Mystery Floor Drain

[StandingWater]

Hey Plumbers - I could use some help identifying what's going on with this drain.

Moved into a new place and the cats managed to pull up the floor drain cover since it wasn't screwed down and they'll mess with anything that isn't screwed down. This drain's in the basement floor near the washing machine and it's set into the concrete slab, but the concrete's been busted up all around one side and refilled with loose gravel. The image explains it better than I could:

Underneath the drain cover we have this (warning: probable poo):

So the 6" round the drain cover sits over is mostly rusted out and covered in dirt/s--t/idk (It doesn't smell). There's an 1.5" pipe in the middle of it all with standing water, whose "lip" is higher than the "base." I tried flushing the middle pipe with a little water, assuming it was the exposed end of a trap, but it just ended up overflowing and draining out through a hole I hadn't noticed at first in the right side of the drain.

I'm guessing that hole-in-the-side is the cleanout that just isn't plugged? But what's up with the "middle" pipe with the standing water - maybe it's just totally clogged with loose gravel? And why would the actual drain in the middle of this whole contraption be "elevated" about 1/2" above the "floor," allowing water to overflow and pool around it?

I kinda want to just ignore it and get the cover secured, but now I'm paranoid.

Any help identifying what's going on would be very appreciated

 

[frodo]

sorry,,,,no easy fix, bust the floor, dig it up
and see what the problem is

 

[PlumbGate]

If that was poo you'd smell it. Even 1000 year old poo still smells. Looks like someone tried to fix something. This is the problem with harry-homeowner fixes, the next guy has no idea what was done and why.

 

[frodo]

If it was my personal FD. I would dig up and replace that old p trap

install a new trap, a new floor drain. with a clamping collar. and clamp a 30'' [or what ever works]
piece of shower pan material

 

[Jeff Handy]

Try to snake the drain, it is not going very far.
Even little gravel pieces will eventually let you partially through them. You can loosen up the impacted gravel this way.

Then try getting as much out as you can with a shop vac with a wet filter. Use or make a flexible attachment a little narrower than that 1.5 inch center pipe. Or just use a narrow vac hose by itself, no attachment on the end.

Snake again, then vacuum again.

I did this once in a basement floor drain like that, someone had totally filled it with broken glass and chunks of beer bottles,

If you finally clear it all out, and you verify that it drains properly now, cut a bunch of notches in the middle pipe with an angle grinder, but stop about 1/8 inch from the lower pan.

Snap off the tabs that you made, brush off the loose rust with a wire brush, and coat the whole thing with a thin layer of auto body filler.
Or some similar layer of epoxy coating.

You might want to paint on some rust converter type of coating first, to harden the old rusty surface first.

Push extra body filler into that hole you circled.

Remove that gravel fill around the drain, your cats will pbly make that their favorite cat box.
Replace it with concrete mix.

 

[Jeff Handy]

PS if that is a big hole in the bottom pan, fill it up with gravel til it is flush with the pan, then do the body filler.
Plug the drain with a rag while doing these repairs.
Or bridge the hole with a small scrap of sheet metal, then do the body filler or epoxy coating.

 

[frodo]

 

[SHEPLMBR]

Dig it up and do it right.