Water oozed into my cellar so regularly that years ago we had to have a sump pump installed.
In rainy weather it goes off several times an hour, so much so, that every few years I buy and install a new pump to hedge against what would be a catastrophic failure.
It’s that time again, and I wonder if any of you has a suggestion as to brand and model.
The sump hole (term?) measures a mere 11 inches across and 8 inches deep.
My sump pump failed on me last week, bringing a minor flood. I pumped out the sump (the hole the sump pump goes into) and found that the problem was that the pump had apparently gotten moved when we had the sump outflow rerouted recently, and the damned float was getting caught on the side, between the wall of the sump and the pump itself, and not going off.
I have it working, for now, but I’m keeping an eye on it*. When I get a chance, I’m going to replace it with a new 1/3 or 1/2 HP pump with a vertical float that can’t get caught. Besides, my old sump pump is about as old as me, and probably has gout or something.
They’ve got a line at Home Depot that looks good, including two vertical float modelss. I’d imagine any hardware store, hardware emporium, or builder’s supply company would have the same. Don’t recall the particular brand, though.
*I don’t want to try and replace it now, at the height of runoff season, and have it not get hooked up right.
I’m off to homedepot.com!!!
Thanks, Cal.
I second everything Cal said.
Don’t even mess around with those stupid ones with the float swinging free on a wire. The float will one day get hung up on the side of the hole and you will have an inch of water in your basement.
Get the kind with a vertical float and sleep better.
Make sure you have it on a GFCI outlet (or whatever is code where you are). You want to be able to confidently enter the flooded basement to fix whatever went wrong without the fear of electrocution.
I was told by two different plumbers at two different times that Zoeller was THE brand for sump pumps.
They also told me that the ones you buy at the “big box store” are pretty worthless (you shouldn’t be replacing them every couple of years).
Unfortunately I do not recall the name or model number of the one I had installed ($360 including installation). I do know it was cast iron and submersible. I think they cost around $75-150 depending on who you are and where you get it from.
You are probably right on both counts.
I’ve heard from Plumbers not to buy Faucets or toilets from that store.
When, in ignorance, I did buy a faucet from them, it was a piece of crap with missing parts and had to be returned. My plumber then came back with a faucet from a good store, and it’s been a joy ever since.
I’m sorry you’re having this sort of trouble,but I have to ask,have you considered the cause for the basement leaking?Water getting through your foundation usually isn’t a good thing.Sometimes the solution is surprisingly cheaper than replacing sump pumps.
Carson O’Genic,
We didn’t have a water problem until a builder took over the marketing of the marshy property directly across the street from us. Known as the Perc King, this guy brought in masses of land fill over a period of yearsto try to beat the perc test. (He failed so miserably that the owners recently gave the property to the town as a wetland, not to be built upon.)
The builder, in my estimation, so altered the landscape, perhaps dammed the underground flow of water that water began oozing into our cellar and we had to install a sump pump.
But how do I prove that? It would probably take a small fortune of legal and expert fees to prove the claim.
Putting my claim aside, how would I find someone to fix the problem?
I’ll appreciate your (and others) suggestions.
If you have city water then consider getting a water powered sump as a backup. They’re set up to operate if the first pump fails. they trigger at a higher water level and use the pressurized water from a city line to drain the water. By having a backup that isn’t electrically operated it protects your house when the power is out.
Alas, we have a well.
Ouch.Sounds like you have the worst water ingress problem,hydrostatic pressure.Solutions aren’t cheap there,typically,and are disruptive.Meaning excavation,grading etc. May not even be possible depending on your lot either from configuration or neighbourly consideration,i.e. your problem is now mine.If there are neighbours bailing the same boat,there’s strength in numbers either civically or by sharing pockets.I’m thinking of a situation wherein a small neighbourhood eventually prevailed upon the developer to restore terrain that had prevented basement flooding.The builder lost one building lot out of the parcel.
Finding someone to fix it ? I suggest talking to some local excavators and getting ballparks after determining what is really causing the problem.
There’s the problem, the hole you’ve got just ain’t big enough,
The fix depends on a couple of things: radon, your budget, are you into DIYing.
If you’ve got a radon problem then you really do want a sealed pit liner. You want to be sure it has a floor drain, if your cellar floods for any other reason (busted water line on the clothes washer, water infiltration through the cellar walls, etc) the water can’t get into the sump pit if it doesn’t. You could add a floor drain with a trap/bell drain into the new concrete that goes around the top of the liner if it doesn’t. Radon stays in the pit but water can still get in too. You do need to keep an eye on the trap, they dry out and then no radon proof seal. 
You can buy a really nice pre-assembled package that you just drop into the sump hole, Zoeller’s got a really nice single pump unit, and a duplex unit (two pumps that run alternately doubling the life of each pump, and if one breaks the second one takes over) if you’re really worried 'bout pump failure. The only thing you need to do is the plumbing and PVC is a DIY plumbing dream.
The only scary thing is there ain’t no prices on the Zoeller site and Googleing around, the prices seem (to me at least) pretty high.
No radon problem, and not wanting to pay someone else to do the work for you, DIYing it yourself.
The purpose of the liner is to not have just a muddy hole in the floor of your cellar. You should be able to find a commercially made sump liner, but there are LOTS of substitutes for the liner; HDPE slotted corrugated pipe, perforated clay drain tile, PVC, of course finding it in the right size could be a problem!
You could use a plastic garbage can, with lots of holes drilled in it.
Wrapping the liner in landscaping cloth gives you a little added insurance against soil filling the sump.
Put coarse gravel in the bottom of the sump pit to bring the liner up above the height of the floor (that way if you do get a flooded cellar there’s less chance of stuff floating into the sump hole and potentially blocking the pump if/when it gets going again). Back fill around the liner with more gravel just up to the bottom of the concrete pad (if you want to finish around the hole with new 'crete and add the floor drain) or all the way to the top, almost level with the floor.
Add a couple of inches of coarse gravel to the inside of the liner, this gives fines somewhere to go, and add a concrete paver (preferably IMHO one that almost covers the bottom of the liner) that gives you a flat surface for the pump to sit on.
If your not going to plumb the whole thing out with PVC and go with flexible hose instead (the stuff they sell for that purpose is crap, really thin walled plastic. I switched over to some scavenged pool hose, much better) it’s not a bad idea to mount the pump to the paver. Even a cast iron pump will walk around in the sump hole, but only until it finds a way to mess with the float! PVC is the way to go but it does need to be properly attached to the wall, otherwise it can still move around.
Last things a lid, liners and garbage cans come with them, otherwise just some plywood. You might want to think about a battery back-up pump too.
If I were you (and I probably will be soon, we’ll see if this year’s spring thaw gives our recently moved into new old house any trouble) I’d start with resizing the sump hole and plumb it out with a dual pump system it mind. Adding the second pump and the dual pump controller next year. I’d probably get a new pump this year and use the old one for the dual system upgrade.
If you didn’t throw any of those old (but not dead?) pumps out you can run 'em till their dead with a dual system with no worries!
Here’s some instructions if you do decide to DIY.
Last really important thing is to check around the house’s rain gutters and see if they’re moving the water away from the foundation. If your downspouts just end in elbows all that water is being dumped in the worst place possible. Add some extensions to direct the water away from the house.
CMC +fnord!
None of the above is professional advice, just years of painful and wet personal experience.
Good stuff, crowmanyclouds!
I’m no DYI-er, but I’ll look into having a pro do the work.
Thanks very much.