On 14 Mar 2007 05:32:56 -0700, "DAC" wrote:

On Mar 14, 7:05 am, "jd" wrote:
Hi folks,
the drain pipe for our sump pump is buried but the end pokes out of a hills

All of my neighbors who front on the street have sump pump outlets
that come out of the curb, I think. That would make them very close to
the surface at least near the curb and I don't know if any have ever
frozen.

My house is different. I don't know if it was a design feature in my
case or not, or conceivably a short cut designed to save the builder
money??

But my drain pokes out the side of a hill like yours, about 20 feet
from the basement. Inside the pipe goes up to the ceiling, then
horizontally to the wall and comes out about a foot or 18 inches abve
the ground, with a hard plastic pipe that comes out of the house and
ends after about 3 or 4 inches. Then there's a 4" black corrugated
pipe that comes out of the ground, goes up about a foot, bends and is
pretty much stuck on the 3 or 4 inch pipe. (can't come off, without my
bending it. Wind and water can't do it.)

So it's not that cold in Baltimore, but if it ever did freeze or get
clogged or crushed, the water would bypass the pipe and pour on the
ground. I guess it would soon find it's way back to the sump in that
case, but I could also clamp a temporary hose on the thing at that
point.

The difficulty depends on how your discharge is set up.
I had a house that had an under slab discharge, didn't know where it
to...still don't. Every year in the late winter it would freeze up
and it seemed to get worse after my neighbor replaced his driveway
with a new one 6" lower than the original.

I would think that would make your situation a bit better as the water
poured out of your dirt into his driveway. Unless it made the cold
air closer to the pipe in your ground. ???

Fortunately when they plumbed the sump system, they added a discharge
to the exterior of the house going through the sill. When everything
is working right, it's plugged and not used. When the "normal"
discharge freezes, uncap and put 2-10 foot pieces of rigid plastic
1-1/4 pipe on it and wait for the ground to thaw. The system worked
well for years.

Banty is right with his suggestion to fix...but sometimes it isn't
worth the gain.

DAC