water seeping up through cellar floor

[andypitts]

House built 1870 - with cellar accessed externally down backdoor steps at rear of house to garden level and a further set of steps down to cellar door level. Level of cellar floor therefore a meter or so below garden soil level. Trapped gully drain just outside cellar door - also one at side of house.
Cellar has concrete floor, with a belfast sink supported by cast iron legs let into the concrete.
Water seems to be seeping up at the points where the legs meet the floor and creating a puddle up to 0.5 m radius. The central heating boiler is next to the sink so means the cellar quite warm and the pool continually dries up and then comes back. I don't think the pool is coming from any leak in the piping to the boiler. And though the pool often extends to where the floor meets the cellar rear wall below garden level I don't think this is where the water is coming in. The puddle is always present where the legs go into the floor so it looks to be seeping up here rather than leaking down or in from somewhere else.
Any ideas? - not aware there could be any broken pipes under the cellar as it is at the back of the house and I assume all supply piping runs from the main road at the front. Could there be a blocked soakaway possibly which is causing the problem?
Cheers

 

[Mike Jackson]

Could be just a rise in groundwater levels but get the drains tested in case.

 

[andypitts]

Could be just a rise in groundwater levels but get the drains tested in case.

Thanks Mike - what does testing the drains involve? / what might the process reveal?
Where's the best place to search for the right person locally? (Edinburgh)
cheers

 

[Reg Man]

Water table at present is at its highest.

 

[Mike Jackson]

Thanks Mike - what does testing the drains involve? / what might the process reveal?
Where's the best place to search for the right person locally? (Edinburgh)
cheers

A simple way is to use a drain stopper, fill the drain with water and see if it drops. The correct way is to air test the drains but most old drainage systems will fail an air test anyway. With the water test method you will get a puddle appearing if the drains have failed as well.

 

[nicro3]

Have a word with your neighbours are they encountering (or have encountered) the same problem. Sounds like as if it is the water table.
A sump pit or tanking could be the answer.

 

[lame plumber]

most old houses sufferin cellars like this, and wet weather of late isnt helping, very costly to completely resolve, most will watch and ignore, after all its only an old cellar,

 

[andypitts]

most old houses sufferin cellars like this, and wet weather of late isnt helping, very costly to completely resolve, most will watch and ignore, after all its only an old cellar,

ha - you're dead right of course - I just needed someone with enough experience to confirm it - thanks a million.

 

[lame plumber]

2 tickets north and i'll do an inspection