Situation:
This past summer I connected one of my downspouts to the underground piping that discharges the water from the sump in the basement.
Question:
With winter here (although mild) do I need to plug the outlet leading down to the “T” underground to prevent a deep freeze in that line ?
If so, what would you recommend ?
Thx,
Scott
Add a strap for easy carrying and pouring when working with 5-gal. buckets.
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Replies
Do I understand correctly that you are directing water from the roof into the tile drainage around the foundation, which then drains into the sump pit? If so, you could be in for a suprise if you lose power during a rainstorm or your sump pump decides to quit working.
Paul
No, outside the house I located the pipe that leads to the street drain. You see, the downspout is in an area I'm trying to direct water away from the Bilco door area, its tricky to explain.
I dug down about 20-24 inches to find the pipe, cut it, put a "T" on it and connected some reducers/enlargers for the downspout to fit.
Maybe tomorrow I'll take a pic and post it.
Thx,
Scott
Are you under the impression that you tied into your sewer line which goes out into the main city sewer line in the street?
Its the line form the house basement sump pump, it goes up out through the block wall straight line to the street catch basin that collect rain water, and that water runs to an open retention basin several hundred feet away.
There is, of course a backflow preventer (valve) inside the house above sump crock.
Thx,
Scott
Pics are here:
I've had this hooked up since June 06 - I didn't think about winter yet.
If you are 100% sure that you connected to a storm and NOT a sanitary line, you should be ok. As lone as the check valve to the sump pit is working, if not you could get a back charge of water heading the the sump, Bad!
I don't think that winter should matter, your sump pump runs in the winter, a bit.
I pick picture #1. #3 would seem to allow overflow from the drain.
Who did your ceement work? Have her put a microtopping on it to pretty things up. And run it up the foundation walls. Even the bilco frame.
I think connecting gutter drains to any kind of foundation drain is a recipe for disaster, unless there is an air gap or other mechinism to prevent backflow. If there is no backflow prevention, what happens when the line going out to the street gets clogged?
Read the post again. He said NOTHING about foundation drains or drain tile. It is pretty clear he is talking about connecting his gutter system to teh DISCHARGE line from his sump. This is a straight shot to the street, nothing to do with drain tiles.
So, what is the sump pump for?
Foundation perimeter drainage.
Scott
Personally I still wouldn't hook the sump pump and the downspout together unless your are absolutely certain the outlet pipe will never become clogged. Among other things, that would pretty much say that there are no trees anywhere near your house that could deposit natural material on the roof that would end up going down the downspout. The thing is that if a sump pump was installed that pretty much says that it is needed, and possibly pretty essential. The last thing you would want would be for the output pipe to the street to get blocked and be trying to dump a potentially a rather high volume of water from the gutters down into a clogged outlet pipe thereby having no place to go except for exactly where you don't want it - down toward the basement. If it is at all feasible, based on the topology (grading) around the downspout area of the house, I'd channel the downspout into another pipe that exits to daylight. If the outlet pipe is a 6" or larger smooth pipe it probably wouldn't get clogged and you will be fine.
As it turns out, he is probably fine, but that was not so clear in the beginning, especially giventhe context that so many folks come to Breaktime and misunderstnd purposes and terminology. So it is always worthwhile to clarify things before handing out blanket statements or jumping to conclusions based on assumptins.
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