem yet again last night, and I'm tired of that little stream of water flowing through our basement when the lake forms against the back wall. It's pretty clearly more than just the grate getting clogged that's to blame, but I've exhausted my limited ability to investigate and fix the problem myself.

So: what kind of contractor should I be calling for this? It sounds vaguely plumbing related, but it falls a bit outside of my vague mental model of what plumbers do. Should I be looking instead for the sorts of folks who could repair the cracked sidewalk nearby at the same time? (And, er, who are they, exactly? I've not yet had to have any serious structural work done around the house.) Advice would be appreciated!

Comments

[beth_leonard]

Ask the city? Plumbers do a really wide variety of things, and if you'd rather contact one of them first, make sure the dispatcher on the phone understands the outdoor nature of the problem. A plumber will be able to tell you if you need to contact the city, and who to contact.
--Beth

[ericakeithley.livejournal.com]

Do you happen to know if it drains into your sewer or just into the street/gutter? I'm guessing that if you know for sure that it drains into the sewer you need the plumber. If it drains into the street that's a little more complicated. The stairs leading to our basement door has a drain (to catch rainwater and funnel it away from the basement door) actually drains into our sewer (which I understand is a very old way of doing it and would not be acceptable in a new construction in our town), so when we had problems the plumber was able to take care of it. (But it wasn't cheap).

[steuard.livejournal.com]

I have no explicit knowledge of where it's supposed to go. (Opening the grate reveals three pipes, none of which appear to carry water anywhere at the moment.) That drain is the lowest point on our property (lower than the surrounding streets), so it's certainly supposed to empty into some sort of underground conduit.

I quite expect that it won't be cheap. But I'm not too happy about the periodic rivulet through our basement, either. :)

[zathrus.livejournal.com]

We have found it very handy to have a trustworthy general contractor we can call with issues like this. They generally know a little bit about a lot of things and can call on specialists as needed. Our general contractor was able to help us with drain issues at our old house to such an extent that when neighbors got 3-12 inches of standing water last summer, we got almost nothing (and nothing from our drain; we had seepage from elsewhere).

Now, of course, we're having drain issues in the new house; I'll be staying up late tonight, waiting for our GC to come deal with it. (Knowing one who's also a friend is a big help, but not always feasible.)

Newt

[ericakeithley.livejournal.com]

Robbbbbb and I talked about it, and while it might be dumping into the sewer, it might just be a type of French drain that disperses the water generally away from the house (which it clearly is not doing). I think the handyman/GC idea is the best so far, unless you or your real estate agent have contact with the former owners of the house and can find out what they know about the drain. Good luck!

[stereotype441.livejournal.com]

Here in Portland it's common to have a "sewer scope" done during the inspection period before buying a house. They take a long hose with a camera on the end of it, and shove it unceremoniously down your sewer to see if there's anything blocking your drain on the way to the city sewage system. I had such a problem in my house, and the plumber who did the sewer scope was able to recommend a contractor to tear up part of the driveway and fix the problem. Lucky me, I got the sellers to pay for it.

Not all plumbers have the technology to do a sewer scope. I would look in the yellow pages for plumbers that mention sewers in their ad, and then call them up severally* and ask whether they can do a sewer scope. Or at that point once you have somebody on the phone, maybe just describe the problem and see what they recommend.

*I was at a Shakespeare reading last night; my vocabulary is still recovering.