Basement Sump Pump Install ?

Good morning – Looking for a little advice on a wet basement issue.

The backstory… I’ve got a 1970’s rambler that we purchased 11 years ago – it had a finished basement when we purchased it. One month after we moved in we had a very wet July and ended up with a good amount of water in the basement, ruining the flooring and carpet. We chalked this up to potential grading issues and not having gutters on the house. Moved landscaping away, adjusted grading, added gutters. Replaced flooring in the basement and figured we had the issue resolved. Fast forward to the following summer, same issue – heavy rain and I had a wet ruined floor… Difference this time is that I know the water didn’t come from the top – I could kick the dust up around the house. I tore the flooring out again, cleaned it up, and haven’t touched it since.

Now 10 years have gone by and I haven’t had water down there once since 2012. I live in a fairly swampy area and I can monitor the water table just by watching the swamp-pond across the road. Highest it ever was when we moved in (probably 3-4ft deep) – the past few years it’s basically been dry.

This hasn’t been an issue but as my son is getting older we’d like to re-finish the basement again to gain some space. Since the water is coming from the bottom up, I’m assuming installing a sump pump would be my best option here? I’d like to think it’ll stay dry but if I’m going to go through the hassle of redoing everything again I don’t want it to get wet.

Any thoughts? Any idea on what a sump pump / drain tile would cost to get installed? Rough estimate is 30x50ft or so – it’s not a walkout basement (unfortunately).

Thanks,
Pete

On a previous home we had a similar issue where water came in from under the slab. Put in drain pipes from the downspouts to the street and completely solved the issue.

Just a guess based upon a quote I received on a prior home, but that was about eight yrs ago…$7500-$10k.

The problem is grading only goes so far. If the ground is saturated as it has been in the very wet years in the past, the hydraulic force can push water up from under the slab no matter how good your grading is.

Best thing we ever did was to just bite the bullet and put in tile and a sump. Without it, you’re always going to have to worry about a big rain making a mess and wrecking everything.

I did the sump and tile myself, but that was on an unfinished basement in a 1930s house, so YMMV. It wasn’t that hard, worst part of it was humping all the buckets full of gravel in and debris out. 60 trips up the stairs carrying 80 pounds per trip… yeah, I’m glad that was a younger version of me.

But there are plenty of companies to do it for you too. Totally worth it IMO.

You will need to saw a trench around the outside walls of your basement floor. Bust up concrete pack it outside, dig out dirt, pack dirt outside, add clean stone, install correct drain tile, cover with clean stone, and pour concrete to finish floor.
Lots of work. Hope you have some good friends with strong backs.

I have all your concrete cutting needs handled from the trench to drilling for the drain tile. That’s not that hard. I’ve done it for many members on the forum. I can work out a deal to form up and repour your pit walls and trench. Then you just need a plumber for pump install and drain tile. I do a lot of these

Do it right and put the system in. Last thing you want to do is spend time and money finishing basement just to redo it again. Plus this would be the time to do it since it isn’t finished. My family lives in a 1970 rambler that had water issues, it has collection system in it now and no issues. Put a sump in that has a battery back up in though.

Bearcat89 wrote:

I have all your concrete cutting needs handled from the trench to drilling for the drain tile. That’s not that hard. I’ve done it for many members on the forum. I can work out a deal to form up and repour your pit walls and trench. Then you just need a plumber for pump install and drain tile. I do a lot of these

what a guy! that is awfully nice of you to offer that BC

If doing the work I’d go with a sump pump with a battery backup system as well. A sump pump is only good if it works and if it has power. If the pump should fail ( Not that uncommon ) of if the power goes out – The pump isn’t pumping anything. When we purchased our house we asked how often the sump pump runs. The answer we got was never that they know of. Fast forward a year and with one of the wettest springs in a long time and the sump pump was running non stop. We have a wetlands behind out house and was told you could walk across it in stocking feet and not get your socks wet. That spring it raised to a point that we had ducks and ducklings feeding in the water 1/2 way into the back yard. We started by putting gutters on the house and resolving a issue where the sump pump was draining just barely outside the outer wall and was draining right back down into the drain field only to have to be pumped back out again. These two fixes and less spring rains and the pump has ran a lot less the last few years. It scared me to think what would have happened in our finished basement if that pump had ever failed or the power went out when it was pumping no stop. I have looked into getting a backup pump system added several times and have not bit the bullet and had it added yet. I really need to do that prior to it coming back to haunt me one of these days.

So long story short – If putting in a sump pump – Spend a little extra and make sure it has a back up system with a battery backup and alarm system to let you know the backup pump was needed.

fishthumper wrote:

So long story short – If putting in a sump pump – Spend a little extra and make sure it has a back up system with a battery backup and alarm system to let you know the backup pump was needed.

Also, if the primary pump fails for any reason, the back-up is there to take over, power failure or not. I’ve been installing Wayne WSS30VN packages lately, the 12V DC pump has much better specs than the “bilge pumps” used in other systems.

HRG

Anyone do water powered backup pumps instead of batteries?

