Sump Pump drainage...

[Jay H]

On a somewhat related question to my sump question.

What is one supposed to do with the outflow of a sump pump? Right now, my sump pump pumps up to a PVC pipe to a 90deg elbow to a rubber coupler to connect to a straight PVC pipe that goes through my foundation wall. Goes above ground (I've never had freezing problems and rarely get water in the basement once it gets cold anyway) and goes away from the house about 20ft and simply discharges to the ground with a cover on top of the outflow pipe?

I don't have problems with backflow or anything but I doubt this is what it is supposed to do. I presume I should dig a big hole, fill it with rocks or some other non clogging material... Should I bother correcting a non-problem? I may try to direct the outflow a bit further from the house... can't hurt and the further I go, the more sloping the yard is and I can probably angle it away (I have woods behind my house, not neighbors)...

Jay

 

[Highbeam]

Well since your roof downspout water should be tightlined to some sort of drainage system which discharges far away from the basement. I would just dump the sump water into the downspout line. Somewhere in the discharge line from the pump there should be a check valve. It might be inside that rubber coupler or it might be threaded right onto the pump.

The key point is that the sump pump water and downspout water be carried away from your home far enough that it can't just come back into the sump. At the discharge point be sure that you have some sort of rock or protection from erosion.

 

[Jay H]

Oops, yeah, there is a check valve on the vertical PVC pipe. For me to remove the sump pump, I remove the rubber coupler, remove the PVC from the pump and then I can remove the pump which is a pedestal kind, non submersible. My downspouts simply drop to the ground and then I use a myriad of flexible hose to direct the drainage away from the house.. The ground does slope away from the house gradually til it hits the woods. My only neighbor behind there is sort of left of the house.. and not terribly close to the property line.

Jay

 

[Hogwildz]

If your not having problems, leave it be. I just dug a trench and ran mine about 80 feet away from house and out the side of a hill. Was doing other basement drainage trenching etc, so had the trench dug.
I would suggest against tying into downspout, downspouts on heavy soaker long rains will have all they can handle with the water they are taking off the roof. Especially if its standard 2" x 3" spout.
The other problem is if the end of the spout get clogged and no you add the sump pump water its going to be pouring out at the house where the downspout elbow is.
If its ok now , let it be. Mine is 5' down so it ain't going to freeze. You could do pit with stone, but if the ground there is more clayish, it may fill quick and back up anyways.

 

[Jay H]

Nope, Septic tank and leach field are on the south side of the house, Sump and all the downspouts generally run West which is my back of the house and slopes down into the woods.

This past weekend, I did dig out the trench again as it was filled with leaves and dirt. I found the drainage was pooling right outside the drainage spout because of the detritus so I got a hoe and dug out the trench a bit...

Jay

 

[Highbeam]

Hog's right. The downspout idea has some drawbacks if your drainage lines are undersized. Also, some sump pumps can really make a ton of flow.

 

[Hogwildz]

Hog's right. The downspout idea has some drawbacks if your drainage lines are undersized. Also, some sump pumps can really make a ton of flow.

You betcha on the pump flow. I use a 1-1/2 hp submerged pump hooked to 2" or maybe its 1-1/2" pvc, and its a solid flow out the end when it goes.
Really sucks having water so close to my basement floor. Before I cut the hole & installed the sump, the pressure cracked the floor in several spots. I was really hoping to finish the basement, but that is just asking for wrecked sheet time after time. Now I need to get a battery back up, cause if I lose power in a rainstorm, it will flood. Luckily I fixed the floor drain the previous owner ran and dead ended into the side of the non functioning drainage tile.
It was not even cut in. just butt up against. and of course the end was filled with mud. I ran that and a total of 5 pipes down the trench. cost me $1,100.00 for having the trench dug, which 9 hrs and a truck & backhoe operator isn't that bad for this area. But the main plan for the trench filled with rock to let the water under the basement flow and hope not to need the sump or basement floor drain..... no go. At least the sump pump is doing a great job, no water since I put it in. And the basement floor drain will act as back up.

 

[Jay H]

Wow, I don't get that much water but when we get 2.5"+ or so in a day, I get water seepage for like 3-4 days afterwards. My sump pit is not in dirt, it's been finished in concrete so it just gets runoff and my floor isn't flat which is the reason the seepage puddles up on the far end. I'm going to see how much it is to rent a concrete saw and/or how much it is to just pay some schmoe to do it. I can do everything else, like mix the concrete and stuff.

I really wanted to do a backup for when power goes out just by drilling a hole in the foundation at about floor level and running a pipe out to the side of the hill... however, I know my yard is very very rocky, there's no way I could dig it out by myself without a backhoe and that would be more than I would spend for a generator I think due to logistics and stuff.


Jay

 

[Highbeam]

You have grade to daylight a pipe run from your basement? That's always the superior option. Cripes. Make that your permanent solution. Sump pumps are for people that live on a flat lot with a basement below grade of the entire lot.

I bought a house with a wet crawlspace two years ago. Like 10"+ water under normal conditions through the winter. Not cool when the pier pads were only 6" tall so the bottom of my wood columns were rotten. I used a sump pump in a 5 gallon bucket with the discharge pipe poked through a foundation vent to pump it dry until I could get in there and dig a gravity drain. For the gravity drain I ran a 4" pipe under the footing by hand and then trenched it down the hill to daylight with a ditchwitch. At the same time I ran downspout drainage for my gutters and routed that runoff by gravity to the same place. Also sloped the earth away from my home. No more water in the crawlspace and the hand dug 4" drain has never been used. My problem was mostly downspout runoff.

 

[Jay H]

I do and don't I'd have to measure to see how far I'd have to go to get level pipe with my floor to hit air. It's not a big slope and I know for a fact that I've got huge rocks in my backyard that I would need some kind of heavy machinery to dig out and stuff. Might get into zoning problems as it would be hard to hide a backhoe and it would get close to my neighbor's property though not the house. If this was downspout issues, I could probably get away with some kind of pit filled with crushed stone, but it seems the water table rises and that's where my seepage begins. I'm afraid if I simply drill a hole through my foundation at ground level, that water would simply flow into the basement when the water table rises...

Jay

 

[Hogwildz]

I have a grade that was filled in in the front & taken from in the back. Basically dug out of the side of a hill. and still have a spring or stream just the 8" under the basement. Even dug the trench a foot below the basement floor level about 80' to the side of the hill and big #3 rock filled about 3' of the trench which is about 6' wide prior to filling back in. Did not help the water drain a bit ;(.
Most cased daylight out with gravity works. Near the base of a mountain here, there is a serious amount of water that constantly flows beneath the house. My guess is it may be a spring or stream that spills over into other directions when it rains and hence coming to the house was coming up through the floor. For me the mega trench didn't do squat;(, but the sump pump now keeps me dry, and the basement floor drain also daylighted out the hill side is a great backup. Then again, the water level in the sump I dug, never drops, not in the dead dry of summer and especially in winter. Only rises when it rains, and the pump takes care of that. The silver lining is, even in dead dry summer, I know I have plenty of water and the well ain't going dry.

If the previous owner would have done a mega massive deeper trench filled with rock and positively hit the water flow, It would be possible to have it flowing out thew hill side. I don't have the cash or equipment to dig all over to hit the stream. Oh well. dry for now.