Do it your selfer/plumbing question

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Krefcenz

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May 24, 2002
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The problem concerns the sump pump that we inherited when we bought our house. And I wanted some advice. The house we bought is a single family home in an area with a high water table. The previous and original owner put in a sump pump. But I think the pit is too shallow. It's only about 7" below the foundation and about 16" in diameter. The float switch is mounted on the top of the pump. So in order for it to come on, the water level practically has to be at the foundation level. A quick fix is to go to Home Depot, get a new switch and clamp it to the side of the pump so that it turns on sooner. My question is should I have the sump pit deepened to 18" or 2 feet? We've got bedrock below. And I'm wondering if just repositioning the float/switch is enough. Keeps the water away from the foundation. But because the pump is close to the foundation, we have vibration in the dining room when the pump comes on, which will be more often when I put on the new switch. Thoughts?

Kref
 
Maybe you're looking for a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. :) If the setup worked for the previous owner, it's probably OK. It does seem that pit should be deeper, but, I'd wait and see what happens before I went through the trouble & expense. My $.02.
 
Seven inches? That's pretty shallow. If it can be dug deeper, it would probably be a good thing to do. My guess is that it's only seven inches deep for a reason, that going deeper was not practical.

Anyone who owns a sump pump needs to also own four other things: a water alarm, a spare sump pump, an effluent hose, and a way to run the pump in a power failure. All can be obtained at Home Depot.

The alarm will tell you if your sump is overflowing and you have a problem.

Sump pumps break and they always seem to do so at three in the blesses AM in the middle of a monsoon rain. Having a spare pump on hand will guarantee that the original will never break.

Sump pumps need very little power so a small, inexpensive generator will keep one going in a power failure. It's wise to have that generator and appropriate cords on hand.

Finally, the effluent pipe can become clogged. So it's a good idea to have a suitable piece of hose on hand that can be quickly substituted.
 
One of the recommended setups for sailboats is to have two pumps in the deepest part of your bilge. You have one small pump set pretty low, and then a bigger pump with a float switch that is higher than that of the small pump. The small pump handles small normal influx of water, and less water runs back down into the bilge when the pump cuts off because the outflow pipe is smaller. If you get a lot of water at once, it rises high enough to trip the switch for the big pump, which then pumps out most of the water, letting the small pump finish drying out the bilge.

Dunno if any of this applies to your situation, but I know jack about basement sumps. :)
 
If your area has a public works department, I would call them to see if they can give you any advice. The PW where I live has people that do community outreach programs so that sewer and other pollution spills can be eliminated.

The PW department here follows Gollnick's advice. All of the lift stations have modems that connect them to an alarm system, they all have backup generators, they keep spares of all of the different pumps and they have crews that check them everyday.

If you need a pump, I've had good luck with www.grainger.com.
 
Home Depot has several "back-up" pumps that work from a battery or AC, some have an alarm and a low water in the battery alarm, Unfortunately you have to get the battery that goes with the pump and the acid is sold seperatly. These can be your primary pump or a back up pump. We just installed one at work, our office is in an old house.
 
The battery back up is a good idea .There are various ways to set that up but it will save you if a rain storm takes out the power.
 
or a portable rechargeable battery pack to power the primary pump? If the latter, it's possible you could use it to power a radio or TV in the event of a power failure if you don't need the sump.
 
In formulating a backup power plan (something that every sump pump owner must have since sump pumps are most needed during monsoon-like rain storms and power often fails during monsoon-like rain storms), keep in mind that a typical sump pump requires 8-12 Amps at 120V which is about 1000-1500W. If you have more than one, multiply that. The smallest portable gas-powered generators are typically around 1500W. So, a small generator can power one sump pump.

Don't forget to have enough heavy-duty indoor/outdoor extension cord available to get from where you'll set up the generator to where the pump is. You may wish to install hanging hooks or other provisions to keep the cord out of any water now so that they'll be in place already in an emergency.
 
That makes sense.

Kref

btw, someone posted a link to a portable lead acid battery pack, brand started with an X. But using the search function, I'll be darned if I can find it. Does anyone else remember that BF post?
 
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