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Roughly once a year, we get water in our basement. Usually, it's a half-inch or less, but my husband and I (usually just me, as he is disabled) wind up shopvaccing a large area of the basement for hours and hours. The water will continue to come in long after the rain has stopped, and if we don't keep up with it with the ShopVac, it will just spread over the entire area we already vacuumed. Worst was Hurricane Irene in 2011 and the freak rain storm that preceded it by 2 weeks (12" fell in one day). Both times, we had about 2 inches of water in the entire basement. In fact, the basement had nicely dried out from the freak storm when Irene came along! I had to hire someone to help me ShopVac that mess.
We don't live anywhere near a lake or river; this is all surface water. And like I said, we average about once a year. But I am just getting too old to spend many hours ShopVaccing, lifting the vac to drain it into the sink that has a Little Giant pump, etc. I also work 2 jobs and don't always have the time to clean up for that long. So we're strongly considering getting a sump pump -- or two -- installed.
But the thought of (a) finding a reputable contractor and (b) having someone jackhammer my basement floor does not thrill me, and I keep procrastinating. I have heard so many horror stories from friends and family, but I have to believe not every job goes awry. At least I hope not.
So for those of you who have had a sump pump installed AFTER your house was built, I have some questions:
(1) How did you find your contractor? (Assuming the project went well.)
(2) How big a mess did they make installing the pit, and were there any problems encountered?
(3) How was the water removed from the pit? Is it pumped through a pipe that requires yet another hole to be made (in a wall, I'd assume).
(4) Are you happy you did it? Does the sump do what you hoped it would do?
I am realistic. I know we'll have to move a lot of stuff in the basement so the contractor can work. I know that even when the sump is working fine, we may have to broom/sweep water into the pit sometimes (based on the water entrance pattern we have). I know it won't be cheap. I'm just trying to avoid an expensive nightmare.
Thanks for any advice, precautions, warnings, good stories, horror stories, etc.!
P.S. We have a Generac whole house generator, so at least we don't have to worry about the power going out and leaving us without power for the sump pump.
Without knowing WHY there is water entering the basement I would not focus on sump pumps. Something MUCH SIMPLER like better grading / different downspout location might solve this.
It is possible there are spots that have foundation cracks that could be sealed up, also cheaper / easier than installing sump pump.
Sump pumps are generally a good solution in situations where the ground conditions are such that pretty much every rain event would saturate the soil and force water to penetrate the foundation -- the sumps work best when connected to EXTERIOR perimeter drainage "tiles" (which nowadays are generally made of PVC with a filter sock..) to collect water and channel it away before it builds up...
Not every issue related to water entering basement is best solved with sump pumps.
Last edited by chet everett; 08-15-2017 at 11:58 AM..
We recently had this done in our basement as we have had several water-related issues. We do really need to have some grading done around the house and that IS on the list of things to have done. Just haven't had it set up yet.
1) We used Roto Rooter to put in the sump pump. We called them for a couple other issues and they treated us well, so Mom decided to use them for other projects. Pricing seemed fair, and they always give us discounts (coupons on the site etc.).
2) They cleaned up their mess. A little dirt was tracked, but that can't be helped. They even put the displaced earth in the back yard in a specific area that I asked to have built up for a future berm. On top of that, they even removed an old barrel full of trash that the former owners left on the side of the house.
3) A pipe was run to the exterior wall. They cut a hole to accommodate it. From the outlet hole, they ran a black flexible hose to route the water back away from the house. Since we still plan on doing some grading, that hose is currently above ground. It will be buried when the grading is done.
4) I'm happy with it. There is still a tiny amount of seeping at the coving joint where the wall meets the floor in a couple spots that I am fairly certain will be resolved with grading. I truly hope so, because the next step up from that would be installing a french drain in the basement which I am NOT looking forward to.
Oh, one thing to remember is that if you do NOT have an outlet close enough to where your sump pump will be installed, you will need to have an electrician come in and install one. You do not use an extension cord with a sump pump. The cords are usually about 6-9 feet long, so plan accordingly. When they come out to give you a quote for the sump pump installation, they should also go over possible locations. The best location for a sump pump may not be close to an outlet. They try to place it in a "low" area.
