"Lee B" wrote in message
...

Row house in the mid-Atlantic area. I'm selling it, so don't want to put a
lot of money into this piece, esp with the way the prices are dropping in
the area. (Apologies if this shows up twice; my email client hiccupped and
said it didn’t go thru).

There is a sump pump, with a drainage pipe thing that only sticks out of
the house about 3-4". There is a PVC pipe drainage system attached to it
that goes to the side of the yard and the water exits into the grass away
from the house. That works fine 9-10 months a year. The problem is that in
the winter, drainage accumulates in the PVC and freezes, causing the pump
to strain and not be able to pump. I'm not at all mechanical so what I did
then was get some of the "corrugated" plastic sump pump tubing and one of
those rubber pipe adapter things (different diameter ends, with the little
ratchety things on each side to attach to the pipe. When it was freezing,
I'd detach the regular PVC drainage, and attach this gizmo. The pipe would
reach across the paved area (this is all in the back yard) into the grass.
This still froze, but it was very easy to exchange the tubing and sit the
frozen one in the sun to thaw.

My problem now (finally got to it!) is that the house is currently vacant.
While I can get there a few times a week, it's not enough to make sure the
tubing doesn't freeze. What I have done now is buy a 10' piece of plastic
gutter and propped it up under the outlet. That doesn’t completely span
the cement area and is easily dislodged. (It's currently very esthetically
(not!) propped up with two pieces of that scalloped cement edging I had
sitting around). I'm worried this could scare off a prospective buyer
before anyone could even explain that it's not a problem when someone is
living there and can monitor it. I had another plumber over for another
reason who commented on how the water accumulated on the cement where it's
settled over the years, so just leaving the short metal pipe wasn't good.
His only suggestion was to run underground piping out to the alley, which
would involve digging up the yard and cutting the cement sidewalk and the
small retaining wall by the alley. He actually recommended against that.
And truthfully, I could go for months without ever hearing or seeing the
sump pump run, although depending on how much rain we've had, there are
times it runs more frequently. It's just that I'm paranoid about it while
the house is empty, having lived through a back up when the last one
broke.

So, the bottom line is, does anyone happen to have any other suggestions
on how to get the drainage away from the house, over maybe 15 ft of
cement, and not risk having it blocked with ice when the temp drops? Maybe
something with a larger diameter. (I'm thinking the narrow diameter tubing
is more likely to freeze because it fill with water, and since the ground
is fairly level it doesn't have gravity on its side). Maybe like the
flexible downspout extensions, but if so how to attach? Or am I better off
with the gutter thing, since it's open on the top and even if it freezes,
at least the water escapes somewhere? And did I mention I'm not very
handy…
The only suggestion I have is to see if it is somehow possible to arrange
the drain so that it is downhill all the way so water does not stand in it.
It still could freeze at the outlet but that may not create a problem.

Don Young