After an entire summer dealing with a wet mess in the backyard to install our Fence it’s time to fix the basement.
At first I thought it was the sewer, but now I’m pretty sure it has to do with the 70 year old basement draining system. Notice the water comes from the left and goes down to I don’t know where. I don’t see any ‘pipes’ in the sump pit which is about 15 feet away.
As far as I can tell the old ‘system’ is not really a french drain system. It’s simply a floating concrete floor with a slight gap between the wall and the floor. I’m not even sure how it gets from there to the sump pit. I’m creating about 120 gallons per day even during a drought and more when it rains. The Iron Ochre creates a real mess and I need a new pump and check valve every couple of years.
Estimates to install a new french drain system for 1/2 the basement (the unfinished part) is about $7,000 but I’d love to just fix this if possible.
About Blue Rock Manor, Jim Durborow says:
“I used to trap Muskrats where you live in the FIfties, From the back of the houses on Alders to the othrer side of the tree just passed the basketball court was a swamp, It started where the last ranch is near thebasketball court. The stream,that runs through the woods, started somewhere near the church. It ran through the swamp. The area at the corner Median and Alders was swampy too.”
Update Friday December 7, 2018
The hole got clogged. Still no idea where the water comes from or where it goes. I’m using a camping shower pump to pump a gallon of water every 73 seconds out of the hole. It’s not really taking the level down but is keeping it from overflowing. A new one will be delivered Saturday, perhaps two pumps will get the level down a bit.
The fact that the water is so clean still leads me to believe it’s spring water. Not sure how the builder tapped into the spring and I have a pipe discharging into this hole.
For 20 years this system has somehow worked. Last year I had a whole house humidifier installed which creates a lot of water which dumps into this hole. Perhaps the added amount of water did something to cause the spring discharge here to become more active. Perhaps the debris from the humidifier filter helped clog wherever this hole leads. Either way I hate the humidifier design.
I have plumbers and wet basement people coming early next week to let me know what they think about all of this.