On Dec 22, 12:23*am, Erma1ina wrote:
Lee B wrote:

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…

There is a special PVC fitting (it may be proprietary?) called an
"IceGuard", billed as a "Sump Pump Discharge Anti-Freeze Device". Heres
a link to a description:

http://www.clarkebasementsystems.com/IceGuard.aspx

Basically, it lets the sump discharge onto the ground next to the house
IF the discharge line freezes. Not ideal, by any means, but better than
pump failure and water in the basement.

For myself, this September I took the principle of the "IceGuard" and
modified it a bit.

I had a new 3" PVC line installed with a slightly 3" "modified wye" PVC
fitting where the 1 1/2" PVC sump discharge line exits the house such
that each arm of the wye is close to vertical. The first arm of the wye
connects directly to the 1 1/2' PVC discharge and the other arm
(slightly down-line from the first) is capped with a cleanout plug you
can unscrew to remove or loosen.

In normal operation, the sump discharge would simply flow down the
entire length (~60 ft) of the 3" discharge line to "daylight".

However, if the temp drops and the sump starts taking in water to be
discharged, I will do 2 things: 1. Dump Calcium chloride pellets into
the discharge line via the leg of the PVC "wye" that is normally capped
so that any water discharged will pass through and carry that deicer
down the length of the line and 2. Loosen or remove the cap (cleanout
plug) so that IF, in spite of increases size of the line and the deicer,
the discharge line freezes, the water will dump out onto the ground,
similar to the way it would with the "IceGuard".

As I said, I just had this installed so, as yet, has not had a real
world test. However, given the kind of weather we're having, I expect a
"test" within the next few months, if not weeks.

I doubt you want to redo your entire discharge line but perhaps you
could use the idea behind that "IceGuard" or even my modification of it,
using some kind of "wye", to give the water a place to go, other than
your basement, but ONLY IF the line freezes.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Good info on the anti-freeze widget. Never saw one before. The key
to Lee
s problem is in what he didn't tell us. Which is how the area is
graded and how high a drain can exit from the house. The solution is
to use gravity to empty the pipe after it exists, possible combined
with the anti-freeze widget.