Basement Floods When the Sump Pump Fails
Several posts detail homeowners experiencing basement flooding issues, ranging from flash floods to persistent water leaks. Concerns include sump pump functionality, well/septic system problems, and unpleasant odors.
SOURCES (60)
“Two things. 1. You mentioned it was new construction last year. Are you located somewhere that was effected by drought last year? 2. Check out your soils type via Web Soils Survey (use a computer, not your phone). See if your property has a high…”
“I have sumps and when we first moved in we had this similar issue. My first question is where is the water being discharged? I noticed my sump would run a lot more frequently when the shorter the distance of the water discharge. The second question (kind of an observation) I believe you have what is called a “vertical “ switch, you could see about moving it up (a lot of times it’s attached to the discharge pipe) the pipe higher so it takes longer for your crock to fill up. The last question I wi”
“Hello, I have a very musty basement at our newly bought home. I looked into my sump pump and found about 8-10 inches of standing water. What seems to have happened is the float does not activate soon enough. If I reach in and manually lift the float, the pump activates and removes the water. A wealth of water then comes in from one of the input tubes and fills the bucket up in a couple of minutes. If left untouched, the water coming in fills the basin and reaches an equilibrium with the water le”
“Until the exit pipe gets blocked… Happened to a friend and filled his basement with 8 feet of water.”
“Lots of water coming in! It will do that until it catches up or the water level goes down in the ground.”
“It’s likely groundwater or a municipal supply-line leak. Not your house. The basin isn't deep or large enough to handle that volume of water. The best thing to do would be to call a leak-detection company to investigate the potential for a municipal leak. Also, maybe contact somebody about setting a bigger basin deeper in the ground afterward.”
“Deep basements are the worst. Looks like the pump needs more space around it. Float isn’t getting the chance to lay out and fully extend. This would decrease run time a lot.”
“While at it. Increase homeowner coverage for any water due to failed sump pump. That pump will fail and it will flood.”
“Sump pumps are definitely not where I'd trust “seems fine” during heavy rain. Worth figuring out the cause before the next storm does the testing for you.”
“Sounds like the pump may be doing its job and the discharge side is the actual problem. I'd check for a blockage or frozen/restricted line first.”
“Not sure if this is the right group to post this, but I need some help. Since we’ve moved in, our sump pump is running almost constantly (separate issue). Due to the excess amount of water coming out, the corner of the driveway has this nasty moss. Any advice on how to keep this area moss-free, aside from figuring out why the sump is running so often? When I’ve sprayed the moss off in the past, it comes back within a few weeks. I’ve circled the area where the sump discharge comes from. Thanks in”
“so we had a trickle type flood, they came they traced all water underneath and went about a foot beyond where they found water under, no water touched the surface of anything left beyond so basically everything in this photo where you see underlay or see laminate was not touched by water in any way. i am curious since we can still buy this exact laminate type down to the make and model as its less than a year old can they just continue onwards here from what you see maybe pulling up an extra few”
“basement of NYC townhouse. I replaced the wood floor/subfloor with concrete/tile because of a flood. The flood came in on the right, under the baseboard. (whole floor is now lower and baseboards will be replaced.) Need advice on what kind of waterproofing to put in that space under the wall in case there is a future flood. (hope not) Preferably that I can shoot in. Caulking? Closed cell foam? Suggestions? submitted by /u/r_was61 [link] [comments]”
“We recently purchased an older home with a sewage ejection pump. (We were originally told it was sump pump by our inspector but he was wrong.) Originally we thought the basement bathroom was the only thing linked to it. But after living here a few months we have discovered that the kitchen, 1 ground level bathroom, the basement laundry, and drain at bottom of the laundry room are all linked to it. So essentially the house is plumbed that things go down below grade to be pumped back up again by t”
“Hello! Not even sure I’m posting in the correct group, I figure this has something to do with plumbing…maybe…after some heavy rain we see this water in the driveway streaming down and thought we had a leak. Troubleshooting - we turned off the water for the sprinklers and then the main water…nothing helped and it still trickled down. We called the city to come see, but they haven’t sent anybody yet. However, the water stopped maybe about a day later without us doing anything. It rained heavily an”
“Hello, I own a 1950s era home which experienced flooding of the BASEMENT earlier this summer (early July) from heavy rains/groundwater. I’ve since added an interior perimeter drain with a sump pump which will hopefully prevent these saturated ground conditions from happening again. I had previously used carpeting over a thick underlay for many years with few issues but I'm now looking to switch to a more durable material such as vinyl planks. The slab is uneven, has some past moisture damage”
“Thank you. I think you may be right. I purchased the house 4 years ago and have never had any issues. I have good water pressure at all faucets (even up on the 4th floor bathroom) but nothing I would say is crazy compared to other houses I’ve been to. I still want to install a smart shutoff, a PSI gauge, and a check valve. I’ll do more research into the design and materials before anything changes.”
