Sump Pump Water Freezing Outside The House

I'm not sure if I'm posting this to the right place but...

My sump pump pumps water from my basement to the street in front of my house. When the weather is warm the water flows down the street to the sewer a few houses down from me. But during the winter the water freezes before reaching the sewer resulting in a large ice patch that grows each time more water is pumped out. Is there something I can do to prevent the freezing? Perhaps something I can add to the water in the sump pump well that will not damage the pump?

Thanks.

Reply to
golddave
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I'm not sure if I'm posting this to the right place but...

My sump pump pumps water from my basement to the street in front of my house. When the weather is warm the water flows down the street to the sewer a few houses down from me. But during the winter the water freezes before reaching the sewer resulting in a large ice patch that grows each time more water is pumped out. Is there something I can do to prevent the freezing? Perhaps something I can add to the water in the sump pump well that will not damage the pump?

Thanks.

Reply to
golddave

You could try salt on the patch in the road.

X-posted to uk-d-i-y for more ideas.

Andy

Reply to
Andy Champ

Periodically dose the sump with antifreeze?

I thought it was illegal to discharge water onto the public highway BICBW. But if someone slips on the ice you might find yourself the wrong end of an ambulance-chasing lawyer.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

Your setup sounds very ad hoc and probably illegal. Discharging water into the street like that (particularly at this time of year) is highly antisocial and dangerous.

Surely it should be pumped into your own sewerage or rainwater drainage system?

Tim

Reply to
Tim Downie

Doing this is illegal and bloody dangerous to both pedestrians and motorists. You should be pumping the water into one of the drains around your house (rainwater preferably, but foul would be ok with an air trap).

Remember that you can be successfully sued if what you are doing causes an accident, and the bill could run into six figures or more for a serious, debilitating injury - check your house insurance cover (along with the Terms and Conditions) just in case. ;-)

Reply to
Unbeliever

I don't know about Andy's house, but the deeds to our house refer to a specific right to discharge water onto the public highway. In our case it is only our drive that does so, by being sloped in the right direction, but the deeds do not restrict it to this.

SteveW

Reply to
Steve Walker

It happens that Andy Champ formulated :

It is against the law to discharge water in that way and very anti-social. Can you not discharge it into a proper drain?

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

As it doesn't seem clear to everyone, this isn't my house! As it happens we have a shared driveway which runs down and all goes out through two drains on my private area. It's me that drains the road.

Andy

Reply to
Andy Champ

In our small town there are a number of houses where the rain water from the roof comes down a down pipe and is discharged onto the pavement. They have been like this for about 200 years - not that I remember all those years. When the council repaved that street they put little channels in across the pavement so it would puddle in the gutter rather than the pavement. So I suspect whilst it may not be allowed now, it certainly was ok and seems to still be for old properties. Going back to the op problem - can you not pump the water out the back of the house?

Reply to
Chewbacca

Oh gee...

I think you may find both points of view are right.

- Deeds may permit it

- However law most likely takes precedence

Can you store the water locally (as opposed to the store known as "Basement")? If so use a second small pump operated by a float & timer during daylight (warmer) hours to shunt the water out?

I recall this problem repeatedly cropped up 30-40yrs ago with routine tarmac replacing cobble streets; the old cobble streets had specific "dished channel" between the sewers, tarmac removed them with often insufficient fall. Councils fitted grooved dished channel across walkways to basement pumps (water runs in grooves rather than freezing across walkway).

Reply to
js.b1

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