Cleaning the basement laundry area

In My Humble Opinion
1

In the corner of my basement there is a washer, dryer and utility tub.

The washer empties into the tub, and the tub empties into an open drain hole in the floor (via a rough looking set of PVC pipes stuck together), directly beneath the tub. Also dumping into that drain hole is a tiny PVC pipe that is the drain for both my air conditioner and my humidifier, and a 1.5" “spa drain hose” that I put together to drain the doggy bath tub.

The “draining” of this drain doesn’t seem to be reliable. I swear to Og that when we had flooding here in 2007, water came up through the drain and that was the source of my 1" of flooding in that corner of the basement. A coupla people told me that’s nonsense.

But, regardless of that, the area under the tub around the drain does indeed get wet when I’m washing clothes. Sometimes I even see a little soap bubbling up from the drain (or perhaps trying to work its way down).

What I would love would be some sort of really simple lipped, graded pan (like a paint pan) that fits around that drain and keeps water from collecting on the floor. I’ve been searching online all night and all I can find are super-expensive washing machine drain pans, even more expensive shower floor pans and water heater drain pans (not what I need at all).

Is there any such thing that is washable/removeable/small/plastic that I can use for this or am I just dreaming shit up?!

The main problem here, though, is that there’s all sorts of mud and dirt and mold building up around that stupid drain and under my appliances. I’m sick of the whole thing and want to clean it.

Should I just use TSP or is there something better suited for scrubbing around there? The whole area is just super gross and it’s probably slowly killing me via mold spore. I need to get it cleaned GOOD before I come up with the best solution for getting water to actually go down that damn drain.

Any suggestions for helping me clean, and keeping it clean?

2

How about making it yourself? Make it out of wood, and cover it with a cheap but sturdy piece of vinyl, like the material sold for bathroom floors.

3

Here’s my idea: get one of these plastic storage bins from Wal-Mart or Target and cut a hole in the bottom center the diameter of the drain hole. You should be able to cut a hole through the plastic with a sturdy serrated knife.

The next step would be to somehow attach a pipe or tubing to the hole in the bin so that the water flows directly into the drain. Get some clear flexible tubing and attach it with some silicone caulk so that it’s water tight.

Here is a very rough diagram…

4

I had a similar problem where the various HVAC condensate, water softener flush, etc., lines all converged on, but not in, a floor drain. The result was a 1’ circle of near-constant wet.

I tried the idea of a raised quasi-funnel as suggested above. Bad method for me because the various drain lines ran across the floor a few feet & going up and over the lip of the funnel put a high spot in the line.

Step 1 is to ensure the drain is draining well. If it only flows 1/2 GPM and your washer drains at 2 GPM, a better piping arrangement isn’t gonna do squat.

Step 2 is to get the input pipe ends below the floor line. For me that was a matter of buying four 90-degree elbows and a few inches of tubing the right size. Now each line runs across the floor, has a rigid 90 elbow pointing down, then a 2 inch long tube leading down into the drain mouth. We still have the necessary air gap because the natural water level in the properly flowing drain is several inches below that.

The last step was to get a drain cap like this: http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=21586-676-11&lpage=none , cut suitable holes in it for the down-tubes, and wire tie the horizontal tubes to the grate. Now the whole thing won’t move, and the tubes don’t lift themselves out of the drain when draining under some pressure.

Your situation is different from mine only in that you’ve got bigger pipes compared to your drain.

On re-read, it sounds like you’re admitting defeat on getting the drain to work adequately and just want a holding basin to hold the excess until the drain catches up. Unless you’ve already exhausted the possibilities for fixing the drain, that’s a pretty half-ass"fix" and will probably disappoint.

But let’s give it a try anyhow …

I don’t think any of the soft oversize-tupperware containers would be a good choice. Nothing, not even silicone seal, sticks well to that plastic.

You need something big enough to buffer the max volume of the sources(s) and with a slow enough outlet to not overwhelm the low flow capacity of your floor drain. That’s way off the design point for any commercial OOB product. And unless it takes up a lot of floor space (like a washer overflow protection pan), then it has to be tall. I’m WAGging you need about a 10 gallon capacity.

…

I thought for a couple minutes here & everything I thought of which we could MacGyver up would be difficult, leaky, cost more in parts than makes sense, and / or look like shit.

5

Obviously I don’t know your case, but people who have flooding problems often have the water coming up through drains. If rainwater is overwhelming the sanitary sewer, this can easily happen. I’m skeptical of the people who told you this was nonsense.

But water coming up through drains is separate from how well your drain flows, which is what matters here. Have you tried taking off the drain cover, and seeing if you can remove any clogs? I could imagine lint from the clothes washer building up and slowing the drain’s flow.

6

Well, it’s not like there’s a ton of water spilling out of the drain. And, due to some improvements in my foundation and in the city’s rainwater management I do NOT anticipate another flood. So, I don’t need a 10 gallon capacity. There’s just a teeny bit of water “missing” the drain, not a whole washing machine worth. Don’t forget the washing machine goes into the wash tub so that serves as a reservoir for any major overflow from the machine.

I like maastricht’s idea of a floor barrier. I saw this industrial spill berm online but it’s way more than I need (and $500!) but I wonder if I couldn’t fashion something similar myself.

I also like the idea of a small tub but I worry about water seeping out around the holes…so if silicone caulk won’t work then I’m out of luck there.

I do need to look into getting the two extra pipes turned down INTO the hole instead of “pointing in the general vicinity of the hole.” That would probably help a lot.

I’ll have a plumber friend come out and give me some suggestions about the state of the drain (possibly needs a clean out), the width of the tub’s drain vs. the speed at which the drain drains, and getting a cover on there.

Any suggestions on cleaning the floor?