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June 3, 1986
“Advice on Drain Caps All Wet” By Brock Ketcham Calgary homeowners who act on advice from the city to cap their basement floor drains to prevent sewer back-up could end up with flooded basements, a spokesman for a Calgary home inspection firm says. Peter Salmon, president of Home-Alyze Ltd., said spring run-off or sever rainstorm could cause water to seep into a basement through the foundation or at the edges of the concrete floor. “The floor drain… should never be capped,” he said. Salmon was commenting on a sewer-division brochure, When the Raindrops Keep Falling, Falling, Falling, which advises the homeowner to keep the drain cap secured when the drain in the basement floor slab is not in use. The city enclosed the brochure with recent residential utility bills. Zennon Zalusky, the sewer division’s acting manager, conceded in an interview the brochure’s advice is not appropriate in all cases. The homeowner should be alert to drainage and conditions and act accordingly, he said. Zalusky agrees the basement could fill up like a bathtub if the drain were capped. But houses in some older areas aren’t protected with backwater valves to prevent sewer back-up, he points out.
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