I have a customer whose basement window wells fill with water when there is enough precipitation.
They don’t fill from above. They fill from below. The ground gets saturated and the pressure fills the window wells. Of course, the water then leaks through the windows into the finished basement.
He has been keeping sump pumps in the window wells, pumping the water just a few feet away though a tube lying on grade. But the pumps have not had much of a life span (extension cords? particles in the water?).
Customer wants the windows replaced with a fixed pane that will hold the water when the pumps fail.
Windows are original steel in a poured foundation.
I’m thinking a water proof window a bit iffy. So I think clean up the windows, paint ’em, seal ’em. Then put in a sump pit right between them (they are only a few feet apart).
But this is north east central Indiana, and it does freeze here in the winter. Also, there is very little drop in the grade from the house to the sidewalk, so the drain wouldn’t be very deep. Is freezing a very big problem with sump pumps? Or do they tend to no fill when the weather is cold enough to freeze?
Rich Beckman
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Replies
Put in a pit deep enough to resist frost, with the window well drains going to the sump. I had one about 6 feet deep in my yard, it never froze.
Seems odd that the pumps are failing, unless leaves and twigs are getting in or the pumps are freezing. A good quality pump should last several years at least, under normal use. Four outdoor use a submersible pump is the best choice.
In central Indiana, if a pit were dug 12-18 inches below the window well floor and a halfway decent pit liner installed (could just be a large plastic bucket), the pump should be deep enough to be safe from freezing if the window well is covered somehow. (Heat from the house through the window helps keep the pit warm.) You would have to worry about the drain pipe freezing, but incorporating an "escape hatch" that will allow the water to spill out onto the ground if the pipe is plugged helps with that.
Usually you have less trouble with ground water when temps are below freezing, but it's hard to apply that generality to a specific location.
I have a fairly cheap sump pump that has been going on jobs in mud and all kinds of weather since about '93 or so. Got three other newer ones.
The only time they fail is when they get clay silt in them and then it dries in place. That seems to impact things. All I have to do is soak it and then shake it around or slam it on the ground, to loosen the silt up.
So I would be supposing that in your case, the answer - or part of it, is to install in clean stone so that silt is not part of the equation.
I would dig the new pit to just below frost level and lead drain from the window wells to the sump pit. BUild it with a cover and glue styrafoam to the cover on inside.
Generally when it freezes hard enough that you can't pump out through the hose, the surface water is not liquid so it isn't running in either.
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Another thing - use the submersible pump, not that stupid cheap thing with a ball float. Those don't last but a year or two before rust jams up the works or something gets out of alignment
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