The main drain for my house's AC unit goes out the side of the house. The problem: water builds up on that side of the house making a HUGE puddle, harboring mosquitos, and pushing up the foundation on that side of the house. I've been told that the AC should drain into my house's sewage (this is called a 'wet vent') and there is a bathroom near the AC unit which has a vent I could tap into. However, the pipes in my 40-year-old house are cast iron, and no plumber will tap into it for fear of messing up the pipe. What can I do? -- droxford
Move, you dont want an old ass house with mosquitos. J/K I dont know crap about A/C. Maybe you could put a drain on that side of the house that runs to the street. I know they have a name but I cant think of it.
LOL, people in Houston dont have basements. The city sits at about 6 feet above sea level and floods like a mother. Basements in Houston would be indoor swimming pools.
To the local trailer park, of course. Nothing ever happens to those people... Seriously though, a tornado tore the roof off of our house when I was 6 months old in Alabama while we hid in the basement. My mom just looked at my dad and said "You b*stard. I knew we should have stayed in Houston!" As for the AC stuff... have you thought about having a landscaper do a french drain to the curb?
We had a house on the golf course that did not permit that run off go towards the golf course property. That meant that it had to drain towards the house. Bad news so the landscaper installed drains in the back yard that all lead to a pipe that drains to a hole in the front curb, down the street and into a gutter. For more info: How to build a french drain HGTV Here is a forum with a thread from a guy in Houston that is asking about the same issue. Good Luck.
I've thought about the French drain idea - but it seemed like it would be a lot of expense/work/money and seemed like a workaround that didn't really address the problem at its source. So far, though, that sounds like my only option -- droxford
It would be a pretty simple job to hook up the existing drain to a PVC pipe and run it down the house and then a couple of inches underground to someplace it would run off. The hard part in Houston is finding a spot low enough to drain to. It usually means to the street which means your have to run it over a sidewalk or through a curb. Over the sidewalk means you will have a slippery algae problem and a possible lawsuit. Through the curb to the gutter means you need to saw cut and bust out the curb, lay your pipr to the gutter and patch the concrete back. If your house is that old you might have ditches along the roadway...easy to run the pipe there. PVC pipe is easier than tinker toys. Just plan out your joints , pime the parts and glue them together. Being that there is no head pressure, they don't even need to be sealed well. French drain means just digging a ditch, back filling it with gravel and topping it off with soil and grass. You could run your pipe into one. The wet wet conditions here make french drains iffy but it would probably work for A/C.
No ditches on the roadway. I would have to run the drain to the street, under a sidewalk and through a curb. I've never 'busted out the curb' before. It doesn't sound pleasant, and I don't know how to do it, what tools to use, etc. I've trenched and done PVC once before when I installed a sprinkler system at a friends' house. It's simple and not complicated, but it's a lot of work (especially digging through the thick St. Augustine sod into Houston clay). I don't think I need a 'French' drain because I'm not draining off built up rainwater - I'm draining water from a direct source (my AC). If it weren't for the AC, there would be no water buildup at all. With that in mind, would I have to fill my drainage ditch with gravel? or is the purpose of the gravel to keep my drain at the appropriate slope? Here's another thought: there's a sewer line running directly under the area that's building up water. Is there some way I could just drain into that? I can't just run it up to the surface, 'cause then my yard would smell like poop all the time. -- droxford
Maybe you could use that drainage line? I'm not really trying to be pain here but doing all that ditch digging is gonna suck. BTW, I really don't think that you can use that sewage line. First for it to work you would have to dig all the way down to the line and replace all the dirt with drainage stones. Second you would have to install some kind of grate on the line. I have no idea how you could do that without replacing that part of the line with a new piece that already has a grate built into it. Of course I'm assuming that your sewerlines are made out of concrete like they are up north.
You're not being a pain at all - thanks for the input. Yes, doing all that ditch digging would suck. I agree - to tap in to the sewer line, I would have to dig to the sewer line and splice into it (NOT fun). My sewer line used to be concete, but I had it replaced with PVC two years ago (insurance paid for it, so workers did it). -- droxford
That makes a big difference if your line is PVC. Once you got down to it you could just drill holes into the top of to make the screen. But then your still digging. Anyone owe you a favor that owns a back hoe?
Well, I could dig down to it - it's only about 3 or 4 feet down. I'm just wary about tapping into it. I'm concerned about repercussions: 1) Wouln't a heavy rain end up going into that drain and into the sewer as well? That might back up the sewer line 2) If the sewer line ever did get backed up, it would overflow into my yard (yuk!). Is there some kind of one-way flow valve that could be installed? -- droxford
Why would it flood your backyard? Do you have a sewage grate in your backyard? Also, and again I'm not sure how it works in Houston, but doesn't the rain overflow go into the sewer drains anyway? As far as the one way valve is concerned I have seen them for regular plumbing so I'm sure that something exists for a sewage line as well. But then you get back into removing that whole section of pipe to install the valve.
If I add a drain, that pulls the water from my giant puddle (caused by AC) into my sewer line, I would think that if the sewer line backed up, it would overflow the drain. Yeah, the rain drains into the sewer - from the street into a sewer main, which is a huge pipe. But I'm talking about tapping into the sewer line that runs under and between houses. That line is less that a foot in diameter and feeds into the sewer main. This is sounding like it might not be the right way to go. Is there no other way of routing the main drain from my AC? -- droxford
