No Water to Sump Pit when raining

[Unregistered]

I bought a new house buildt on a flat ground and have been living there for about 5 months. I noticed that there was never any water going into the sump pit in the basement since we moved in eventhough there have been thunderstorms. Also, I am seeing some minor water leak on a few spot on the basment concrete walls whenever it rains. I did check with the builder on the sump bit thing and they insisted that it's a good thing as the water could be drained by gravity, but the problems is I am seeing leaks on few spot on the concrete walls. I am suspecting there is problem with the perimter drainage system but need to know how to prove it. Any advice will be good..

[Wgoodrich]

If you are on flat ground and you have water seeping through the walls in places it leads to believe that you have a drainage problem. Best way to find out is to dig a hole at the corner of your basement where you have a good place to outlet the subsurface water when pumped so it drains away from your home but not directly onto neighboring property. Dig down about 5 feet away from the basement to the depth equal to the bottom of your basement footer then 18 inches deeper. Then dig a trench even with the bottom of your basement footer from that hole horizontally to the basement wall. Find your perimeter drain if present and install a Tee in that drain. Then run a matching pipe to the hole you dug and install an 18" plastic pipe vertically in that original hole you dug poking that horizontal drain pipe into that vertical pipe allowing any water in your perimeter drain to fall into that pipe.

Then fill in the hole installing a fiberglass hand hole cover over your vertical pipe even with the top of the ground.

Now wait and see if water enters the bottom of that vertical pipe removing the lid of that fiberglass hand hole cover you installed about every week or just after a rain to see if water is in the vertical pipe.

I suspect you will find water entering that vertical pipe even before you get it installed. If so pump down the water renting a brush pump to pump away the water and then install as discribed above.

If you have water entering that vertical pipe and you have no water entering your sump pit then good chance the pipe was crushed at some time between the perimeter drain and the sump pit.

The above mention is a better way of pumping subsurface water keeping your basement dry because you have no water entering your basement to be pumped out. Why drain water into a basement to pump out of the basement to keep a basement dry. Pump it away from the basement before it enters the basement.

Now if you have water in that vertical pipe then buy a shallow well submerssible pump and install black plastic pipe just like you were installing a new well. Hang the pump level with the perimeter drain hanging from the plastic water pipe. Install a float switch commonly used on sewage pumps. Looks like the buouy of a boat with a rubber cord molded into it. Buy two one to turn the pump on and off and one to turn on a light or buzzer if the pump fails installed higher up the black plastic line. Use wire ties to mount the floats where desired.

Bury the black plastic pipe below frost line to a point where it should come to surface and install an animal guard on the end to keep critters from entering pipe and plugging it with a nest.

Now if all the above is working and you find like a half moon wet spot on your concrete basement wall then chances are your perimeter drain was mucked in with mud and debris or running up hill and down hill where those half moon wet spots appear. Dig those areas up and correct that area of the wall perimeter drain.

Let the system work for a while and record any new wet spots to locate the additional perimeter drain repair you may need.

Hope this helps

Wg