Just found out my basement floor drain is basically useless

Bought a house in Edmonton last spring and noticed a weird smell in the basement. Finally got a plumber out here yesterday, he said the trap in the floor drain is dry because it wasn't installed with a proper vent. Cost me $180 just to get him to tell me that. Anyone else deal with this old home garbage in a pre-1970 build?

3 comments

3 Comments

sagew501mo ago

and that $180 is just the start, right? once you start digging into old houses, it's like opening pandora's box. the whole floor drain thing is a classic pre-70s problem. my buddy has a place from '62 in calgary and his floor drain trap dries out so fast in winter, the whole basement smells like a swamp. you can try pouring a little vegetable oil or mineral oil in there to seal it up, it floats on top of the water and stops the smell. but honestly, that's just a bandaid. if the vent's missing, you're probably going to have to cut into the slab eventually or get a plumber to run a new vent line up through the wall.

the_kevin18d ago

I read somewhere that some guys in the UK use a mix of water and a bit of glycerin in their floor drains during the dry months. Apparently it evaporates way slower than plain water and doesn't get funky like oil can over time. I tried it last winter on my '58 house's drain and it actually held up better than the vegetable oil trick, though I still had to refill it once. Have you ever messed with anything besides oil or antifreeze?

alicesingh1mo ago

Oh man, tell me about it. My house is a 1954 bungalow and I swear I've done the vegetable oil trick on my floor drain every fall for the last five years. Works okay for a few months but then it starts to stink again right when the weather gets super dry. I actually tried dumping a whole bottle of that expensive RV antifreeze in there once, figured it would seal it better, but nope, same deal. The real kicker is I found out my drain doesn't even have a proper vent either, it just goes straight into the old cast iron stack. I've been putting off cutting into the slab myself because I'm scared of what else I'll find down there, but my neighbor said a plumber quoted him like eight hundred bucks to run a new vent line up through the wall. So here we are, pouring oil and lighting candles.