Drain Addict — “Blocked Drain 918” — Clogged stormwater drain causes flooding of an exterior stairwell and a nearby basement storage area
Oliver (Drain Addict @ YouTube; Drain Go) is working at a house that has an exterior stairwell leading to a basement storage area below a building. The drain at the landing at the base of the stairs is clogged, causing rainwater to collect and back up on the landing and also into the nearby basement area. The situation is complicated by how there’s a sump pit and sump pump in the basement that happens to have a hose that empties into the drain that is clogged and causing the water to back up in the first place. The same water ends up going in a cycle, where it collects at the bottom of the stairs, then eventually overflows into the basement storage area, then gets pumped back up to the bottom of the stairs where it can’t drain away, and the cycle repeats.
The high-pressure water jetter is used to try to clear the drain pipe. As Oliver jets it, it becomes difficult to see what’s going on due to there being a few inches of murky water at the bottom of the stairs above the drain’s opening. The hose from the sump pump in the basement is still emptying into that area, too, which makes it harder to tell if the drain might have been unclogged and is draining away the water. To help avoid this, Oliver temporarily moves the hose to empty into the basement area instead.
It takes several minutes of jetting, but eventually the blockage is popped, and the pooled water begins to drain away. The sump pump hose that was redirected toward the basement earlier is returned to the bottom stairway landing, so that the significant amount of water that has collected in the basement storage area can finally be drained away.
Due to the volume of water involved, it takes a little while for the sump pump to remove all of it. Oliver monitors its progress, and ensures that the grate over the sump pit doesn’t get obstructed by any debris or other items that are carried over by the water in the basement. Eventually, enough of the water that was in the basement storage area gets pumped out, and the sump pump shuts itself off.