Mystery Pipe sticking straight up from basement floor.

hbg1990

Hello all, I own a mid fifties early sixties Home on Cape Cod, full basement on city water, private septic & Natural Gas heating. I have been moving old tables around in the basement came upon a strange 1.5 In pipe sticking straight up from the basement floor, about 2.5 ft tall. the top of the pipe has course threading. Insulation had been stuffed down it, so i went and pulled it out. took a gentle sniff and it didnt smell like anything, no gas, no oil, no septic smells. I think took a flashlight and shined it down the pipe, trying to eye down the pipe it looks to go down a while until something is showing a reflection, but not much can be made out. I have done a little research, on my biggest fear: the below ground oil tank, but i dont believe the house ever was oil, and there is no smells. I also heard about older homes having pressure equalizing pipes which has something to do with the water table? Anywho wondering if anybody has run into anything similar.

thanks!

Fred

Can you drop a string with a weight on it to see if the "reflection" is liquid? It could be the remains of an old cistern. I doubt it was a septic tank with just an 1.5" pipe. May be the remnants of an old oil tank fill pipe but you may smell the oil when you pull the string back up, if it is.

STEVEusaPA

I doubt it’s oil @ 1 1/2”.
Could be original gas, water or septic pipe.
We had a mystery pipe coming out of the floor in our 50’s split level. Vertically up the wall at 4’ was a small glass block in the wall. Found out from one of the original owners it was a gas pipe, and the glass block was so the gas company could look thru and read the meter. In the late 60’s they moved the meter to the outside, but left the pipe stubbed thru the slab.
Maybe an original owner nearby (if similarly built) could help.
Also @ 1 1/2” you could probably get a camera down there, like the sewer companies use and trace it with a locator.
Either way if it’s threaded, Teflon tape and cap it.

hbg1990

Hey Fred, thanks for the advice. dropped a string down with some cloth on it for a sample. dunked it twice and both times it came up with water, earthy water. not even a remnant of oil. the cloth also came up very dirty. Another note is from the top of the pipe to where it hit "bottom" seemed to be 5 feet, or just about 2.5 feet below the basement. we have gotten two days of rain, so that might explain a water table type of thing.

hbg1990

hey STEVEusaPA, tried the neighbors, but they havent any insight. my little cottage is the oldest in the neighborhood, where each other home is mid 70's construction. Hmm, a good relief on it most likely not being an old oil pipe. the old glass block in the wall sounds wicked cool!

Fred

hbg1990 said:

Hey Fred, thanks for the advice. dropped a string down with some cloth on it for a sample. dunked it twice and both times it came up with water, earthy water. not even a remnant of oil. the cloth also came up very dirty. Another note is from the top of the pipe to where it hit "bottom" seemed to be 5 feet, or just about 2.5 feet below the basement. we have gotten two days of rain, so that might explain a water table type of thing.

I bet it is an old abandoned cistern. I had a similar thing in another house, only it came through the wall, at the bottom of the basement and elbowed up about 3 feet. I removed the pipe and I got a ton of water into the basement. Fortunately the basement was unfinished and had a floor drain nearby. I plugged the elbow and never had an issue. Old clay tiles from downspouts had been abandoned and cut below ground level, years before.

hbg1990

interesting, ive heard about old cisterns hiding underneath roads in the area. i just worry about capping it if it was never capped before. Whats your thoughts on this flooding preventative method?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV8Cb97dBSY

it is a just a big sand bar over here, and were only a mile from the coast.

Zman

I would say cistern or shallow well.

Fred

Hummm, I understand why you might not want to cap it off. Have you ever had water flood your basement? Do any of your neighbors have standpipes in their basement? Have they had flooded basements? Does your house sit lower than the neighbors?

hbg1990

so i just went to probe it again, and i got the weight to go down 18 ft. im started to fall on the well side of the argument. the house could have definitely been here before the town water showed up. ive never had water in basement, but ive only been here a year. the previous owner never saw water i nthe basement and most of the neighbors ive asked have never seen water in their basement. but i seem to be the only house with the random standpipe. in regards to level, were all at about the same level in this neighborhood.

JUGHNE

Could have been a shallow well for a jet pump, (which can't lift water very high, 1 1/4" ID pipe was common for that).

A 25' tape measure slowly pushed down will "plunk" at the water if you have your ear at the pipe. You can go farther to the very bottom of the pipe. It might be a 21' length, common bury for a driven sand point around here. Black tape wrapped around the hook will keep you from getting stuck on a coupling or possibly a sand point if there is one.

Your house may have been there before the public water was available, or the original owner wanted a private well...something perhaps impossible to have today in some areas. You could use it for lawn watering if wanted.

hbg1990

ill go give her a go!

hbg1990

confirmed, 18' deep. it certainly looks well supplied, thanks for the help guys! alot of anxiety capped.

JUGHNE

Also in my area, some basements have de-watering wells to keep the water level down to avoid a wet floor. One or two wells might be installed with a single pump to pull water and dump it outside....where it will return to from where it came. It is a constant battle and maybe only needed in the spring with good rains. If it was needed year around, (sometimes found out too late), you would abandon the basement and then believe the old timers who told you to not dig one there.

