Questions about strange piping in basement. (Hope: house, floor, garden)

[mambwe]

With all of the rain we've had my basement is leaking. I was looking today and found this strange looking thing in my basement. There is ~1/4" cooper tubing going through the foundation wall. There is one spot in my basement with two of these pipes going into the foundation wall. One of the pipes runs up and the other down. The pipe running up runs along the ceiling and eventually is pinched off at the end. The other pipe which runs down has a round on/off handle similar to what you would see on an outdoor water spout that you hook your garden hose up to. Then it continues into the basement floor.

What the hell is this thing? Is this for water in a basement?

Hopefully you understand, its hard to describe as I have never seen it before.

I will post pictures later.

[mambwe]

I looked online and it appears to be from the underground oil tank.

I wonder if I can get rid of the tubing.

[Egobop]

I am no expert but the only two things I can think of would be what you already stated, from an underground oil tank or it is possible that the house once had well water. I had well water when I moved into my home and it has since been disconnected. I still have the pipes from it in the basement. They are pinched off such as you said yours are.

[mambwe]

Hmmmmmm....I have a sink in my laundry room and the drain pipe goes straight into the foundation floor. I'm guessing that means there was/is a well there. I wonder if that is what the pipe is for. I will have to do some investigating.

[Egobop]

The drain pipe going straight to the floor would not tell you if there was a well or not. The drain pipe should be directed to your septic tank or sewer depending on which you have. The well would be only for water coming in, not waste water going out.

If your laundry room is in your basement and you have a septic tank, normally that pipe would have to be directed to a sump pump which pumps up the waste water into the large exiting waste pipe which normally runs along a wall or ceiling in the basement at a certain angle or "pitch".

I have a full bathroom and kitchen in my basement and all of the drain pipes are directed to the sump pump that I had put in the floor about four feet from my boiler. The drain water goes into a large tank and when the water reaches a certain level the pump turns on and pushes the waste up into the main exiting waste pipe I mentioned earlier.

If your drain pipe goes from your sink to the floor you definitely want to find out where that pipe brings the waste water. In the event that you do have a sump pump somewhere in your basement you want to know where it is. When they break (which is normally the float going bad, not the pump itself) the pump obviously will not pump the water up and the tank will overflow.