Hello, I currently have part of the exterior foundation of my home dug out. Before backfilling I’m installing perferated drainage lines. The only practical place to flow to, is a sump on one exterior corner of the house. The sump is not in place yet, and I’m looking for advice on this.
I’ve seen pre-molded sump liners at Home Depot, but they are too short. They are about 3 feet tall, and I need something in the range of 8 or 9 feet. I’m good at imprvising, and could certainly fashion something out of cut up trash cans, 5 gallon buckets or such. But if there is a better way I would prefer to do that. The pre-molded ones are very rigid and come with a sturdy lid, if only they were taller or modular they would be perfect.
I haven’t checked at any of the plumbing supply places yet, but will soon. I’d like to know what is available before walking in to one of them. Any help with this, such as brands, sizes, styles and prices would be great.
Thanks!
Replies
I did the same thing about 10 years ago. Dug out one end wall of the house, re-parged it, tarred it and put two 4" perf pipes to a dry-well/sump pit. I used a 10' section of culvert pipe standing on end to get to the bottom of the pit where a sump pump is located. I left a short ~18" section above ground, built a simple stand over it and set a decorative 5' lighthouse on the stand to hide it a little. That has worked well for us, the basement wall has remained dry. If I can figure out how to post a pic, I will...Hope this helps.
Edited 5/18/2006 9:30 am ET by bp21901
Here are a couple of pics....
The culvert pipe looks like a good way to go. How did you do the bottom?
The hole where I put the pump was about 2' lower than the wall footing and the perf. pipe runs to this level. I put some 2" stone at the bottom, probably about 1' deep. Then I put 3/4" stone on top of that - maybe 4", this is the same 3/4" that I was using to backfill against the wall. The pump simply sits on top of the 3/4" stone. Someone later suggested that I should have placed the pump on a block so it would stay out of any mud that accumulated. Although when it is dry down there I can still see the 3/4 layer of stone and no mud accumulation yet. This is after 10 years so in my case it seems it may not be necessary.FWIW - I also read a few years later on a thread that I should have used round gravel for backfill against the wall rather than the 3/4 stone. I can't remember exactly why but I think the reason was it didn't compact as tightly and provided better long term drainage. The 3/4 stone is what is commonly used in this area by builders and I didn't know enough to use anything different.
Go corrogated plastic pipe, they have lids that screw in. Buy two lids one for bottom, one for top.