Basement Floor Drain Backup in Massachusetts

Floor drain backups in Massachusetts usually show up in older basements, where a single drain in the slab was meant to catch a leak from the boiler, the water heater or a laundry tub. In many houses that drain ties into the house sewer line, so when the line clogs or the street sewer is running full in a hard rain, the drain becomes the way in. Older cities with combined sewers, such as Boston, Worcester, Fall River and New Bedford, carry stormwater and sewage in one pipe, and heavy rain can push water back toward basement drains. The slab around the drain is usually the lowest point, so water collects there first.

In the first hour the water spreads from the drain across the slab, under the boiler and water heater, and into any finished room with carpet or paneling nearby. By 24 hours boxes, wood shelving and the bottom of drywall have soaked it up, and the basement smells like sewage. Between 24 and 48 hours mold can start on damp drywall paper, wood and stored cardboard. After a week, residue dries into the rough slab and wall joints, the odor sinks into framing, and equipment bases and stored contents may be a loss.

Most of what sits right around a floor drain is hard material, which helps. The concrete slab, the drain body, block or fieldstone walls and the steel jackets of the boiler and water heater are cleaned and sanitized, then dried in place with dehumidifiers and air movers. Wood shelving units and workbench legs can often stay if they are solid wood, cleaned and dried quickly. Unfinished basement ceilings and joists usually stay dry in a floor drain backup, since the water stays low. Concrete is porous, so crews dry it until readings match an untouched part of the slab before calling the job done.

Anything soft that sat in drain water usually goes. Carpet and pad in a finished room beside the utility area, area rugs, cardboard boxes, stored clothing, paper records and upholstered furniture are removed because they absorb the water and cannot be cleaned through. Paneling and drywall touched by the water are cut out above the wet line, along with the insulation behind them. A washer or dryer that sat in sewage may need a service check before use, and boiler or furnace parts that were submerged should be looked at by a heating technician before restart.

Floor drain backups turn up all over Massachusetts, though the houses differ. In the North Shore and Merrimack Valley, Lawrence and Lowell have median years built of 1950 and 1953 and many triple-deckers and converted mill buildings, so a single basement drain often serves a building with several households. Haverhill is a documented combined sewer community, and during the 2006 Mother's Day flood sewage overflowed there into the Merrimack. In Central Massachusetts, Fitchburg, with a median year built of 1950 and 43 percent of homes built before 1940, is also a combined sewer city with plenty of older basements.

In MetroWest, Framingham housing is newer, with a median year built of 1966 and many suburban homes with finished basements, so a backup there tends to reach carpet, drywall and family rooms rather than a bare utility area. On the SouthCoast, Taunton is a documented combined sewer community, and Route 44 there was closed by flooding in March 2010 for the first time in over 40 years. Call the number on this page, tell us your town and where the drain is, and we connect you with a local crew.