My neighbors cemented off an artisan well in their basement and now my sump pump runs constantly. Never had this problem before. Could the artisan developed a new vein to my house? If so, what is my recourse?
ar·ti·san ?ärd?z?n/ noun noun: artisan; plural noun: artisans a worker in a skilled trade, especially one that involves making things by hand. synonyms: craftsman, craftswoman, craftsperson; More
An _artesian_ well, otoh, hand is likely the problem here... :)
But, looks like at least at the present time the water level is above your basement floor level and the increase in pressure from not having the previous release has caused it to find a weak point in yours.
Not sure you have any recourse against them for doing something inside their house despite its apparent effect; you can try finding where the ingress point is and sealing it there but likely your only real recourse would be to sink a relief into the source external that relieves pressure and provides a surface flow path external.
Had a house in VA that in spring "monsoon" season and ground got saturated would have similar issues. Tried to patch some of the cracks and all that happened was the water pressure then cracked the floor slab elsewhere when it had nowhere to go. I suspect you could create such an issue there by simply trying to dam the flood...
You should contact a hydrologist to assess the situation and offer a plan for mitigation. Try finding a local thru the NGWA:
Assuming you don't already have one, your first course of action should be to install a back-up sump pump, either a water-pressure activated unit...
...a battery powered unit.
If your current pump is running constantly, then it's not going to take long for a serious problem to occur if your pump fails.
Once you have protected your house, you can concentrate on dealing with the root cause.
Put water in 55 gal drums and ship to California. You might think this is a smartass remark, but, I'm serious. How far are you from California?
Spell check must be sleeping, sorry. WE have dug down at a point between the neighbors house and this one but the ground was dry. Do you know how we could pinpoint where the vein would be?
it could also be coincidental. it could also be complicated.
we've had a lot of rain here recently and the sump pump has been running (it usually doesn't have to).
has your area had a lot of rain recently?
as for what the neighbors did that may or may not affect your own situation, sure, it could be the case, but i doubt there's much recourse. having basements below grade is pretty much asking for water troubles.
other things to consider are things like leaking well pipes, leaking water pipes, etc.
if you normally have city water and they use chemicals to treat the water you can sometimes tell it's a leak by the smell.
songbird
There is a private well but city sewer. The neighbor on one side has a basement on the other side has only a crawl space. The neighbor beyond the crawl space is the one we question as they also have a basement. We have dug down and checked to make sure the well pipe is not leaking into the ground. The sump pump started running a lot last winter. Mind you this is Wisconsin and the temps were cold and the ground was frozen. Where the sump pump drained, the ground became saturated. We dug a trench/ditch 4' deep and about 50' long to get the water away from the house. Even during the dry weather of summer the pump continued to run although the ditch we had dug did dry out . Thanks for your input!
Buy the neighbors house. Demolish the house but save the basement. Remove the cement over the well, and you'll have a swimming pool. Charge a fee to use the pool, to pay off the mortgage on that property. Dont forget you'll need a lifeguard on duty.....
I believe you need a hobby as you definitely have too much free time on your hands.
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Spellcheck can't fixup wrong but correctly spelled word; that's the grammar engine, _maybe_...
But, that aside, not knowing anything about even the general part of the country what more the actual locale, not much can say from here. I'd think it more likely a general water level issue rather than a very localized "vein" transmission source that's your problem.
Did the excavation get as low as the basement floor? As another said, if it isn't easily obtainable to get to a location of the source external you likely need a local hydrologist to provide some info on the water sources/hydrology where you are...it's possible the pressure source is from miles away up a hill/mountainside or it could simply be local surface water collecting on a hardpan during wet spells...
bz-one wrote: ...
ah, ok, hope the neighbors don't have a leak. if the winters got that cold down deeply perhaps they've got a broken pipe? you can ask them if their well pump is running a lot or if their electricity bills have gotten worse since then.
the property which plugged their basement is two properties away?
your sump pump outlet is far enough away and downhill so that the water is not coming back through the ground? a trench will not keep some water from coming back towards the house.
i'd give the people a call who fixed the neighbor's basement and see what they'd charge to fix yours.
songbird
There are many artesian wells in this area. I have lived in this area my entire life (76 yrs). In that time this home has never had a problem with water like this. The owner of this home has had it up for sale for about 5 years. Having the back lawn dug up now is not helping find a buyer. Price of property has been lowered. It is located next to a blacktop road with a river on the other side of the road with a drop below the road of perhaps 50 to the river.
Yes we immediately checked with the neighbors and this well to make sure nothing was broken underground. The well driller that "capped" the artesian also did the digging and checked the well here. Yes the artesian well in question is 2 homes away with a small cottage with crawl space in between. The sump pump outlet is on the backside of the house or we would have piped it to the river although the road is higher than the lawn here so that would also be hard to do without going under the blacktop which is NOT an option. The sump drain pipe is approximately 10' from the house and that part of the ground is not soggy since we dug the trench which is at a slope away from the house.
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