My daughter is renting the basement apartment of a 100-year-old home. It's a fairly decent little place. Except for this. Can someone please tell me why there are cast iron pipes cut open, with air registers over them? Yesterday during the storm they were all full of flowing water. I checked a couple of them and they were all the same, cracked open cast iron pipe under the floor registers. What is going on here? I have more pictures if needed.
Edit: everyone, I'm grateful for all of the suggestions. Once she's finished unpacking, I'm going to do some investigating. It does not smell. .the water running thru it looks crystal clear. Well figure it out. Maybe.
You mentioned that the house is a century old - I'm assuming it was built as a single dwelling, and subdivided later.
If that's the case, my best guess is that the basement had a problem with flooding during bad weather, so they busted holes in existing drainage pipes to allow water to drain from the basement. The leaky walls were most likely sealed when it was converted to an apartment, but... Well, drains drains are great until they back up - I would be concerned about water coming up through them in particularly bad weather.
As long as it's only a drain water system as well. If it connects to sewage at some point I would be concerned of gases which may leak up into the house as well.