Arla
New Member
- Messages
- 20
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
Right now I have a sump pump in my dirt crawlspace, while it does HELP with the water under the house problem, I honestly think it was installed by a complete amateur (or a cowboy if you prefer the term).
A few of the things that I know are wrong with it
1. The earth around the pump appears to be corroding (presumably getting washed into the basin and either settling there as sediment, or being pumped out)
2. The basin itself seems fairly small, not measured it yet, but it's a small food barrel (based on a quick web search, I think it's a 5 gallon pickle bucket) that my next door neighbor has provided me with one of since then (that's how I know what it is, was installed before I ever brought the house)
3. No check valve on the output pipe (or maybe there is and it's not working, or in the wrong place) so when the pump turns off the basin quickly half-fills with water again (presumably coming back down the pipe).
4. The outlet seems to go directly into the sewer system, this is against code and presumably not a desperately good idea (for various and sundry reasons).
So, what I'd like to do is try to remedy some of this to make this a more workable solution, without spending an utter fortune (if I have to spend a fortune I might as well get a drainage expert to come and actually make it all work rather better and even perhaps eliminate the need for the sump pump altogether).
So onto the questions and what I'm hoping/planning to do
1. Any easy way to get the pump out of the basin, I'm not sure how they are normally connected to the output pipe, but it would be nice to unattach it
2. Clean the basin (now we're getting towards the dry season here in CA)
3. Add a check valve at, what I believe, is the right point (i.e right as the water comes out of the pump, before the vertical pipe starts)
4. Look at changing where the water goes so that instead of feeding into the sewer system it comes out past our front lawn (the lowest point of the house), my big problem with this is that I assume it's going to cost quite a bit to have pipe drilled through the pavement, wondering if I have other options (I could just dump the water under out hedge at the front of the house, but I'm wondering if that'll cause other issues
5. Fill the ever-increasing pit around the basin with something, I believe gravel (small to add volume, but large enough not to go through the holes and into the basin.
6. Perhaps replace the basic if it's too small with a larger one (although as of now I've not actually noticed any real problems with the size of the basin, takes a while between the pump going off for it to go back on again, although if I add gravel around the basin this may get worse since the "overflow" area outside the basin will be much smaller.
Any advice greatly appreciated
A few of the things that I know are wrong with it
1. The earth around the pump appears to be corroding (presumably getting washed into the basin and either settling there as sediment, or being pumped out)
2. The basin itself seems fairly small, not measured it yet, but it's a small food barrel (based on a quick web search, I think it's a 5 gallon pickle bucket) that my next door neighbor has provided me with one of since then (that's how I know what it is, was installed before I ever brought the house)
3. No check valve on the output pipe (or maybe there is and it's not working, or in the wrong place) so when the pump turns off the basin quickly half-fills with water again (presumably coming back down the pipe).
4. The outlet seems to go directly into the sewer system, this is against code and presumably not a desperately good idea (for various and sundry reasons).
So, what I'd like to do is try to remedy some of this to make this a more workable solution, without spending an utter fortune (if I have to spend a fortune I might as well get a drainage expert to come and actually make it all work rather better and even perhaps eliminate the need for the sump pump altogether).
So onto the questions and what I'm hoping/planning to do
1. Any easy way to get the pump out of the basin, I'm not sure how they are normally connected to the output pipe, but it would be nice to unattach it
2. Clean the basin (now we're getting towards the dry season here in CA)
3. Add a check valve at, what I believe, is the right point (i.e right as the water comes out of the pump, before the vertical pipe starts)
4. Look at changing where the water goes so that instead of feeding into the sewer system it comes out past our front lawn (the lowest point of the house), my big problem with this is that I assume it's going to cost quite a bit to have pipe drilled through the pavement, wondering if I have other options (I could just dump the water under out hedge at the front of the house, but I'm wondering if that'll cause other issues
5. Fill the ever-increasing pit around the basin with something, I believe gravel (small to add volume, but large enough not to go through the holes and into the basin.
6. Perhaps replace the basic if it's too small with a larger one (although as of now I've not actually noticed any real problems with the size of the basin, takes a while between the pump going off for it to go back on again, although if I add gravel around the basin this may get worse since the "overflow" area outside the basin will be much smaller.
Any advice greatly appreciated
Last edited: