I am new to the forum, and amazed at the knowledge that is being shared. I have a question regarding the sump pump on my house (please excuse me if this has been asked before).
After moving in to our new home (about 3 years old) I noticed standing water in the trough between the floor and the cinder block walls of the basement. This channel leads to the sump pit, however water does not continually flow into the pit, it just sits in the channel. That is not my main concern though (yet). I have a sump pit with a 1/2 horse submersible pump that discharges to a large drywell approximately 75 feet from the house. The pit fills up to the top of the drainage tile before the pump comes on. I have set the float like this due to the pump starting and stopping 15 times per minute (yes...per minute) because of the small amount of travel of the original float. I have replaced it with a piggy back float so that it is adjustable. This appears to work well in the sense that I do not have water on the floor, but my pit is always full (for about 6 months out of the year Dec. thru May). If I turn off the pump, the water seems to find a natural level at the top of the tiles, but that is only about 5 inches from my floor.

Does this sound like a normal functioning sump pump that I should not worry about? Again, my floors/walls are dry, but my pump still runs about 7-9 times per hour.

I look forward to your responses.

By the way, I was told today that my house was built on what appeared to be an old gravel pit, which I do not know if thats a good thing or bad.

A bigger question is, why is water entering the basement in the first place. If you have "channels" at the base of the wall, that means that someone did not solve the water entry problem, but just gave in to the water and let it come in. Water belongs outside your basement, not in it. Maybe if the water entry problem were solved, the sump pump wouldn't have to work so hard.

Richard

I agree completely. The only difficulty I am having is deciding how to go about finding the source of water. I am told that I am on a seasonal high water table. I am not a civil engineer or geologist, so I do not know how much merit this statement has. The walls are not wet, so my impression is that the water is not coming in through the walls. It appears that all of it is coming in through the drainage tile, but how do I find out where the drainage tile is picking up the large amount of water? I would like to think that there is a vein of water somewhere under or around the house that is the major contributor to the water. If I could find this vein and redirect it around the house and, as you say, eliminate the water coming in, I would be a happy homeowner. The problem is I do not know how to accomplish this without completely digging all around my foundation. I would except doing this if I were 100% sure I could find and solve the problem. I am just hesitant to spend that kind of money on an expedition that may result in not being able to improve my current situation.

Is there any other methods of finding the source of ground water (geologist, some type of magic water finding sensor, boring holes along the foundation)?

Thanks for your time.

Well, don't eliminate the thought of consulting a dowser, if you can find one...it seems like it's witchcraft, but I know it works, because my Dad, who was in heavy construction, could find water pipes and leaking pipes by dowsing.

Another thought is to have a small backhoe dig a test pit in your backyard. They can get down about 15 feet if necessary, and that might give you a clue about the level through which the water is flowing underground, or the water table if that is truly the problem.

If that's the source of the water, then perhaps an interceptor drain would cure the wet basement...a trench about 8 to 9 feet deep with perforated pipe at the bottom, backfilled completely with gravel, and then solid pipes past the sides of your house to some daylight discharge point. A local civil engineer might work with you on the details.

another good one Richard

for those who don`t/didn`t know like this old fart, dowser= dowsing rod,divining rod used to search for underground water or minerals

This message has been edited. Last edited by: LicensedWaterproofR,

The property next to me has recently sold, and the new owners are preparing to build this coming spring. Lucky for me, he has a John Deere with a backhoe that he will be using for his foundation work. He is retired from the excavating business, so maybe I will put a bug in his ear about playing in the dirt in my backyard.

I forgot to mention, and maybe this is irrelavent. My neighbor acroos the street (approximately 300 feet from my house) claims that her basement was bone dry for several years (30+). Soon after (within weeks) the built the basement for my house, her basement started taking on water. Now, I am not sure if she is talking about during a rainstorm, or if it occurs seasonally as mine does. Is it possible that my house re-directed a vein of water towards her place, or could it just be a coincidence?

Next question...if I find out it is a high water table which is higher than my basement floor, would an interceptor drain help? Again, I am not a civil engineer or have any background in this area, but my gut feeling says that if my basement were acting as the opposite of an inground pool (water on the outside higher than my floor), wouldn't I see water coming through the small cracks in my floor? I believe (maybe I should say I hope) it is a vein of water filling my drainage tile which is in turn filling my sump. Find the vein and re-route it (somehow) and move on to the next project.

Again...thanks for the replies. I really do appreciate this and hope to resolve my water issues.

I also forgot to mention that the channel around my house (between the cinder blocks and the floor) has gravel on two sides (west and north) and has no gravel on two sides (east and south). The east and south channels are the ones filled with water, whereas the west and north are dry. The gravel appears damp in a few places, but if I pull the gravel out, I can see the bootom of the channel, and there is no water in it.

Should the channels be clear, or should they have gravel in them?

Thanks again.

My Dad would make his own dowsing rods. He would cut two pieces of copper tubing about 4 inches long, and bend two pieces of welding rod into an L, with the short leg a little longer than 4 inches, and the longer leg about 12 to 15 inches. He would put the short legs into the copper tubing, which he would hold in his hands, and he would walk with the long legs pointing stratight ahead of him. When he walked over a leaking pipe or a water main, the rods would swing inward. Don't ask me how. It's a matter of faith.

The only way I can think of your home construction affecting a neighbor's basement would be if they somehow tapped into a shallow spring or an artesian well that caused water to begin flowing, unless, of course, you are uphill from them and the existence of the house itself is causing run-off to channel their way. But from your water table questions, it doesn't sound like you are uphill from anybody.
If the advice you have been given is correct, though I highly doubt that it is, and you are actually down to the water table, then be prepared to be constantly pumping water out of your basement, out onto the ground where it will find its way back down again; at least until global warming kicks in and we all dry up!

It would be fairly easy to test the water table theory; just dig a hole in your yard down to the the lowest level in your basement and see if it fills with water. I'm betting that it won't, but I've lost enough times that I don't gamble anymore.

Good luck!

Oh....., and one more thing... From my experience hand-digging wells, once you get down to the sand and gravel you are generally pretty close to water, so living on a former gravel pit is not necessarily a good thing. If you are down to the water table then if I were you I would sell, preferably after December and before May.

Most, but not all, gravel pits I've seen wind up being lakes. Perhaps they backfilled to reclaim the land? That would be pretty bad, but wouldn't surprise me a helluva lot either.

Well... selling is not really an option at this point because I have invested a little too much right after I moved in. I built a large barn amd added a paved driveway, so unless I can add my costs to the sale price, I think I will need to wait a few years to break even.

Besides, it appears that selling the house and letting the next people worry about ti was exactly what the last owners did to us, and lied about ti on the property disclosure statement. Unfortunatley, I would not be able to do that because I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. I would like to think there is a solution to the problem, and I am willing to invest the time and effort into correcting it.

As my neighbor digs for his basement, we shall see how deep he can get before reaching water.