? about basement and sump pumps

[princesspumpkin]

Anyone living in the SJ/Philly area knows about the rain we just got over the last 24 hours. I don't live in a flood zone (and have never had a flood. We built the house 9 years ago) but DH says we have some sort of flood/leak in the basment. We have a sump pump that DH says has some water in it presently. The leak/flood is in a different part of the basement. Is there supposed to be water in the pump at any given time? If not, what might be the problem? When does the pump actually "turn on". As you can see, we are clueless about such things Thanks.

 

[KimRaye]

As much as I know...a sump pump delivers BACK to the sewer that might back up on you. A flood from any where else should drain to your floor drain. (That sounds stupid, sorry) The overfill from the floor drain however, in my case anyway, drains to the sump pump, thereby pumping it back OUT in either case. So, where does your sump pump actually pump to, is the question?

Did that make sense?

 

[princesspumpkin]

Not really, but thanks anyway. I did a thread search on sump pumps and saw people talking about having 2 of them and having back-ups, so I thought that it might pertain to my situation. But, I'm really confused

 

[HauntedMansionGeek]

The way ours works is that yes, there's supposed to be water in the sump hole...if that's what you mean.

The water will only get so deep before it triggers the pump to actually start up....
it SHOULDN'T fill to overflowing but that depends on if the pump is electric or not. If you lose electricity with an electric pump, then yep, you might end up with water in your basement.

 

[princesspumpkin]

Thanks HuntedMansion. Have you ever heard of a basement flooding that had a working sump pump but it didn't overflow?

 

[KimRaye]

Sorry I didn't help.

As for flooding with a sump pump...let me try again. A sump pump, in these parts anyway, handles the sewer and back up from a sewer. If your basement is taking water from cracks, leaks, etc., that water drains somewhere, maybe into your sump pump like mine, maybe not, maybe into a floor drain. If you have a true flood, I don't think a sump pump will totally eliminate water, if at all.

 

[HauntedMansionGeek]

Originally posted by princesspumpkin
Thanks HuntedMansion. Have you ever heard of a basement flooding that had a working sump pump but it didn't overflow?

I think any type of situation can happen......you're worried tonite aren't you?
When it floods here what we do is simply realize there's not much we CAN do about it and try to minimize the damage. If you have ANYTHING important down in the basement, now would be a good time to get it up and off the floor.

Good luck. Hope it dries up soon for you.

 

[princesspumpkin]

Thanks everyone for your help (KimRaye, I get you now). I suppose I just don't understand the whole process of a basement flooding in the first place. I thought that if you have a sump pump (and it didn't overflow) that your basement wouldn't flood at all. But when I read other threads, it seems that some people have 2 pumps because a basement can flood in a different area than where the first pump is. When a basement does actually flood, what do people do to fix it? Do we just clean up and pray that it doesn't happen again or is there some other preventive measure that we should take? Or, does this mean that our sump pump doesn't work? The news said that the rain that we got over the last 24 hours is our usual rainfall for the whole month of July! So I guess that's why we had our first flood. Thanks again.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Have you kicked it off? We only have 1 sump.

The sump is collecting water from the "drain tile" around your house. You can have your basement leak through cracks in your floor or foundation.

Make sure your sump is working.

 

[Dan Murphy]

I was going to reply similar to The Mystery Machine. If you have had a huge rainfall, water may have found a small, hairline foundation crack somewhere and seeped in. It could be just a little annoyance, or it could be a fair amount, especially when you are expecting dryness. And, as said, the pump collects water essenttially from the drain tiles under the house, seepage can be anywhere. Is the water adjacent to a foundation wall, not necessarliy anywhere near the pump area?

 

[princesspumpkin]

Exactly Dan Murphy. It is near the foundation wall and far away from the pump. What does "kicking it off" mean? If there actually is a crack in the foundation, what do we do about it? Thanks everyone for your help (it's supposed to rain again today)

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Kick it off means to turn it on. We always check the sump by hand frequently. DH does it, but you lift the bulb kind like a toliet, I think. It will turn on sump.

But first, is there water in there?

Also we had a leak where they put the hose in. They apparently did not do it correctly and when we had horrible rain it leaked there. Find out where it is coming from.

 

[princesspumpkin]

DH says there's water in it (sorry, I'm at work and DH told me this over the phone) and the leaks is at another part of the basement.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

If there is water in it then you need to turn it on IE "kick it off". See if it works. I have had sumps in my time and DH had to replace them more than once. Esp the "kick off thingy".

 

[Dan Murphy]

Do be careful of putting hand in the water, I use a wooden pole to trigger the float if there is water in it. And as above, I do check often also, even though we have a battery powered backup. And yes, the pumps and/or the float triggers do wear out and do need to be replaced periodically. Do check whether it is working by triggering the float as MM said, just don't put your hand in the water, or your hubby's, LOL.

We had foundation seepage (not really a job for the sum pump) and it was a fairly simple fix, used this local company. http://www.seepage.com/services.html I am sure there are similar near you. Check the areas here and see if similar. We had an injection of a bentonite slurry quite a few years ago and it worked great, never a drop since, and we have had some huge rains since. The sump pump is designed to take care of the water that occurs normally under the house coming from the drain tile, not seepage.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Thanks Dan, this is dh's department. So I don't know details.

 

[Mskanga]

Realize one thing, most pumps have a float device , until it reaches certain level of water around it, it will not kick on. Sometimes they get clogged and it will not kick on either, that's why you should shake it and see if it turns on. if it doesn't , then make sure that the circuit breaker on the outlet is on ( not tripped ) and if still no success, chances are it probably needs to be replaced.

 

[princesspumpkin]

Thanks again everyone. I'll give this info to DH.

 

[mazzarafe]

We had 2 sumps in our last house. We lived near a small branch of the Farmington River that was not kept up well with being cleared of debris. In April 1996, just 6 months after buying our cute little house, we had a massive rain storm. Like 7 inches in one day! The river came up close to our house about 40-50 feet away. On the corner they had rescue boats going down the street to get people out of their houses. Our house was the first not to be considered "flood zone".

Anyway our 2 pumps were working like crazy...never shut off and kept the water just at bay from going over. We did have a leak in our foundation on the other end of the house so our rugs were wet. But then about 9:00pm that night the firetrucks came down our street to tell us they were going to cut the power off! We got as much furniture and DH's guitars to safety as we could and DH hooked up the generator. Ended up with about 3 inches that the pumps kept at bay until they gained ground less than 24 hours later. Very scary to watch it happen the first time. Then every time we had alot of rain we checked to see if pumps were dry. Every time they started to fill we checked them to see if they worked.


Hope all is well and as long as your pumps are running you shouldn't have a pool in your basement.

 

[Laz]

In my part of Indiana, we went through The Great Flood of 2003. I learned quite a bunch about sump pumps.

Check the float and pump by dumping water into the sump until it kicks off.

I always have about 2 inches of water in my sump pit.

Where is the water being pumped to? Many builders stop the pipe just outside the house. The water just flows back around the foundation. Is this where water is showing up in your basement?

Water can seep through well-built basement floors and walls if the pump is not working properly. This happen to us during a brown out. The pump didn't have enough power to pump and water built up around the foundation. Make sure the pump is at least 1/3 horse power and is connected to its own circut breaker.

Seriously consider a battery backup in case of power outages. Make sure the backup pump is powerful enough to pump the pit out non stop for at LEAST 4 hours. In many cases, this back up can be positioned in the pit to handle additional water that the main pump can not handle.

Hope this helps!