If it is a well with a sand point screen, it could be plugged with sediment after these many years.
When that happens the final attempt to open it is usually with a small caliber gun fired down the pipe, (this is cowboy country after all) don't put the barrel into the pipe though, I have been told. The concussion of the shot and lead hitting the water sometimes knocks the junk out of the screen to clear it.

kcopp

I am going to guess a shallow well or maybe a dry well that isn't dry any more....

hbg1990

huh, dewatering wells, i only have the single well- and nowhere were the jet pump would have been mounted but ill continue to investigate. I dont know how my gal would take it firing off the .44 in the basement. but practical.

JUGHNE

Often Jet pumps were mounted on their storage tank.
Still 30" of riser sounds high for the typical install.
And it would have been planned for this to be near a wall or corner.

So no silencer for the 44 , actually I have seen only a 22 used here. You don't want to kill the pipe.

ch4man

i know of one well in western Wisc. that was repaired with a .22

JUGHNE

It is amazing what concussion charges can do.....I think of the depth charge effect on submarines...only from the movies of course.

hbg1990

Haha that’s sweet

EBEBRATT-Ed

What kind of pipe material? Black, galvanized, brass, copper probably not plastic at that age. Cast iron??

GBart

It's an old Radon Injection System. -- sarcasm

Cap it

many old houses had wells in the basement if possible, it negated having to go outside for water, some had hand pumps, your home could be older than you think, OR there was another on that site that burned down and then they rebuilt over it

Scott M_2

A lot of old houses in mass will have a separate dry well or septic tank for the washing machine (mine did) .

hbg1990

No, it’s of steel construction, it could be older- but the material seems to be consistent with rest of the house. Could be a dry well for the washing machine. I don’t think there is a tank attached to it because of the consistency of diameter all the way down.

pecmsg

with what you've described a old water well.

hbg1990

That’s what I’m thinking. I like the idea of lawn irrigation with no water bill.

pecmsg

hbg1990 said:

That’s what I’m thinking. I like the idea of lawn irrigation with no water bill.

There is the electric to operate!

hbg1990

Haha and the hope that the well stays wet!

pecmsg

A small pump will tell you if the well point is good and the water quality. (Don't Drink it)

Only one way to find out!

hbg1990

oh another fun project! ill look for a little hand pump.

Fred

That pipe looks too tall to be a well pipe, even with a hand pump on it, which is doubtful given the house was built in the 1960's. I'm leaning more towards a stand pipe.

JUGHNE

Pitcher pumps with the traditional looking handle will produce a vacuum to remove the air and lift the water.
Usually have to dump some water down the top to seal the "leathers" for the first priming.

I would have the water tested before investing much into this.
You are only a mile from salt water that could affect your new source. Grass might not like it.

Leon82

If you use it for irrigation your sewer bill will be less also.

hbg1990

No sewage here, all Septic. which will be a future headache. Yeah id like to try a smal hand pump or pitcher pump on it. I agree that its at a fairly awkward height, i can see the previous owner just put a table over it to forget it.

JUGHNE

If your house was over a 100 years old, I would look up for a hole in the floor above. Early kitchens had a pitcher hand pump right at the sink, above the well. It would have been a real luxury then, rather then thawing out the outside pump.


The septic tank throws up a flag for this well with a shallow water table. You could take recycling to a new level.

hbg1990

haha no hole sadly, if you read earlier in the thread the house was built in the late fifites/early sixties. alot of confused town archives forming the spread.

hbg1990

new making! a took a closer look at the overhead in the basement and actually found an old hole for the pipe to enter the first floor. now im really confused. why would a flood prevention system enter the first floor, basically knocks that out. and why would someone need well water directly on the first floor in the 60's

JUGHNE

Any evidence of a sink drain hole in the floor near the other hole?
Maybe the muni water or other water pump was unreliable at the time and they wanted a source not dependent upon electricity.
Whoever built the house in the 60's may have been from a time when you didn't depend upon an outside source for water....be it muni water supply or electric power.
We have those people around here today and for good reason of power outages. They will still keep a windmill in operation near their house to insure some water supply.

Fred

Is that second hole in a bathroom? I'm back to wondering if it was/is a cistern. Many people like to use rain water to wash their hair, even into the 60's. Some sinks even had a third faucet on the sink for that.

hbg1990

hmmmm, that could be a possibility. alot of old fashioned types around here- i have heard that early tenets of the home were fisherman. a hard headed pack. So i pulled down the insulation between the joists, and couldnt find any other remnants of old bathroom. the hole if it still opened up to the first floor would open up to the living. approx. 4 feet from the front wall of the house- which kinda knocks out the possibility of a counter or sink. how else could i tell if it was cistern?

Fred

If it's a cistern and you can drop a camera or some type of probe down the pipe, it will have masonry, maybe even brick walls, anywhere from six to ten feet in diameter or possibly square.