Elana
New Member
What suburb are you in. Are you near the Fox River? What about your next door neighbors? Do they have basements with similar problems? A french drain for the rear yard water issue wont help unless you have a way for it to drain and right now your pump is at its limit. I would still call your local village engineering dept. These engineer's are usually are very receptive I have found always eager to help. You don't have to give out your name and address. I'm sure that they know the water table levels and any unground springs if any exist.
Hi, I am in the NW burbs, nowhere near a river nor flood plain. My neighbors don't have this issue. I interviewed the neighbor immediately next to me about it, as we are at an equivalent elevation and only 10 ft. apart, and got some useful info. They have a basement and a sump pump too, but by his own observation our sump pump goes off way more than theirs. And apparently our basement (while inhabited by the previous owner) only flooded once over the course of 5 years, and that was without any sump pump installed. Which leads me to believe whoever installed it may have been overzealous with drilling these holes. However, various professionals (not here) have made it seem there will be dire consequences if I seal the weep holes, as I will risk ejecting the sump basin completely, or at least have stagnant water beneath the house. I don't see why I should care about water that is 25"+ below my foundation line, but like I said... "dire consequences."
In the end I may have to contact the village engineer, but so far all of my interactions with the village have been maliciously awful (any time we've had to get a permit, for instance) and I am wary to do so. We just spent a ton of money on the new sump pump so won't be able to afford some kind of expensive remediation right away, if that is what they require.
Maybe I will drop them an anonymous line, as you suggest.
EDITING TO ADD: My neighbor did say that he installed what amounts to a dry well in his yard, but again, my plumber discourages this as a solution since he thinks my sump pump will just recycle the water. But something that gives the lawn a chance to dry out could be helpful. It's a lot of money to gamble, though.