Hand pump question

[James C. Hooper]

Good afternoon,
I live in Michigan in clay and my lot slopes down to a ditch. My whole yard was nice and firm. 10 years ago a small crack developed in my walkout ranch and started to get a little water in my basement with poured concrete walls. Busted up the concrete and created a French Drain (I think that is what it is called) and put in a drain field down hill away from the house. Now my basement is dry but the area where the drain field is is always soggy. I put a clean out in this new drain field so I have a 4" PVC schedule 80 pipe sticking out of the ground. If I take the cover off this pipe the water level is about the same level as the yard. This PVC pipe isn't even 6 feet down.

Soooooo I want to find a easy way to dewater this area. If I got a hand pump like a pitch pump or something like this:
http://www.survivalunlimited.com/handwaterpumpshallow.htm
Could I hook a long garden hose to the spigot of this pump and run it down hill to the ditch making sure the end of the hose at the ditch is lower than the pipe that I plan on putting in the 4" PVC pipe that will then hook up to the hand pump. Once I start pumping water and leave the lever down on the pump would siphoning take over so water would continue to flow? Hope this makes sense - Jim!

 

[Valveman]

A siphon will work if you have the elevations right and no air leaks like around the packing on the hand pump.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[WorthFlorida]

Clay soil is about the worst for drainage. When its wet it swells and shrinks and harden like concrete when dry. I lived in Illinois with a lot of clay. After you dug the French drain where does it drain to? Was it dug in the inside wall of the lower level or on the outside? of the foundation. When it is on the inside usually you let it drain into a sump pit on the inside of the basement floor, then use a sump pump to pump it to the outside. Where on the outside would be where the ground slops away from the home.

The side of the home where your drainage field is not draining probably because of the clay soil. If you want to help alleviate this you may need to dig a trench to the drainage ditch, fill it with crushed stone and use perforated pipe with a sock. The water will now have a place to drain to away form the home. Your foundation may heave cracked because of the hydrostatic pressure of the water table around your home.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Advance...ipe-Perforated-with-Sock-04730100BS/100129255