I bought my house this past year, ever since then I have had some water in the basement when it rained hard.
Usually you don’t have to do anything with it, it just evaporates.
I had all the crappy 1950’s wood frame windows replaced with glass block with vents.
I had new gutters put on the entire outside of the house.
Everything is draining great from the roof.
I have two spots where water is coming in due to erosion around the foundation. I will patch those up in the spring, but not much water is coming in from there.
I think my main problem is ground water coming in the basement floor.
My next step is to put a new sump pump in.
This house does not have a sump, just a drain in the floor, that I have been squeegeing water into for the past two days, non stop.
What should I expect to pay to have someone dig a hole in the basement floor, and install a sump pump? I would also need them to drill a hole in the basement wall and run the water PVC pipe outside the house.
My uncle can run a new GFI Switch for me, so that would save a few bucks, but I don’t want to dig the hole myself (worried about hitting a city water main or something)…
if you have a floor drain that runs by gravity i really dont think you would need a sump.
is your floor concrete? cutting a hole in the floor with high ground water could open up a can of worms. I would guess its a drainage issue around the footer of the foundation. since its only happening when there is heavy rains. like what we have had this past week.
obviously every house has its own issues. but i would check for water that is not draining away from the foundation. not just pumping what is already in the basement out.
Ya you would want an engineer to actual look at this. Someone saying yes or no to what they did to their house like RedrRocket said could put you in a whole new world of hurt.
I’ve got water issues in mine, but my floor drain works great.
Mine’s all outside infiltration and poor drainage design in the yard… need a bunch of it re-grated. Most is leakage through the wall/floor seam, and seepage through the wall from standing water outside; but some is just seepage through cracks in the basement floor, but for a 1930’s house it’s pretty decent.
I’m hoping a good re-do of the landscaping and re-grating of the lawn should fix most of the issues.
The sump hole it’s self wont be too much, but its the drain tile that will screw you(cost wise). Like someone said your looking at about 60 bucks a foot.
I had a similar problem years ago. I snaked out the original drain tile out from the floor drain access. This helped a lot. But I still ended up getting a sump. it was hard to snake the opposite corner of the house.
Also my current house had a rubber drain stopper down in the floor drain hole. you had to remove the cover to see it. I Guess the town did not want the rain water to mix in with the sanitary sewer. (they pay per gallon to treat that water). If you remove that stopper you may have better drainage. This will let the drain tile water get into the sewer pipe.
Eek. I think you may have a much bigger problem than your original post suggests. It’s already been covered, but if you have water in your basement you don’t just pop a hole in the ground and pump it outside. Call Utech or some place like that and have them come take a look at your situation. You probably need to have a drain tile system put in before your foundation starts bowing and cracking. If you wait too long you’ll wind up needing a drainage system AND a half dozen pilasters to hold the walls in at $1k each.
Someone who owned my house before me waited too long. Now I have a drainage system, 5 pilasters, and bowed walls. But the good news is I have had a plum bob hanging from the ceiling 1/4" from the worst wall for 3 years and it doesn’t seem to be moving anymore. :tup:
Just get a professional opinion before you start fucking with something as important as your house’s drainage. Every contractor I’ve ever dealt with will come look and give you an estimate for free, FYI.
ive never heard of a rubber drain stopper. ? you mean a check valve?
MOST of buffalo’s storm drains are still tied to the sanitary sewer.
thats why i dont jetski north of the city in the lake.
simply putting a pump in a location where the water should be draining away naturally can create issues with the water just leaking backinto the house and getting recycled.
RUNNING a pump continuously does wonders for your electric bill.
Well, it isn’t much of a problem. The house was built in the 1930’s.
It has never had a sump pump, it does have reinforcements over the original concrete walls.
The foundation and walls are solid, an engineer looked at it when we bought the house.
The floor drain drains fine, I just had it powersnaked this fall.
This was the first time since I’ve owned the house that we had any major water in the basement. I suppose when you melt 20 inches of snow in one day, that will cause some issues with the water table.
I don’t mind squeegeeing up water after a heavy heavy rain, but this house is an income property for me down the road. I doubt a tenant will do it, so I wanted to “solve” the problem with a sump pump…
So is it not common for people to install sump pumps in old homes? I was talking to a guy this week who installs a lot of sump pumps that use the water pressure of the house to power it (no electricity)…
I think I’m going to wait until spring, take care of some grading issues out back, and take care of some erosion issues, it should be pretty dry back there.
Plus I need to install one more glassblock window. I did the whole house, and forgot to get one window done, and sure enough the wood frame is rotten, and dripping water into the basement.