Sump Pump Blues- Welcome 2024!

It seems like a lifetime ago when we lived in town, in a newer home with heat and a working kitchen, bathrooms (plural!) and, and, and....but it has only been two months since we fully moved in. 

And a very long two months!

It seems when we fix something, something else doesn't work.

Let me tell you about my sump pump. The above picture is from my inspection report. That mess is part of my jury rigged sump pump. Which never, ever came on. What we had was a small wet area in the basement in a shallow groove in the floor. Sometimes it had water in it. Not my idea of what a sump pump should be, nor my husbands. And since we live near the water, we thought having a functional sump pump was a good idea. So as part of the plumbing job we contracted (the removal of the cast iron soil stack pipe was part of this job) we asked if they could put in a proper sump pump. And they said they could. So on December 6, 2023 the first of the plumbing tasks commenced: the sump pump. 

The removal of the original and the hole. The drill they used to chip away at the stone. The door in the picture leads to the basement storm doors which was how this basement was accessed until some idiot cut the floor joists to be able to come down to the basement from inside the house. 

The new sump pump! They actually chipped out the floor! Drainage goes across the basement and out a window on the other side. This will result in a significant issue as you will see. 

The pile of rock chips.

So that evening I hear the sump pump work for the first time. What is that strange noise? Where is it coming from? It sounds like a long moan and then someone trying to vomit. I figure out pretty quickly that my sump pump works. I am aghast but very happy it is working. I am hopeful this is a sound I will not hear often. I am ridiculously optimistic. Because the weather this past December was cool and rainy. It rains almost every day. 

So while we are doing the renovations, I am in the process of retiring from my job. I am at work when I get these photos on December 18th (Happy Monday!) I try not to look at my phone too often at work (it drives my husband crazy, but at work, I am working.) "Are we flooding?" I ask. To be discussed later I am told. He very nicely took the photos for the blog (which is good because I am a lousy photographer.) So I end up waiting until I get home to find the latest fiasco. 

So as you can see my basement is filled with water. It did not flood my brand new propane furnace! Not a huge amount but still! 

Both of these photos show the area the water is coming from. The opposite side of the house from the sump pump. So why is this happening? Because the sump pump drains across the length of the whole house to exit out of a window. The water pumped from the house is coming right back in. 

Now my husband Chris is a very clever man. He sussed out what was going on pretty quickly and created the dry well seen below about 8 feet from the house. Notice he has used the stone chips from the creation of the sump pump hole? But it was raining so much the dry well got overwhelmed within half a day.  

 

So he comes up with another solution and attaches our watering hose to the exit line for the sump pump. Only problem is that the size difference between the exit hose from the sump pump to the garden hose means that the sump pump is on for over a minute trying to pump out the water. Not good, plus very noisy! 

Solution! This long blue hose. Water is directed well away from the house!

Update: We had a lovely Christmas with our children and grandchildren in Gananoque and then drove down to stay with our eldest son and daughter-in-law in their new to them home in Toronto for 5 days. It was lovely! Got to see my mother, sisters and nephew as well! Shopped for books, went to wonderful bakeries and walked the Kensington Market. Binge watched TV which has not happened for a few years! Watched people play Mario and an unnamed goose game (lots of honking!) Played games with my children in both locations. Toasted my retirement and rang in the New Year with some amazing champagne and nibblies. All in all, an amazingly lovely time with family!

And today we drove home! Would the house still be standing? What would we find when we got home? Mouse poop everywhere? The smell of eau de toilet? Water cascading somewhere? A septic system overload? There was some anxiety as we came home.

But nothing! The air smelled clean. There was no mouse poop. There was no water everywhere. There were a few flies but not as many as usual.  I put a load of laundry on and the septic system was fine. As the final rinse drained from the machine, I heard the sump pump going on and had a dreadful thought I uttered out loud, "What if every time my washer drains it goes straight into the basement..." 

Chris, to ease my fears, went and checked the sump pump drain out of the house. Yup- the hose had snapped off (but no, my washing machine is not emptying onto my basement. Whew!) That was the only thing that needed to be repaired from our time away! So off to the hardware store tomorrow! 

P.S. I may upgrade my sump pump motor to a quieter one in the new future....but it can wait. 

P.S.S. To those who read this and got the idea my plumbers did not do a good job- they did exactly what we asked. They hooked the new sump pump to the old existing line- which had been chopped off by one of the previous owners and never fixed. This will be a "When the ground thaws project," like so many other tasks we have around the house. As Chris has pointed out, buying this house in October when we had so little time before winter to fix some major issues has put us in the situation of doing half measures for repairs.