Brick house built in 1950. The former owners were forced by the FHA to put the hot water heater (which was in the kitchen where our fridge is now, venting through the kitchen ceiling) in the crawlspace dirt basement before the house could be sold to my parents. So, they dug out an area about 15 feet long by 3.5 feet wide and surrounded it with stacked cinderblocks with mortar. It is about 3.5+ feet deep and you can stand up in that dug out area. It is also 3.5+ feet below the outside ground. They put the water heater at the higher end with a slight elevation. At the lower end, they stuck a sump pump randomly on top of the dirt. It wasn't really a "sump".
This is what I am referring to about a dirt bottom and cinderblocks on the sides. The heating and air machine was also installed down there in between the water heater and sump area:
View image: IMG 0891
The water runs in through the cracks in the mortar holding the cinderblocks together, and they also turned a few of the cinderblocks on the very bottom so that the two holes would allow water through. As you can see, there is a lot of "loose" type dirt all the way around this bricked-off area and the whole crawlspace basement is like that in general. Some of that dirt washes into the hole amongst the water coming through the bricks. When you throw in little clumps of dirt, pebbles of cement/mortar, etc., it can be a mess.
This is my mother's home. Being a DIYer, I dug out the sump until I hit rocks too big to move and turned it into this years ago:
View image: IMG 0889
A main pedestal pump that I stabilized with the two boards that were hanging down. I also branched off a battery backup pump in case of power failure. Eventually, the backup pump stopped working after a couple of years. Probably seized due to the dirty water and environment. The main pedestal pump (the one pictured) has lasted about a decade or more, but it was really struggling the other day. Yes, it is an ugly sump and basement. I wanted to make it deeper, but couldn't without a jackhammer.
The other day we had a massive thunderstorm with rain like I have never seen before. It seemed like a cloudburst. About 5+ inches of water in the yards and flowing like a stream from yard to yard, with a foot of water running down the entire road from side to side. I went down to the basement to find the pump on continuously on and looking like this:
View image: flooded
This was a 20-minute thunderstorm that dumped probably 2-3 inches of water. As you can see, the pedestal pump itself barely escaped a watery death. It was 3-4 inches before it would have started going into the motor. The heating/air machine almost got it, as well...it is elevated for that very reason and the water didn't make it up to it. The hot water heater got a few inches of water over the bottom (enough to put it out...haven't tried to restart that yet).
Obviously, this was a high flow of water. We have never seen this much water come from a downpour before. I have pondered some type of submersible pump (but fear it may seize/clog), because the water came within 3 inches or so of overtopping the motor on the pedestal pump. Or a more powerful pedestal pump. The one pictured is a 1/3HP, 2800 GPH @ 5ft head. However, our head is 10ft, so it is probably more like 2,300 GPH and maybe a little less since it is older. That's about 38 GPM and it couldn't handle it and was coming in much faster.
Fortunately, the water subsided slowly and the pump got it all out and eventually back to normal. I thought it wasn't going to make it and that everything would flood. The pump ran for an hour straight and didn't burn out. It pumped it all out and is regularly coming on at about 30 minute intervals now to get rid of the remaining seepage.
Is there a good combo pump of some sort that would be able to handle this dirty water without seizing? A main pump and battery backup is needed. Any suggestions? Also, do most main pump and backup systems share the same pipe for higher flow pumps?
As in...say that both pumps (battery backup and main) ran at once if the main pump got overwhelmed somehow. Would they be trying to cancel one another out or would the force simply combine and shoot the water out faster?
I have read a lot about submersible pumps and issues that people have had with them leaking around the seals or not working after only 2-3 years. A lot of combo units for $300+ come together with the submersible pumps and backup.
Or, I was thinking of something like the Wayne SPV800 Cast Iron Pedestal Pump that would get about 3,800 GPH @ 10ft head and adding my own backup pump (not sure which to get yet) to that. However, instead of the backup being in the sump bottom...probably putting it a little below the top of it to keep it from clogging since the motor isn't very powerful.
It appears that many backup pumps aren't very powerful, being only 12V. The catch-22 is that, like most people, I can't afford a thousand dollar machine and she can't either. I know that they make 24V pumps that use 2 marine batteries, but those seem to go bad every few years and it doesn't seem worth it.
Can anyone give me any advice as to which would be better to get? Cast-iron pedestal like the phone I posted or submersible? I'm planning to elevate either with a concrete slab in the pit, but given all of the dirt and muddy water that runs through, I'm worried about the environment getting to them.
Yes, the runoff and general seepage of the property is an issue. The seepage around the foundation probably needs to be fixed. When she sells the house in the future (as-is), she won't be dealing with it. So I'm looking for something to get her by for 2-3 years until it isn't her problem anymore. It appears that something around or in excess of 4,000GPH is needed. 1/2HP seems to do the trick, instead of the 1/3HP currently.
