For 27 years, basement was dry as dust. No problems. This year, a small dampness began in one corner. Salesman persuaded us to get sump pump system _______________
With sump pump:
As I understand it, they drilled "weep holes."
Questions:
Assume that the sump pump isn't working:
1) Do these "weep holes" allow water to run in the basement faster, and because the pump isn't working, the situation is worse than if you had no sump pump system installed?
2) Or does the new drainage ditch which is part of the system hold a lot of water that will seep into the ground and not overflow into the basement unless you get a great quantity of rain?
What I'm asking is whether the drainage ditch compensates for the damn "weep holes."
Most sump pumps are very reliable and only go down when the power is off.
Not really. The weep holes only allow water that already entered the wall to exit the wall and be pumped out. That water if not drained at the bottom, will build up and seep out all over the wall and still get in.
I am going to guess they are going to put a drain around the outside of the foundation and then provide a way to move it away from your foundation. This is the most important part of the system, it gets the water away from your foundation so you don't have a problem to start with and the stuff on the inside is just a back up.
The design will determine how much it can handle before it is overwhelmed.
You do want this it is a very good thing.
It is also possible that you are talking about something inside the foundation, see below. The contractor may have determined that the outside system is OK and you just need the inside backup system, or decided it would be more economic to try an inside fix. We can't tell from here. In any case you want to make sure you have a good working drainage system outside your foundation before you consider anything inside. You want to keep the water away from you home not pump it out after it gets in.
You want to make sure the ground, driveways etc. all slope away from your foundation in all directions for at least 10-20 feet and the water from the roof is also directed away from your foundation. Do this before doing anything inside.
This may be a small depression next to the outside walls of your basement. If that, they work by moving the water from the weep holes to move it to the sump where the pump moves it away from your home.
If your basement was perfectly dry for 27 years and only has slight dampness in one corner now, I sure wouldn't be in a rush to fool around with adding a sump pump system and spending money. What has changed? Has there been an unusual amount of rain? Or is something going wrong outside, like clogged gutters, leaders not directing water away from the house, change in landscape grading etc?
OK, the original house was built in '77 with an addition in '93. The dampness started this year and is in the area where the old basement wall meets the addition wall. Apparently the sealer or parging or whatever you call it used by the 2nd builder has deteriorated. Salesman insisted it would only worsen and because we're stupid when it comes to home repair, we bought the sump system. Too late to turn back now. He said it would've cost three times as much to fix it from the outside because of OSHA safety regulations, etc.
Power outages here have gotten more frequent with time, even in calm weather, and that's my biggest worry. Don't like the idea of these two big marine/rv batteries charging 24/7 as recommended by the waterproofing co. The first charger apparently couldn't go into trickle stage, overcharged, and caused the batteries to throw off H2 that triggered the CO sensors. The new charger seems to be OK but I disconnect it at night for peace of mind.
Yea, it may cost more to fix it from the outside (don't blame OSHA, it is just more work) but in the long run that is better than putting a bandage on the inside.
I suspect however that the end result will not be all that bad. I wish you luck. If for some reason the fix fails, don't bother trying to make it work, just do it right from the outside.
If you are on city water, there is a jet type pump that uses the city water pressure to pump the sump. You may want to look into that at some time in the future.
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