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Tuesday, October 27, 2020

No Dump Sump Pump

 

No Dump Sump Pump

The water table in our Townhome is a bit high.  We have a sump pump that kicks off several times a day even without rainy weather.  

Just this week, the association has spent money to improve the drainage in our back yard.   They have dug a deep trench, laid pipe on gravel, graded down to a large retaining and drainage system.  They are doing a nice job.  Personally I am not sure it will alleviate my need for a basement sump pump, but the association determines how our dues are spent, sort of a mini-government thing probably complete with studies and kickbacks…

The trench showed that under about 8 inches of soil is solid clay as deep as can be seen.  Wonder why we have drainage issues.

Anyway, it can’t hurt and should be some improvement.

They were mostly finished by Sunday.  Out of curiosity, I manually kicked off my sump pump.  It drained the 8 gallon tank quickly.  I wanted to see how fast it would refill.   Hours later the tank was half full, I kicked the pump off again.  It whirred and whirred, but it was not drawing water out of the tank.

WTF?

Coincidence?, or did it have something to do with the outside drainage work?

Now, late at night, I had to manually bail out the tank so the thing would not overflow, and I went to bed flustered just a bit.  Actually I was PISSED with a capital PISSED!

“Why can’t people just leave well enough alone?”

“Relax, check it in the morning” as Mrs. C sent an email to the association people.

“They blocked the underground pipe from the sump…has to be.”

“Check it in the morning.”

“But..”

“Check it in the morning.”

In the morning after about 15 minutes of restless PISSED OFF sleep, Mrs. C woke me up.

“I just checked, the outside pipe from the sump is off kilter, must have been hit during all that work.  The drainage people are outside.”

I went outside to check the pipe.  It was moved maybe an inch from the pipe to the underground drain.  I moved it into place.  Went down into the basement, plugged in the pump and it kicked off like a charm.

The workers confirmed that water went all the way to the catch basin.

Great, but WTF?

Apparently the offset pipe to the outside was at an angle and partially blocked, this caused an air bubble thing that is the same as plugging the pipe. 

This air bubble thing is just one reason why plumbers need a license.  If you do not allow air release in the right place your entire system will be a mess.  Plumbers are more than  guys with a wrench and an exposed crack, these guys know stuff.

A little Google research and I learned that my pipe between the pump and the check valve should have a quarter inch “weep” hole to also prevent an air bubble problem.

WTF? 

What idiot installed the pump without this recommended weep hole…oh wait, I did.

The pump now works, the weep hole is drilled and I am going back to bed.

15 comments:

  1. You understand more about plumbing than I do. All I know is I turn on the tap and get water. I flush the toilet and the tank fills up again. If either of those things doesn't happen, I call a plumber.

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  2. You lost me at sump pump but glad everything seems to be working again.

    betty

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  3. There is a HVAC/ plumbing company near me that often puts up a sign that says, “We fix what your husband broke”.

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  4. Ugh. Why do things like that always have to happen when it's too late to do anything. I'm glad all is well now and I hope you've got some unpissed off sleep!

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  5. At least you found the idiot. I laughed out loud.

    Have a fabulous day, Joe. ☺

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  6. How frustrating when you carry all that angst only to find out it was something you failed to do even with a perfectly good butt crack:)

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  7. I am still shaking my fist at those outside workers, even though you may be the actual "weephole" culprit! It does seem like fixing things these days always messes up what worked before.

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  8. Which is why the only plumbing i am willing to do is use a plumber's helper with a slow drain or replace a toilet flap. Anything beyond that, i want an expert opinion.

    Hope you got a good nap.

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  9. A weep hole? That sounds nasty.

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  10. So the thingy needed some tweeking of the whatchamacallit by poking a hole in a dohickey and the flimflam by the owner was cured by fixing the gobblelegook...whew, for a minute there I thought I was in over my head.

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  11. Is it expensive to buy a weep hole? Maybe this is why they did not fit one. Makes you weep doesn't it?

    God bless.

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  12. This is way too technical for me but I do like the idea of a "weep hole".

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  13. how nice guys needed licence to fix stuff like this dear Joe

    three of my brothers in laws do mechanical jobs and they are in quite demand for this in our small city ,hubby does not yet he has gift to fix almost everything ,i always amaze with his skills

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