Uncapping a capped floor drain

[gamblor]

Short version of story: I've got a house with a capped floor drain - no idea why it was capped, it must have been done by a previous owner - and as we are now selling our house, the prospective buyer has asked us to restore the floor drain so that it works.

Here are pictures. The cap itself feels as hard as the concrete floor.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/843/3835493302fc4b3c5105.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/845/3834700319de8e8d34de.jpg/



You can see that this is a laundry room. We have a fully functional laundry sink that drains into the floor, and in the room next to it a shower that also drains fine. It would seem that there is a line down there in the ground somewhere that's taking away my water. So there really shouldn't be much of a complication in uncapping this thing, right?

Is a cap of this type normally just a few inches deep? Can I just whack it with a hammer, or what kind of complications could arise? I asked a plumber for a quote and he said about $500 - $700, but was cautious and said that was if all things went well. He said they would be drilling out a larger hole, as I understand, to connect things together with the main line. I'd sort like to experiment myself since the job might be really easy. Unfortunately I have no idea what I'm doing.

 

[phishfood]

I can't really tell for sure, but I am wondering is that is concrete in the floor drain. If it was "capped" by filling it with concrete, I am afraid that you will be jackhammering the floor.

 

[johnjh2o]

The first question I would ask is why was it capped. I have seen many floor drains that were connected to dry wells that during heavy rains water came into the basement through the floor drains. Because the dry well became flooded from surface water.

John