pouring colored stuff down drains

[Mr T]

I read in another thread about pouring dye or food coloring down a drain that goes into your yard to find out where it ends up... I assume this is done by your grass changing color?

Does this really work? is food coloring ok or is there something else thats readily avialble that I can use? How much and what color? Green? just kidding

Got a few mystery drains.

[mdshunk]

I've never heard of this before, but I suspect that it would work. I'd think you'd need a restaraunt supply house sized jug of food dye to make that method work. In the other thread, the person had a suspected perimeter drain collapse. They also mentioned that the interior basement floor drain went into gravel after just a few inches. I'm not sure where they'd even put the food dye in on that occasion. I suspect that the basement drain just goes into the crushed stone under the slab at their house, and is not connected to the perimeter drain. I sort of feel for this guy. I'd be more inclined to go to the building department and track down the fella that built the house to see if he remembers where he might have daylighted the perimeter drain. I've seen plumber's connect an air compressor to mystery drains to "listen" for the outlet. I suspect you could also adapt a garden hose to a mystery drain to use that same method.

Short mystery drain story...

I was on the flat roof of a rental repairing a chimney that had been hit by a lightning bolt. I got all the masonry supplies on the roof to mix mortar to do the work. Trouble was, I forgot to bring a nozzle for the hose. I just hooked it up and let it run. Since I didn't want a messy work area, after I had the amount of water I needed, I just stuck the hose end down one of the pipes coming out of the flat roof. I assumed it was a sewer vent. Well, it might have been, but this vent pipe's joints were far from water tight. I flooded a lady's kitchen and collapsed the plaster ceiling. Lucky me. Luckily, the lady was mostly excited that she would be betting her kitchen repainted, and I was going to let her pick out the new color. And, a janitorial service was going to come that afternoon to clean up the kitchen and rewash all the pots and pans and dishes. Fun, fun.

[xkvator]

they make drain tracing dye - the cities use it to check to see if your
downspouts are hooked into the sewer system - its highly concentrated(powder) and flourescent green & i think they do make some other colors.

[DUNBAR PLUMBER]

At the big box stores or local hardware, Fluidmaster usually has a box of "Leak Detection Tablets". You can use 4 or 5 packets, crush up the tablets before opening the packet and put them in your toilet......use a toilet brush or paint stick to stir it up good before flushing.