“We recently had a large rainfall and continue to have rain in the forecast this week. Our basement partially flooded due to a clogged drain, got that fixed and plan to replace the drainpipe to prevent future clogs. But now we are seeing water seeping in from cracks in the basement floor. What if anything usually needs to be done in these circumstances? submitted by /u/Altruistic_Heron3867 [link] [comments]”
“We have a bedroom in our basement—exit windows, closet, drywall, carpet. My problem is the carpet, and the fact my basement will flood with city runoff sewer about once a year since 2020. We have replaced the very nice carpet the fourth time now. The biggest issue with this carpet is it will retain the squish after flooding and then MUCH of the drywall must be replaced, the drywall never touches water. Is there a flooring, other than concrete, that will be flood-proof not just surface-waterproof”
“We’ve lived in our 1920s Philly row home for just over a year. Our basement definitely has some moisture, but we’ve never had any pooling or leaking water. We went away for a few weeks and came home to this (we had a house sitter staying at the house who had mentioned some water pooling and was running the dehumidifier and mopping it up). Any idea what could be causing this? submitted by /u/saturn0826 [link] [comments]”
“I woke Friday morning to a partly flooded basement due to the water heater leaking. I will be putting a drain pan under the new water heater to prevent the basement from flooding again. However, I’d also like to put a le…”
“My landlord recently installed two of these backflow preventers on our main sewer lines (I’m in a 4 unit building and the sewer lines connect under my basement. We had about 0.5” of rain earlier today and now there’s standing water on top of the check valve portion of the preventers, is this normal? Also ever since this work was completed, we have had a strong musty smell in our apartment even with a dehumidifier constantly running, would the smell be coming from this? submitted by /”
“that gurgling behind the wall right after the pump shuts off makes me think the discharge is tied into a line that cant take the volume, so water backs up and works its way right back to the pit. explains why it refills fast but the float doesnt trip again for a couple minutes. before anyone cuts drywall, i would get a camera in there so you actually see where it narrows at the 12 or 14ft mark. we also got recommended grapids home services for a drain issue at my place and the scope saved us fro”
“You need to determine two things before anyone here can help you. First, where is the water coming from into the basement? Second, where is that water in the basement supposed to go? Are there any floor drains or a sump pump?”
“Sometimes people says "basement floor can be damp/wet during heavy rain. Basement is for storage only. Elevate items off the floor with 2x4's (or something like that)"”
“It can be a standalone addendum. Describe the nature of the basement and what happens when it rains.”
“You have two problems: Basement water problem - can only be solved by modifying the building. You can mitigate. But "solving" the problem to perfection is likely expensive. This is the engineering (and finance) problem. Legal liability - renter rightly complaining about a known problem that you did not disclose (before applying, not at the last minute in the approval process, oh by the way, the basement is sometimes swampy, sign here anyways)”
“I'm selling a 125 year old house. The sellers noted "some water seepage during very heavy rains" on their Real Estate Condition Report. We received an offer with an FHA loan. It was over-asking & the only offer we got, so we accepted. Buyer's lender is saying the FHA appraiser might require a basement foundation inspection to be done due to this information being noted on the RECR. Have any of you had an FHA loan recently where seepage was noted, but no actual wate”
“I’m not entirely positive, I’m dealing with something similar, but my concrete wall is seeping. So I need to get everything perfect outside first and then can seal the wall. If it’s only coming in through one spot, I presume you could seal a single spot. I would talk with a basement expert, I had someone come out and they have me a fair amount of advice for free. Then I supplemented with YouTube and ChatGPT.”
“If I seal the wall from inside then will the water find it’s way to somewhere else? Or is it safe to say only the area where the water is coming through the cinder block has bad waterproofing?”
