Sump Pump Issue and Saturday's Post

Today's post is regarding a very serious water issue in a basement that had a unique diagnosis - however one that has been seen before.

The home owner called in distress regarding an inch of water on his basement floor from the snow that was melting in conjunction with the rain that had fallen. Upon inspection of his basement, he was right. There was water coming in at the floor joint, there was water sheeting down the walls in some areas, and there was a hole in the wall at the top of the first block on the footer that was peeing. Yes, peeing a stream of water continuously (2 hours prior to my arrival, 1 hour while I was still there.) The sump pump had one bleeder with running water, the other with a drip. The sump discharged every 1 minute.

The immediate thought when you see water coming out on the floor is that you have improper drainage - either exterior or interior. However, one of the walls (closest to the sump crock) was sheeting water - meaning the water could be brushed from the wall with your hand. We decided to look outside to see how much snow was on the house itself.

There was zero snow up against the house; however there was water staining where the leaders of the downspouts were - up to the siding. At the bottom of one of the leaders was a 6" puddle, not draining. We continued to walk around to find this issue at each leader until we got to the sump discharge hole - yes, hole. And the 2' of water that was in this hole...created by water. Yep, a stream. We then pulled the leader caps off to find standing water in the leader. Somewhere, there is a crack in the downspout lines. The sump pump was operating, and recycling the same water through. The ground never had a chance to remove the water for it was always there.

The first course of action we are going to take is to re-route the lines into a gravel pit with a proper pitch. This was a new addition that had improper pitching so that the water would not leave. When the ground froze (the line was not that deep), our best guess is the the standing water cracked the pipe. Go figure...

Tomorrow's topic is energy conservation. I'm conserving energy by not writing it. I'm going to one of those once in a lifetime experiences - UFC 68. There will be lots of energy there. At least I can say that I saw it - once.