best sump pump for heavy rain

Burying Sump Pump Discharge

My sump pump discharges to the North corner of my house

I am sick of the fence gate being complete soaked and this entrance being useless for months on end. I am going to rent a trencher and run the line out to the curb, where I have a sewer grade within 3-5 feet. About every 3 houses in my subdivision run lines out to the street and have the curb notched out for the discharge pipe. I am thinking SCH 40 PVC will be the best......since this is what is being currently used for the SP line. How deep will I need to go? 18" sufficient? Anything else I need to do or be aware of?

18" will probably do assuming the line would be at a slope that would empty.

Around here we would also put a piece of 2" foam over the top to help keep it from freezing.

FYI I'd size with 3" or 4".

The ones with 1.5 or 2" on my street get frozen during winter. A few neighbors have gotten smart and installed an "overflow" or extra output with a check valve above the discharge pipe on the side of the house as well just in case. The 3" and 4" I have never seen freeze over.

The larger diameter PVC might be a good idea

Yes, the yard slopes down towards the street and the buried pipe would be sloped accordingly. What kind of foam are you talking about?

Do I need to insulate the PVC ?

Suggestion:

Since you have a trencher, dig a trench about 3' wide and 3'-5' deep and put the 3 or 4" perforated PVC pipe 18" deep in a stone bed before it discharges to the street. I would use about 1 1/2" stone for the bed and would use a geotextile fabric to keep the soil fines out of the stone bed.

Sorry, no effin way am I digging a trench 3 feet wide for a 3"-4" pipe

What you are essentially doing is creating a sewer leach field line with the expectation that some or all of the sump pump discharge will soak into the ground before it reaches the street. I have seen this done with sewage run through an aeration system but never for sump or runoff discharge. If the usual and customary practice in your area is a direct line to the street then that is what I would do.

I live in the boonies up here in Michigan.

Buried 100' of 4" perforated with the cover, the soft stuff. Only down about a foot. Freezes to 4' here. Has never frozen and have never seen water make it out the end. I just keep recycling the same water over and over and over....... Cheap way to water the dirt.

Since we don't know where . . . "HERE" . . . is, can't really give OP best advice.

If he's trying to discharge to curb in Hollywood or downtown NYC, then that likely won't be allowed or could draw angst from neighbor. Also, freeze risk will be non-existent if OP is in Brownsville, TX !!! Location is Indiana.

Here in VA/MD my company runs 3" PVC to daylight elsewhere.

The sump pump is 1.5" discharge and exits the house aimed concentric with the 3" pipe but held at least 1" above the 3" pipe. This creates an air gap so if the ground 3" pipe becomes frozen or impaired the normal discharge is not effected. Some communities we route the discharge to either storm drains or drywells depending on AHJ requirements.

My discharge is above ground, over a bed of rocks.

Scares the h&ll out of me when I am working on that side of the house

my old sump pump discharge is approx 36" underground, and was discharged into the old septic tank.

( that i didnt know was there, the house is on city sewer) it's has never frozen. just yesterday i rerouted mine to discharge from the rear of the house to the front where it might actually drain away from the house.

Why don't you plumb the discharge to your sewage pipe (if you're on city sewer only) using a check valve.

Keep all the plumbing in a heated space. I can't imagine the freeze issues all of you have with ground discharge...even if you dig a deep drain pit, there is bound to be back-up issues.

around here, plumbing a sump discharge into city waste water (sewer) is illegal.

Not a leach field line......

Not using perforated tube/pipe. Solid schedule 40 PVC ran to the curbo, where a sewer cap is waiting nearby. Indiana, NW part of the state. Every few houses in my subdivision does it.....not illegal here

I think there's a difference between the storm sewer and the waste sewer.

OK to route sump discharge where it would eventually find the storm sewer, not oK to pipe into a waste sewer pipe. I would just let it spill out somewhere there's a clear downhill run. I was worried about mine freezing up the couple of times it hit -20F last winter, as it also handles the water softener discharge, but the volume and high flow simply cannot be stoppped by snow and ice, plus the downhill part as well. Probably only 6" below ground at its deepest point. Personally I would not go thru the effort of putting in a leach field, just let it pour out the end and use some sort of grating to make sure an animal doesn't start building a home inside of there. I did use PVC for my discharge, I think its 2" dia as I recall, smoother pipe, better flowrate. Make sure you 800-MISS-DIG (etc) for your area before putting the blades of a trencher into the ground....

I have somewhat of the same issue.

