robertc65

A friend of mine just had a new house built and during the construction process, water had to be pumped out of the basement multiple times, even though there was no rain. It seems that his house must have some significant ground water close to the foundation.

He has since moved in and the builder claims that everything is OK. His sump pump comes on multiple times per day even if we have had no rain for a while. It seems as though his sump pump has become part of an underground stream. Is this acceptable or not. He is concerned that if he loses power his basement will flood. I told him about the various options out there for sump pump backup but should he be taking on this much water to start with. Not sure if this is the best place to ask this question but I know you plumbers install sump pumps so I figured I would ask here.

Thanks

Rob

mdshunk

If the sump pump runs, then it's doing it's job. Too bad about it running in fair weather, but what is the other option? Airlift the home to another lot?

Hammatime

If it runs that much, talk him into the backup system.

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jmic

Rob,
We run into this kind of situation often in new homes. Working in Greenwich on million plus homes where there is high ground water tables, we will install 2 pits with sump pumps. Also good idea to do a back up generator in case of those power outages. What always amazes me is that some of these pumps will run constantly and the customers will have there basements finished.

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Joe

robertc65

Yea my friend's basement is finished and it's not quite a million dollar house, but darn close. I guess I just thought that something could have been done during the excavation to divert the water away from the house. I did not know that it was exceptable to build on a lot where you are constantly taking on water.

Another source of water when it's raining is the drain at the bottom of the basement walkup. It seems that this drain flows into the sump pump. Is it really a good idea to deliberatly to let water flow from the outside of the house inside and into the sump?

He does plan on getting a backup system of some sort. He really has no choice.

Thanks

Rob

jmic

Many times you have no choice because the grades do not allow you to run drains to daylight. Also many towns now will not let you hook up directly into the drainage systems they have in the roads. We have to install detention galleries and then have them overflow into the storm drains if they are there.

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Joe

Nac

I am working on to jobs right now that have toe same problems. We have to have automatic 2" sump pumps on 24 hr a day. We did a basement addition that was 3' lower than the existing house lots of underpining when we left for that day and came back the next morning that addition had three fett of water in it someone had unplug the pump to use the power and newr plug it back in. That a good idea about a backup genarater we did install two pits and two pumps but where thinking about a backup.

mickeyco

I had the same problem at my house, It's the first house I've had that has sumps, the sewer is about 3 feet above the basement floor, so everything in the basement, sink, washer and furnace, have to be pumped up to the drain. The way they plumbed the house some of the drain water from the first and second floor were also getting down to the waste sump in the basement, I changed the plumbing a little and that stopped the waste one from running excessively. The other pump handles the perimeter drains and window well drains and that used to run frequently as well. We've got a lot of clay here and it doesn't drain quickly so the pump would come on quite a bit even a few days after it rained. I found that the where the grass met the building the sod was dead and there was a gap that let water run down along the foundation, I filled it and planted grass seed. I put those clear covers over the window wells. And put the downspouts (they were draining too close to the house) into corrugated pipe a little under ground to the back yard where it slopes away from the house. Doing all this really cut down the amount of time that pump came on. I wasn't as concerned about the pump coming on a lot, but more about the basement flooding, we have power failures out here every couple of storms and I don't have any backup on the sumps. I'm thinking of getting the water powered pump as a back up.

ABLE1

Kinda of a different thought on the subject but I recently was installing an alarm system in a house. While in the basement pulling wire I noticed that the sump pump ran about every 15 minutes. The next time I talked to the customer I brought up the subject and he said that it was high ground water and it runs like that all the time. He said that was why he had a new spare pump ready to put in just in case. I asked if he was interested in a phone call if the pump did not pump. He said how much will that be?? I said about $50 bucks to add a small float switch and connect to the security panel. He didn't blink an eye and now sleeps at night.

Extra sump pump $300, battery backup systems 700, emergency generators $1000++ will all do the job when they work. Knowing about it when it happens, priceless!!!

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mdshunk

I know we sometimes put water switches on the floor near water heater and boilers to put into the alarm panel. The time your water heater picks to spring a leak willl normally coincide with your vaction away. At least you can have someone come in and shut the water off pretty soon, rather than coming home to 1,000's of gallons of water in the basement.

Good tip on the high level float tied into the alarm system. That's a no-brainer if a person has an alarm panel. (50 bucks, though? That's an easy upsell. It should at least be a few hundred)

ABLE1

If I was more of the "sales/business man" rather than a nuts and bolts put it together and make it work kinda guy it would have been as you say.

Les

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ABLE1