I live in a one-story townhouse, with a crawlspace underneath, in Santa Clara, California (south San Francisco bay area). Every winter, when the rains come, I get water in the crawlspace; just a few inches or so, but enough that I'm concerned about it.
I've been looking into installing a sump pump, but the automatic ones I've seen at Home Depot all looked like they'd require about 9-12 inches of water before they'd kick in.
First: am I overly worried? Is it just okay to live with 3-4 inches of water under my house for 5 months out of the year? I polled a couple neighbors in adjoining units, and neither of them have pumps, and both have the water issue.
Second: if I should get a pump, any recommendations for a pump that would activate with just a couple inches of water?
I should add that the crawlspace is pretty inaccessible, so a switched pump is really not an option.
Thanks.