My House never had a Sump Pump. During big Rains, pressure would build up under to basement floor and find, even the smallest spot, to work its way in. So, I put a Sump Pump Pit and Sump Pump in, at the lowest spot in the Basement. It just so happened to be next to the slop sink in the laundry room. (perfect) But, the discharge is set up, out that side of the house. which is the driveway side. Since its closest to the front, I ran the drain as far forward as I could. But, there is a walkway to the front stairs, so it ends there. After BIG Rains, it will run for days afterwords. leaving the driveway wet...right where people park to get out and enter to house. Wintertime, that is an Ice Rink. The discharge and drain pipe never freezes, due to the dropoff. 18" over 25' length. I would love to bring it underground, but, the village raised the streets 11" in front of our house and No Way can I make the water flow UpHill. If I bring it toward the Back of the House, It will freeze on the drive near the Garage. I could cut a Trough in the Drive and install a Metal grate, but then I would be forcing all toward my Neighbors Yard. Hey...All I know is...My Basement has stayed Bone Dry since I installed it!

Where I grew up as a kid, in a subdivision in Iowa City, it was very common for a horizontal piece of PVC pipe to be cast into the vertical side of the curbside concrete, the water simply drained into the gutter and went likely to the storm sewer.

Not sure if this applies to other localities. But it seems to fit that its water generated/deposited by a storm, it would flow to the same place as stormwater if the house was not there at all. I would just try to get closer to the street to avoid the ice rink effect.

Sump exit cut, turned, and angled downward

35 foot long trench hand dug to the edge of the foundation. Picking up a trencher tomorrow for the remaining 55 feet to the curb. Picked up 9 sections of 1-1/2"x10' SCHED 40 PVC, some couplers, and a 90 degree fitting all for like $40

I just let it shoot straight out.

Mind you, mine only runs once or twice a year depending on the rain.

Just be careful machine-trenching...you need MISS DIG first....you don't want to strike any utilities or your project is going to get a lot more expensive.

I already had it all marked, I wouldn't dig blindly

It went pretty smoothly

Rented a trencher, and made about 5-6 passes, slowly going deeper everytime. I was a back drag or back pull trencher, but it works very well. Ran the PVC and sloped it down pretty good and fast over the distance. Covered it all back up and good to go

Good idea ditto ^^ I need to do this as a piece of mind..

Any idea of what check valve was used?

I have a slightly different issue, but along the very same topic.

My sump pump discharge penetrates the foundation wall (cast concrete) approximately 4+ feet below grade and eventually connects to a seriously large pipe that collects storm water run off from my immediate neighbors gutters and sump pumps and then ties to the storm sewer that is down hill from us. Now for the issue: I am adding a water powered emergency sump pump as a backup to the main pump. "Normal installation" per the instructions, calls for punching a hole in the side wall above the sill plate just like the OP did and leaving the discharge pipe pointed downhill. This won't pass muster in my township, so I've dug down to find the original discharge pipe (what a PITA, prying out more rocks than shoveling!) I'm planning on punching another hole at the original discharge pipe penetration and running the backup discharge outside and connecting to the main discharge pipe. Now for the question. I know that it's against code to connect the backup's discharge pipe to the main sump pump discharge pipe inside the house, but what makes it OK to connect to the same pipe a few feet outside the house? The fact that it's downhill from the exit point?

Wiz - why can't you put check valves inside the house and put in a "tee" to share the existing discharge piping?

No more penetrations needed. I'm not aware of this being a code violation and to my knowledge is the norm for backup pumps. The float on your backup is set at a higher set point so only is active should the main pump fail or not keep up.

Larry,

States right in the instructions that connecting to the primary pump's discharge is a violation of the UPC, but if you do so, use a check valve.

I would ignore the instructions on running a separate discharge for the back up.

There are two primary things that can go wrong with sump pumps, a pump failure and/or a clogged/frozen discharge. The back up should be insurance for a pump failure, I would handle discharge issues some other way if that presents a potential problem. It's your house, do whatever you think makes the most sense for your particular situation.

Thanks for the information, but I'm already down the separate discharge path and that should ensure against freezing or recycling of the discharged water

From what I see in your photos the water from the drain spout is not really beneficial as far as getting the rain water away from your home.

It doesn't look like the ground is slope enough to run the water away, unless you have something that you removed to do the trench and I am not seeing it, in my opinion. Looking at your pictures and the trench you nicely made, is there any reason you could not run your drain spout out there too?

Already done all around the house

Just to update everyone......

So far no issues and the pump is draining out to the street and working flawlessly. We are now about 3 months into winter, with snow and freezing temps....... NO ISSUES!!!!

Surely your sump pump is running less . . . if at all . . . . since you have routed all the downspout water away from the house ???

Right ??? Has the sump pump ran at all ??

It's illegal to do that in all of the Chicago suburbs that I'm familiar with, and has been for thirty years.

My pump still runs, for sure......

I would say not as much, but definitely still a good amount, especially with the 15" snow fall we received last week, and then the temps back up in the 50s and 60s for the past few days. Yes, I also buried the downspouts and ran them about 10 feet out. The sump discharge line has not frozen and nothing has backed up

Same here...