Sump Pumps drailn pipe is clogged.

[micky]

I have a sump pump that pumps out of the basement with a 2" pipe. That pipe sits over and empties into a 4" black corrugated flexible plastic pipe that is buried and runs to the edge of the property, under my fence, under the 3 foot wide easement around the townhouses, and comes out the side of the a hill about a foot further away**.

Water is coming out the side of the hill when the sump pump runs but for the first 60 seconds or so, the pump puts out more that the corrugated pipe can handle. Some splatters against the wall, and all of the excess lands on the ground where it sinks in, soaks in, get's picked up by the perimeter drain, and goes back to the sump, only to be pumped out again!! Whee!!

Maybe a little overflow doesn't matter and I should forget the whole thing, but it maybe get worse (again?***).

There must be a clog and it must be at the very end. I can see where the water comes out, but I poke around, sideways and down into the hill, with a long tool and I can't find a hole. There must be at least a little hole or not that much water would come out.

Is there some standard way these things are installed that would help me find the outlet?

Or some other clever way to do so?

I've run a garden hose into the pipe starting at the house and it goes easily to just about the fence, 3 to 4 feet from the end. Sometimes I run the water in the hose and ***the first 10 minutes seems to have flushed out something because I think the sump pump doesn't' overflow as much as it did. But I have not made progress since.

I don't remember checking if it ever worked better than now, but I"ve been out there a lot over the years and the sump pump can go off and on for days after it rains. If it was overflowing, I think I would have been there and seen it.

**(The 4" pipes of most houses empty through a hole in the curb into the street, but I'm on the end and also further away from the street (which is nice unless I have to carry something) so my pipe goes out the side of the house.)

[hubops]

If the builder used perforated pipe instead of solid ? .. it may have become partially blocked with silt. Or the once-clear outlet has become sodded-over with vegitation over the years and is now partially blocked.. Or dozens of giant sewer rats are living in it. John T.

[Marilyn Manson]

If you can get a hose in there, how about trying a power snake?

What did you have on the end of the hose? Have you tired a bladder?

[hubops]

Here's a guy who thinks it's great :

John T.

[gfretwell]

You say you can push the hose all the way to the fence and that is 4 feet from the end of the pipe. What happens when you shove the hose in from the other end? I suppose you don't have a bore scope camera. OTOH getting laminar flow in corrugated pipe may take a minute anyway until the flow is established over the ridges. Once the pump has been running a minute or so, is it taking all the water or is it still backing up? This might just end up being the nature of the beast. I have a 1.5" PVC discharge pipe from my spa and I have to start it slow until the flow gets established, then I can run the dump valve wide open.

[Dean Hoffman]

Do you have room to install a sort of stand pipe at the inlet of the corrugated pipe? The water would have a little more push to go to the end.

[trader_4]

I'm having trouble deciphering this, but it sounds like he can't find the exit end.

If that's the problem, extend the pvc further into the corrugated pipe. Or fill the space between the two with spray foam filler. But if it was my drain, I would want to know where it exits and that there is no obstruction.

I had purchased a new construction condo years ago and paid to have a sump pump installed by the builder. After moving in, I discovered that the line only went about ten feet and ended there, just buried under ground, instead of continuing thirty feet to the swale. While I had the hole open I could see that the neighbor's was right beside it and it too ended in the dirt. So I showed my neighbor, suggested he contact the condo association too, so they could fix both at the same time. He looked at me and said, "isn't it supposed to be like that"?