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I read a book about foundations and came across a recommendation of placing the sump pump on the exterior of a home in well type pit with insulated lid in freezing climates. The advantages to this were:
1) you don’t bring water in from the outside of the foundation to the inside and pump it back out.
2) interruption of electrical service your sump pump well can fill and back up into the basement area.
3) less likely for Radon gas to seep in through the sump pump well area.
After I read this it makes sense to me. Has anyone ever done this before and where did you purchase your materials for this system. You would still want access to replace a inoperative pump. I live in Kansas where we encounter freezing conditions, and plan to build a home in the next couple of years utilizing this type of sump pump system.
Any information would be helpful.
Thank you,
Jim Saladin
Replies
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Jim's - I've done it with a piece of concrete sewer pipe set vertically into the ground, about 10' deep, with ladder rungs drilled in and a manhole cover for the top. The point on 10' deep is that it needed to get below the normal sump inside. This was a worst case scenario with terrible subgrade conditions and very important stuff in the basement. Everything inside the 'missle silo' as we came to call it was standard, including a battery backup pump. Don't cheap on the backup - check out this system, for instance.
i However,
this is an expensive way to go. IMO you should prioritize a primary pump inside the basement first, with a good battery backup if there are critical items there. It's far easier to underdrain the basement slab to a pit within the basement walls, and better protection for the equipment. For instance, you could have water under hydrostatic pressure on the opposite side of the house (basement) from your exterior pump and still have a wet basement. It might lower the water table in the vicinity of the house but it might not handle ordinary runoff or poor grading conditions. With an interior pump there is less risk of a frozen discharge pipe too, which we solved for the outside pump by running an oversize line, say 2" inside a 4" pipe for a ways underground.
Radon can be handled with a pit cover and venting.
Keep in touch with your progress.
Jeff
*It always seemed to me that routing any drainage from outside to inside the basement ought to be done as a last resort, done only if there is no possible way to site the house and the downspouts, etc. so they may drain away from the foundation naturally (either on a sloping grade, or in PVC pipes just under grade, sloping away to daylight far enough away). That way the only water you have to worry about would be foundation leakage from unusual (temporary?) sources (hopefully you don't build over a stream or in a high water table).I mean, if you are planning to build a house. If you get an old one most of these choices are not optional...
*?price? I've considered a backup pump, and seen a couple at about $300. grainger auction has one of these discounted. It doesn't seem that it should cost more than buying a decent pump plus an inverter, right?But all pumps have to fail eventually. At the worst time, of course. Fortunately grading and drainage fixes have reduced our reliance on that gadget in the pit.
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I read a book about foundations and came across a recommendation of placing the sump pump on the exterior of a home in well type pit with insulated lid in freezing climates. The advantages to this were:
1) you don't bring water in from the outside of the foundation to the inside and pump it back out.
2) interruption of electrical service your sump pump well can fill and back up into the basement area.
3) less likely for Radon gas to seep in through the sump pump well area.
After I read this it makes sense to me. Has anyone ever done this before and where did you purchase your materials for this system. You would still want access to replace a inoperative pump. I live in Kansas where we encounter freezing conditions, and plan to build a home in the next couple of years utilizing this type of sump pump system.
Any information would be helpful.
Thank you,
Jim Saladin