Sump Pump Well

[Eugene]

My next project as soon as it dries up or the ground freezes, construct a second sump pump well in the south east corner of the basement. 118 year old house. Water is passing through the limestone foundation and cracks in the cement floor.

Some ground water usually accumulates in that corner with an inch or so of rain. Normally just vacuum up a gallon or two of water, then put the fan on the spot to dry it out.

Had around 6 inches of rain in 36 hours and more to come. The one sump pump in the north east corner of the basement did not catch all the seepage. Must have broomed and vacuumed off 150 or more gallons of seepage off the basement floor.

The house's foundation sits on hard pan and probably in some places limestone bed rock. Have a demolition hammer/medium sized electric jack hammer. My biggest problem will be getting the hole for the sumppump casing deep enough.

[danovercash]

I feel your pain Eugene. After some redneck engineering, I pumped water for three hours at about 4 gallons a minute! Pictures on Facebook. iPhone won't let me post on here.

[Stanton]

Eugene, following are some figures you might find useful:

18" round basin = 14 gallons/foot depth
24" round basin = 24 gallons/foot depth
30" round basin = 38 gallons/foot depth

Choose a pump with appropriate head and GPM rating to run the pump approximately 1-2 minutes run time is ideal. Anything shorter in duration may reduce pump life. Of course, run time equals the level of the water where the pump turns on and the level where it shuts off. A pump rated for 20 GPM, you'd want a depth between "on" and "off" of approximately 1'-5" depth x 18" round basin to run the pump 1 minute.

Hope this helps.

[Eugene]

Spent the morning removing the throw rugs and carpet from the basement bathroom. Hung the rugs on the fence to drip and dry. Vacuumed up the wet spots. Now have a total of 3 fans drying out the basement. Will probably take 3 or 4 days for everything to fully dry out.

Checked the sump, water level is about one foot below the basement floor.

I have an uninstalled sump. It's about 21" in diameter and 21" tall. I haven't tried to install it because I don't know how deep I can jack hammer the hard pan and probable bed rock. After the ground water level drops, I will try to install it. Also need to install a larger pit in the current sump.