The Sump Pump Project

[Twitchin Kitten]

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Well since this has become a full on project I'm starting it's own thread.

The job is easier than expected but we still have a lot of water seeping in. I hit fucking roots! Little bitty roots deep in the hole once we broke through.

Project area to work in - right where the column is but only over to the left a bit. Took out the first shelf for now to make it easier to work and once the pump is in the pit, I should be able to have my shelves. I also made a ton of shelf space because there was nothing but shit to go into the trash anyway. Two problems solved. Talking to LK we decided to chance where to dig instead of under the stairs, we went left of the column to fully avoid footer issues. Glad we did.

Before:

   

Anyway, Matt rented the big Bosch breaker like in this pic Biker showed:


  basementJackhammer_06_6_28_2014.jpg (Size: 66.82 KB / Downloads: 46)

Took all of an hour to bust through and get a 24x24 hole cut out.
Took another hour to dig through the mud and gravel and water and now the hole is prepped. Just need Matt to run an outlet there tomorrow or sometime this week.

The hole ready to fill with the basin:

   

The basin prepped for installation - I'm going to wrap it in landscape screening to prevent the silt from flowing through the holes. Matt's picking up gravel and Quickcrete on his way home tomorrow or sometime this week.

   

We purchased the 3/4 HP stick pump, not submersible and instead of the 1 3/4 tubing to pump out, we bought a hose adapter and a rubber hose - good rubber, not plastic, and we're going to trail that up and out along the ceiling to the same 'cheat' I have the water pumping out into now, the 4" waste line. EASY PEASY.

[Twitchin Kitten]

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OH and you can see "lines" where I had Matt score the floor where the drill could reach so the water can "go to the hole" for now. In the spring we'll make the effort of building a short "wall" of either concrete or brick and keep the water from flowing past the shelving and guide it all to the hole. It's just too wet now to tackle that and too cold. we'll be fine for a couple more months like this and I know I won't have to manually pump water anymore. As he was shoveling the crud out of the hole all the water was leeching right through those small channels he made and back into the hole, so they're working already

[twisteroo]

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This project needs trenches, pipe, and gravel. Oh, and trenches.:p
Also less ebola.

[Twitchin Kitten]

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There will be no trenches dug. Nope. It was hard enough listening to Matt cry for an hour because he had to dig a hole in sand.

[twisteroo]

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Threaten him with more ebola.

[twisteroo]

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Looking at that sloppy soupy shit you dug out of the hole I can't believe that they didn't build that house around a sump pump.

[Biker Dude]

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Looks like it is coming along nicely.

[Twitchin Kitten]

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I'm not going to worry about the electricity just yet as the most important thing to get done. We can run an extension cord for now. Rain is coming. Again. It never stops! After today's shopping I should be able to set the bucket in and have it all ready for when Matt comes home with the gravel and Quickcrete. Thank god for quick cement! That shit cures fast and with the water always coming in, (it still is!) regular cement won't work.

Twist, when you dig deep enough here, you hit seashells and in some places salt water! They should never have built basements in any of these houses here and get this, we are on the highest peak in the neighborhood. Matt HAD to have a basement when we bought. Was convinced that it was fine (I saw the water marks and covering up with that stupid pink paint) but he believed the owners when they said it never got wet down there. Sure it didn't. It flooded the day we moved in (in a torrent) and continually after that.

This is going to solve all our issues. All the water seeping in now is coming from UNDER the slab and just seeping in the top layer of sand.

OH and the guys who work at Home Depot - Just don't ask them anything if you expect a correct answer or expert knowledge. They're fucking morons. Out and out morons. You'd be lucky if you get a correct answer if you ask them where they are at the moment.

Thanks Biker. So far this is actually the easiest job in this house! No bullshit, no Pandora's Box, no nuthin' except Matt's jelly arms from the drill!

[twisteroo]

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Matt's jelly arms from the drill!

OMG!!! Give the guy a break.
Then dig trenches.

[Twitchin Kitten]

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Almost done! It's ready to go for any rain through the winter for now. In the spring we'll run hard piping to the drain, but for now, we have a thick rubber hose set up and all Matt has to do is hard wire an outlet which can be done any time on his day off. I might leave the rocks and the opening the way it is for now just to see how it fills and stuff. Got the bag of Quckcrete ready to use as soon as all that dirt is gone.

The big pile of wet sand is still there behind the photo, under the stairs. We put it on top of a plastic drop cloth and pulled the sides up around it so no water hits the drying dirt and drags it all over the basement or into the pit to ruin the pump. Once the sand is dry we'll haul it out with buckets. It's way too heavy right now.

We expect rain today.