SUMP PUMP

By adam
August 20, 2015   Comments Off on SUMP PUMP

Most NC homes that have a “Sump Pump” actually have nothing more than a sieve, or a strainer, with a pump in it. The sides and bottom of the “collector” are often intentionally perforated. If so, and you get 1 gallon of water in the collector every day the pump would never turn on, the water would simply absorb down into the ground. If the pump ever did activate or continue to run due to water coming in, the water would often be dirty, filled with fine soil particles, and those soils would be pumped out of the crawlspace, causing worse erosion than if the foundation had been left alone. While there may be some crawlspace environmental benefits(reduced air humidity) to having a sieve system that de-waters the ground, the structural value is negative.

The reason for the holes in the collector is to allow water in, and usually with these sieve systems the holes in the collector are the only reason water actually comes in. Often not a single drop of water enters from the maze of wavy black interior french drain pipes because the trench “is wholly above the footings and above the saturated soils” and black corrugated perforated pipe lets water in and out.

One should consider the vertical alignment of all the parts of the french drain system.

FROM TOP TO BOTTOM, This is typical:

exterior grade
interior french drain (this is laid FLAT because it is on top of a flat footing, no pitch, useless)
footing upper edge
water
footing lower edge, water,
pump float with pump below
bottom of collector with holes in it

FROM TOP TO BOTTOM, This is optimal

exterior grade
drastically reduced interior grade (with soils removed from crawlspace)
footing upper edge
water
footing lower edge, water
interior french drain pitched perfectly sitting wholly to the side of the footing and increasingly further away as it gets deeper
pvc interceptor pipes dump into the collector that has zero holes in it
pump with no float just a resistance sensing motor that runs until resistance is no longer present, maybe a pool cover pump would work best
not a single particle of dirt in the collector because all the water is filtered prior to entering the system
bottom of collector with zero holes in it (about 2 feet deeper than comparable sieve collector)

our collectors collect, so they float too, so we have to “set them” in concrete and “hold them down”.
This is not good!
All the water that enters this basin will have been piped there or spilled over the edge into it. It displaces water. Ground water will be kept out of it from below and welcomed from above the yellow line.
This is water-proofing. You must remove the disturbed soils and sell them or take them to the dump. You must replace all of the removed soil with washed #5 gravel which is too big to fit in your pipe which has 1/2″ holes.
This stone serves a variety of purposes but it is all wrapped in non-woven heavy sediment fabric.
The pipe has no holes in the bottom but many between 8 oclock and 4 oclock, every lineage has a clean-out and allows for a drain to be inserted, like a condensate line.
Before the burrito is folded^
Closed Filter Burrito w/ #5 Gravel & Non-Woven Fabric
Here, instead of bringing back dirt to clog our filtration, we use washed stone. Ready for Vapor Barrier.
This is the conveyance of water from downspouts and the foundation and the hvac and water heater and the laundry room… whatever you want.
This is awesome. This is what it looks like when there is a hurricane, and if a plumbing pipe were to burst, the water would cascade into the basine, overflow out the pipe, and the dry soils would stay dry.

NOOOOOOOO!

Some homes that have a sump basin and pump installed are harmed by that installation. The rapid removal of unfiltered water full of soil particles speeds up erosion and often causes problems. Often a logical low-point drain with care taken to make sure the water gets to the drain is better than a pump. After all, sometimes the powere is out. Then what happens.
here we brought the interior of a crawlspace up with concrete and installed an on grade low-point drain
We had a choice to keep this crawlspace dry. Collect the water and pump it out, or pour concrete and displace the water out. We displace the water with concrete so that a logical drain could be installed.