Hot Runr Guy wrote:

Also, if the primary pump fails for any reason, the back-up is there to take over, power failure or not. I’ve been installing Wayne WSS30VN packages lately, the 12V DC pump has much better specs than the “bilge pumps” used in other systems.
HRG

Hot Runr Guy. It looks like that Wayne pump system is a combo unit. Thats one of the decisions I’m having a hard time deciding on. Do I keep the current pump thats in place and just add a backup pump tied to a battery source or totally remove whats in place and replace with a combo unit. Any thoughts on what is my best way to go? Where are you located and do you do this type of work for a living? What is the apx. cost of that type of a system installed?

IDO is not letting me reply,,,,

No, I’m not a professional, I’m just “the guy” everyone in my family calls for help. In a perfect world, if you could have (2) discharge pipes, keep the (2) pumps independent from each other, with separate check valves and piping. The combo-unit has 2 small check valves at the exit port for each pump, but I’d rather see better CV’s used, if the room exists.

Since you have an existing pump, Wayne sells the 12V DC pump by itself, # ESP25n. $320 on Amazon
$270 on sale at Fleet Farm currently. The combo unit is also on sale at FF, $430

HRG

Hot Runr Guy wrote:

IDO is not letting me reply,,,,

No, I’m not a professional, I’m just “the guy” everyone in my family calls for help. In a perfect world, if you could have (2) discharge pipes, keep the (2) pumps independent from each other, with separate check valves and piping. The combo-unit has 2 small check valves at the exit port for each pump, but I’d rather see better CV’s used, if the room exists.

Since you have an existing pump, Wayne sells the 12V DC pump by itself, # ESP25n. $320 on Amazon

HRG

HRG – Thanks for the info. I’ve heard Pro’s and Con’s of both Setups. My current sum well is sealed and covered. I guess the first thing to do is to remove the sealed cover and see what space I have there to work with. Most of the plumbers I contacted for a quote only wanted to install the combo units. I’m guessing that’s for simplicity with the install and most money on the markup of the combo pump system.

I have some fishing line on my float arm and pull it once a year in the spring before the snow melts and test the pump is still working. But I have OCD

bigcrappie wrote:

Wayne WSS30VN

I just dump water into my sump to test it.

Just because it work when tested each spring does not insure that it will keep working in a time of need or that there will be power to make it work. Thus the reason for a battery backup. Then again if the current pump has never had to work, May not be a need for a backup or battery powered one.

fishthumper wrote:

Just because it work when tested each spring does not insure that it will keep working in a time of need or that there will be power to make it work.

I didn’t mean that testing it replaces the backup. I put in a Zoeller pump w/ battery backup 5-6 years ago. I test both the AC and DC pumps each spring. I have a sump that runs quite a bit, so a backup was a necessity, in my eyes. I also have an extra rider on my homeowner’s insurance in case of failure.

I did have the DC pump fail the first year (which I found by testing it), but Zoeller replaced it under warranty, and it’s worked fine since.

FWIW, my DC backup has never kicked in outside of my annual tests.

Thanks all for the feedback and conversation – good stuff. Bearcat – I’ll send you a PM.

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

FWIW, my DC backup has never kicked in outside of my annual tests.

2 years ago, my wife & I invested in a most-house (critical circuits) nat gas generator. The power hasn’t so much as flickered since, so it’s my best or worst investment, depending on how you look at it.

HRG

Anyone with basement water issues needs to talk with their insurance agent on their policies covering. I’ve seen several be denied bc they unknowingly lacked the coverage.

Deuces wrote:

Anyone with basement water issues needs to talk with their insurance agent on their policies covering. I’ve seen several be denied bc they unknowingly lacked the coverage.

Good point Mr. Beads
In most policies its referred to as sewer and Water backup. Its often not covered in the standard plan, and needs to be added as a additional endorsement. Sump pump failure is usually covered under this additional endorsement. I would simply ask your agent the question ” if my sump pump were to fail or was unable to keep up, would any damages caused because of it be covered with my policy the way it is right now ” If they say Yes, I would keep that reply just in case. Often the sewer and Drain endorsement with have a deductible that is different than the standard policy deductible. Often lower.

MX1825 wrote:

You will need to saw a trench around the outside walls of your basement floor. Bust up concrete pack it outside, dig out dirt, pack dirt outside, add clean stone, install correct drain tile, cover with clean stone, and pour concrete to finish floor.
Lots of work. Hope you have some good friends with strong backs.

Our old house had water problems coming up from the bottom when the ground was saturated. It flooded maybe 5 times in 20 years wrecking the finised basement. After we built our new house our daughter and son-in-law bought our old house. The day they bought it we had 6 in of rain in March with the ground still froze. After the water receded we cut out the concrete 4.5 inches wide in a checker board grid in 6 ft squares and ran all the runs to the sump. That was 16 years ago and never had a problem since. I would highly recommend cutting the grid because those 4 in tubes can’t suck the water up fast enough if you just go around the edge. It was a big job that took 4 of us all day and that included mixing the sacrete and hauling it down the stairs. Good Luck