I'll see if I can get some pictures for you in the next post. Good luck.
Okay, I put together a photo album on Imgur that should hopefully show what I was talking about. Please let me know if this doesn't work, or if you notice anything weird about the link.
But I'm going to simplify it for you-
Since your "events" always coincide with extreme rain it's a good bet your problem is exterior drainage; and not necessarily a foundation/perimeter drain problem.
Having positive slope away from the foundation of the house, downspouts piped away from the house, no raised beds against the foundation, properly sloped sidewalks and driveways; all of these things promote drainage away from the house and deter water from intruding the basement.
Always start with the "least evasive" before major retro-fitting.
Okay, I put together a photo album on Imgur that should hopefully show what I was talking about. Please let me know if this doesn't work, or if you notice anything weird about the link.
One scale of one (yikes) to ten (great job) I would rate the overall installation about 5. Some of the issues are easy to fix. The electrical cord really should be secured -- seen lots of issues where an unsecured cord works it way loose (or gets tugged when someone passes by) and then heavy rain result in ZERO pumping.
Along the same lines, I would never rate anyone that failed to install a BACK-UP SUMP PUMP as prudent -- so much easier / smarter to spend a bit to have things ready for the almost inevitable failure that WILL happen at the worst possible time!
Another detail: Where is the backflow preventer? The standard is to install a flap valve on a nice vertical run of the pipe and have an easy to access cutoff valve to both reduce strain on pump and make future pump changes easy. The relatively low run of vertical pipe will hinder future access. The exit of the discharge absolutely NEEDS to be sealed -- not just for energy efficiency but to keep vermin out.
The thing that most troubles me is the relatively poor condition of the existing downspout and splash block - that absolutely is contributing to the issue -- even with a sump pump the water is essentially being cycled over and over. Need to have the downspout extended below grade and then route buried non-perforated PVC so the gutters discharge well away from the house ASAP, heck I wonder if that was done FIRST if sump was even needed...
Hmmm...I have no idea about the backflow preventer, and nobody ever discussed a backup sump pump with us. We had 3 different people out to survey and quote us, too. :/
Yeah, I see your point about the electrical. The cord just BARELY reached the outlet. I will have to find a way to secure that puppy.
Oh yes. ALL of the downspouts for pretty much all of the houses in the neighbourhood are like that. I think only one house I have seen in the area has a buried black hose extension thing going on. We have that and the grading on our list of things to do. So far, though, the sump pump has been helping. Basement hasn't flooded again yet (knock on wood).
To do it right, they need to dig up around your foundation to install drain tiles, which will send all the perimeter water to your sump pit. Most places that add sump pits to existing houses just dig the hole and put a sump pump in it, not the right way at all.
Our last home was on ledge, near a river bank. To dig all the way around the foundation to install drainage was prohibitively expensive. So I installed a sump pump myself. I just went to HD, got a mid-range pump for about $135, a plastic bucket ("sump") and some PVC pipe for cheap, and cut a hole to fit the sump in a low corner of the basement. Took me less than an hour. I used some Quikcrete to smooth over the edge of the sump. I ran the PVC through an old dryer vent in the wall, and led it to an unused grass area some distance from the basement wall.
I've never heard that you can't use an extension cord. I ran a 25' 12/3 extension from the pump to an outlet on the adjacent wall, looped around a drainage pipe. I would not run it along the floor, though.
You don't need to make this complicated. Any plumber or handyman can do this job in very little time. Ours ran faithfully for the 15 years we lived there, and I never had to service it. You likely will hear a humming and gurgling noise when the pump is running, but if you have only rare water pooling, it shouldn't be too much of an issue.
we bought a house that already had a sump pump installed.
We pulled up the concrete sidewalks that sloped toward the house, piped all the downspouts downhill from the house, repaired foundation cracks.
We STILL got water in the basement when it rained.
Sometimes groundwater is just too high, and you have to deal with it.
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Installation could use some tweaks...
