Do sump pumps work automatically?

water flooding is science. at every last heavy rains since the spring i ve had waters coming in from different sources and from the ground and from different locations. sometimes water from one side, from one neighbour or the other, sometimes form the sidewalk and sometimes from the garden. sometimes the pump works and sometimes the checkvalve in it breaks with no reasons. to have a dry basement you need a few things: – the right pump installed – the right draining systems with the right slope – dry wells in several locations with french underground drains – metal sheet and foil under any surface like wood and tiles if you need a finish basement. – if no plan for finished basement then never use tiles as it will keep water in your basement once it is flooded like a turkish bath or a pool… – never try to solve the problems from outside..always spend inside first.. solving from outside is like having an umbrella without a coat..it won’t do much with heavy rains like we had lately!!!!

hillel

in Plumbers and Plumbing 13 years and 8 months ago

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hotpinksharpie | 13 years and 9 months ago

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I purchased a brownstone in the fall with a half-finished basement.  The unfinished half is a boiler room.  The finished half has a floor which is deeper than the boiler room half.  the boiler room half has a sump pump which sits in a large ditch, which the inspector called a “sump ditch.”

Since purchasing the house the finished half of our basement has flooded several times, but the sump ditch has never filled with water, the sump pump has never gone on, and the boiler room section has stayed relatively dry, with a few exceptions.

I’m wondering if there is something I am supposed to be doing with the sump pump that might help with the flooding in the finished part.  I assume that if the sump pump needed to go on that I would see water filling the ditch.  Is this right?  Or does the sump pump draw water from possibly unseen sources that could be beneath the concrete floor and the ditch?

The sump pump is plugged in, and I can follow the outlet hose for it, but I know absolutely nothing about how it operates otherwise, like if I should be looking for an on/off switch and just trying it, etc.

Any insight would be appreciated.  Thanks in advance

eman134 | 13 years and 9 months ago

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there is an on off switch attached to a float, which turns the pump on when the pit fills with water…obviously the pit is either not deep enough, or water is entering through the alls on the finished side of the basement…you probably need to have the pump relocated to where the water is coming in to stop the flooding

Bklnite | 13 years and 9 months ago

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I don’t have a sump pump or know much about them, but sounds like yours isn’t turning on because the water isn’t where the pump is. It’s been record rainfall today, so you have plenty of company with the flooding this time. My basement had water coming in through the wall where outside lots of water was coming down in sheets from the gutter. (I’ll have to clean the gutters if it ever stops raining).  If the ground outside your basement walls is saturated with water you’re likely to have flooding. You want to have drains and/or grading away from foundation walls towards somewhere it can be absorbed so water has somewhere to go besides your basement.

stevecym | 13 years and 9 months ago

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Fill the ditch with water and see what happens.  

 Not all sump pumps have the ball on the side; the bigger ones do.  Little Giant has a small pump that has the switch built inside the housing.

 It sounds to me as though they were only concerned with protecting the boiler room from flooding which has not happen.  I would leave that pump there as an added measure and i would add another ditch and a bigger pump someplace else.

Steve

denton | 13 years and 9 months ago

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1\. Like the tinker says, dump water into the pit and see if it works. It is plugged in, right?
2\. Fix the cause of the water intrusion… this is a finished basement, right?
3\. Then install a new sump for emergencies only.