Installing A Sump Pump

If you're having problems with leaking, dampness or flooding in your basement, you might want to consider installing a sump pump. Many new homes with basements already have a sump pump installed by the contractor, but older homes don't always have them.

Installing a sump pump can be done without a contractor or plumber, and it tends to cost much less too. Installing a sump pump on your own tends to average about $200, along with some personal time and sweat.

Sump pumps are designed to pump extra water out of your basement. That water can come in if the basement is below the water table line in your area, if it floods, or if you simply get too much rain sometimes. Regardless of why they're needed, sump pumps can save thousands of dollars in damage caused by basement flooding.

Installing a sump pump starts with buying the pump. When you buy a sump pump, you'll have several features to choose from. Sump pumps come with plastic housings, thin metal houses, thicker metal and even cast iron housings. The plastic and thinner metal housings are cheapest, but sometimes spending a bit more money on your sump pump ensures it will keep your basement safe for many years to come. So try to get the best you can for the money you have.

Sump pumps can be bought with various horsepower ratings, or based on how many gallons of water they pump in an hour. How large of a sump pump you need doesn't usually depend on your house size. Instead, size selections are made based on how far under the water table your house is, how much rain and flooding your area gets, and how good your gutter and lawn grading is.

When buying a sump pump, be sure to get the best switch and float system you can afford. These are the key factors to the sump pump working correctly, so skimping on them can cause much more expensive failures. You might also want to consider buying a sump pump which has built in battery backup power, so the pump can still work if your main source of electricity goes out.

And speaking of electricity, sump pumps require large amounts of power so it's recommended that you use a dedicated circuit for them. If you're not comfortable setting up your own electrical circuits for the sump pump though, have a professional electrician do this part.

Once you've chosen the sump pump, you then need to choose a basin for use as the sump pit. Some people go cheap on this step and simply use a 5 gallon bucket, but this can make your sump pump fail to work or cause it to break down completely because it doesn't have the room it needs to operate. So buy a container for your sump pit which is about 18 inches across or better, and 22 inches deep.

In addition to the above, you'll need to buy enough PVC pipe to create a disposal line which runs outside your home.

Once you have all the materials together, installing the sump pump is fairly easy. First, dig the sump pit. This is the hole where water will collect. Try to place this at the lowest point of your basement since this is the area the water will naturally run towards.

Put your sump pit container into the hole, making it flush with the surrounding floor area, then seal it with concrete. While that's drying, prepare your sump pump by putting a bit of teflon tape around the threads of the pipe connector, then hand tighten it. Place your pump over or inside the sump pit - submersible sump pumps are placed down inside the pit while upright, or pedestal pumps are placed above the pit - then run your PVC pipe to a location outside your home, and away from the foundation.