Sump Pump Info Needed
Does anyone have a sump pump in their basement, and if so, does it pump the water into the sewer line? And do you have a check valve? I have a French drain that was hooked up to drain directly into the sewer line, which caused problems when the sewer backed up because of tree…
Does anyone have a sump pump in their basement, and if so, does it pump the water into the sewer line? And do you have a check valve? I have a French drain that was hooked up to drain directly into the sewer line, which caused problems when the sewer backed up because of tree roots. I’m now considering connecting the French drain to a sump pump which would be installed and then drain into the sewer. I was told that because of the configuration of the piping, that the sump pump would not need a check valve. The thing is that my basement is dry and the French drain was probably overkill, so maybe I should just have the connection to the sewer pipe cut off and capped – so the French drain is just non-functional, rather than have the sump pump installed. Any advice on what to do? Also, and recommendations on sump pumps?
Maybe I’m getting confused about the terminology but I thought a sump pump wasn’t connected to anything. Isn’t it just a hole in ground where excess water can go (and eventually drain away)? Ideally dug about 4ft deep with layers of pebbles and sand but, still, just a hole. Correct me if I’m wrong coz I want get one installed so any clarifications would be helpful.
Where do you think storm water from the street goes?? Into the sewer. New York does not have two separate sewer systems, one for runoff and one for sewage.
I do believe that according to code all storm water whether from roofs or sumps has to be connected directly to the sewer mains. That means when installing a sump it should be connected to the sewer and therefore it would require a check.
However from a practical pov, it is better to have a sump drain into the street, if possible, then you avoid the problem of sewer capacity and backup.
Johhny – What plumber do you use, or would you recommend?
Ohlise
What cured the flooding was the digging down to the footing outside the back wall, parging the wall w. cement etc. We used this company http://usbasement.com/ which was featured in This Old House. They were reluctant to come to Brownstone Brooklyn – which was a whole other ballgame from the burbs- in retrospect, maybe I should have used someone local. They suggested the French drain which I think was overkill, as the basement is dry. However, I do think about having the front of the house done- the basement wall consists of boulders and sand really. My inner walls are thorosealed- but I think my front wall gets wet underneath it all. But no water on the floor [knock on wood] – I do worry about more torrential rainstorms with global warming though.
We have a sump pit and a pump. The pump empties out into the street from beneath the sidewalk. I do not know if this is how it should work, but the water ends up in the storm drain system on the street. Most of our neighbors have a similar arrangement (our basements get flooded in heavy rains; we are in a flood zone). I have a rain water barrel under the roof gutters, so that water is not added to the sewer system, and when the barrel overflows it dumps into the yard (in heavy rains).
I am intrigued by your French drain as a contractor suggested that we have one done too (if we dug up the slab, i.e.) but they said it would drain into a sump pit and pump.
Have you noticed much less flooding after the drain?
My basement flooded in heavy rain ’cause some bright spark attached a drain in the middle of the basement floor to the sewer line and then built a floor over it so we couldn’t find the thing.
In heavy rain water backed up through the drain into basement. Solution was an overflow valve where the storm drain leaves the building. Excess overflow from heavy rain no longer comes back into the building. . . thus far 😉
11:06 AM So did you have your sump pump removed because the sewer would back up into the sump pump – you said my former sump pump- so I’m curious.
P.S. the basement is really dry – so the French drain hasn’t really been needed, since the back wall was waterproofed.
11:06 guest. Thank you for your input. What you’ve said is what I’ve been thinking – that if the problem is the sewer drain which should now be cured. I had Econo Sewer come and video both the French drain (loaded with phorid flies because of the waste back-up) and the sewer drain- clogged with tree roots at every 4-5 feet where sections of the pipes joined. They water jeted the inside of the French drain and cleaned out the bug problem (drained the jet water out the sewer line), and roto cut all the tree roots, and then put a root killer into the line. So, if the root killer works as they said it would, and I maintain a yearly maintenance, there should be no sewage backup into the French drain. I had the French drain put in in 2000, when I had the back yard dug to the footing, and my back basement wall water-proofed from the outside (parged with cement/ liners/ a French drain and drain that connected to the waste pipe through the basement wall [also connected to the line that runs from the roof down the side of the house]. One concern is that there might be phorid flies within the sewer system, that would travel into the French drain- but I tend to think I may be overthinking this too much as the fly infestation was such a drag.