“A sump wont prevent the water from coming in, but it will prevent it from accumulating. You may be able to seal the wall depending on what’s allowing ingress.”
“Gutter, and grading. I’m planning to make a french drain for the downspout where the water comes in from.”
“House is 1950 in midwest michigan, has a sump pump (l recently got it repaired but haven't experienced a heavy rain since then) No drain hole in the basement floor. A full bathroom in the basement. No emergency climbing window from the basement. I want to rent out my SFH this winter but worried that the rain might come in to the basement next year when there's a tenant. I'm not 100% sure if working sump pump will 100% prevent the water from coming in. The water trickles in from the c”
“Not it if it just for the lower level and it stopped during a bath. It appears to be a sewage ejector pump imo.”
“Found a very nice house in a suburb of Akron Ohio. I noticed it showed on redfin that there is flooding in the side yard. It looks like a French drain was recently installed along the driveway. The basement is finished with carpet. It looks like there was quite a bit of landscaping done to keep water flowing away from the house towards the new drain. We love the house but we're not sure if we want to deal with this kind of headache. Even if the new changes mitigate some of the flooding, I fe”
“Sewage ejection pump. Unless you can replace yourself, be prepared to spend a couple G’s give out take a few hundred”
“Assuming the basement hasn't been waterproofed, and from how the photo looks more like water came in from the wall and went to the drain, it is likely ground water that pushed up into the basement through the joint where the wall and floor meet. If that's the case, then the good news is that you can get it professionally waterproofed and shouldn't have this problem after that. Bad news is it's expensive. You can also get some cheap water leak alarms to put by the wall and drain s”
“It's not a sump pump. It's a grinder pump. It grinds and pumps waste out of your house. That is not ground water as many here seem to believe. Could be the float is disconnected/broken. Could be the check valve (bulbous part of the white pipe) has failed. Could be electrical failure (breaker). Could be the pump itself has failed.”
“I get water in my basement when it rains really hard for several days. Normally the sump pump takes care of it but one time the pump motor died and we had like 2 feet of water in there.”
“I don't hear the pump running in the video. I have a similar set up and, earlier this year, the float switch went bad. There are two cords running into the sump pit, if one of those cords is plugged into the other at any point the one plugged into the wall is the float switch. Unplug the other cord, the pump cord, and plug it straight in to the outlet. If the float switch is bad this will directly power your sump pump and drain your basement. Replacing the float switch could be easy, dependi”
“I feel like I knew what a sump was in elementary school. The kids now a days just don't have basic knowledge”
“I bought a house and got possession about two months ago. Since then, we’ve had two massive rainstorms, and in both cases, I’ve had water coming into my basement that I believe is coming in from the drain. Is the next best step to have a plumber (or someone else) come and snake the drain? submitted by /u/Ok-Calligrapher-4493 [link] [comments]”
“So, the basement of my house is fuuuucked. You can see daylight through the cracks. Rain means an indoor pool will form. There's a long line of where it's bowed in around the basement. My dad had a guy from a basement/foundation company come take a look for a free estimate. $57k. We got an appointment quick as hell because it's bad. It'll take 15 years to pay off, and all this is for one wall, not even the whole basement. Basically they'll put up a metal wall against the wall”
“We unplugged it and the water level is sitting right below inlet pipe where the ground water comes in. Water is sitting at 12 inches.”
“Hey all we had some heavy rain and basically some water got into the basement through the basement door and seems to have gotten under our hybrid floor in one area by the door. When I was taking towels to the area to dry it after a while I was hearing water under the flooring (the squishing sound you hear when stepping on it). The subfloor is just concrete and we have a fan and dehumidifier down there now. Is this something that can dry on its own or do I need to rip that area flooring out and r”
“Hello I just moved into a basement apartment and due to the rainy weather and downspout outside my window breaking some water got in the unit. It wasn't enough to be flooded but the floor around the walls was noticeably wet, the walls are damp and very flimsy by the electrical outlet pictured. I was feeling it to check and it caused the wall to break. Feels like cardboard. I wish I knew better before I moved in but I want to know how safe it is to use them and keep living here. I did contact”
“yeah the water line was pretty close to the sewer line and the guys said it's very rare to actually hit the water line. No more water compared to last night and the person who came in this morning thinks it's because they washed some dirt out and it caused it to come back up into the basement?”