Yes, it definitely needs a drain. That is one of the major pains about my parent's house, no drain in the furnace room for the furnace and plumbing. The sewer lines exit the house just under the ceiling of the basement, so we can't drain into that from the basement. I will have to create a floor sump and put in a sump pump that will not be destroyed by pumping hot water from a leaking furnace.

There is actually a separate septic system in the house that took care of the basement bathroom and laundry room waste water. But that system is too close to the stream that runs through the back of our property, so it is unusable under the current septic system laws. If we ever sell the house, we really should rip out the plumbing stuff in the basement and plaster over the holes in the walls and floor. The basement bathroom and old laundry room are crammed solid with my dad's stuff, so that demolition project is way down the priority list.