On Mar 21, 12:32 pm, wrote:
OK, I think something is wrong with the way my sump drains and I'm
looking for confirmation and ideas on how to fix it.

So my pump is mounted at the bottom of the well, with the float
triggering before the waterline gets up to the pipes from which the
drain tiles drain into the well. (all seems correct there so far).
My problem is that, as soon as the pump triggers and drains the well,
I see maybe 50% of that amount of water drain immediately back thru
the tiles (NOT back down the ejection pipe). This is not normal, is
it?

My first assumption is that the drainage pipe is broken and maybe most
of the water is leaking back into the foundation. But how would it
make it so quickly from the pipe back into the drain tiles and into
the well? I'm talking maybe a second or so delay between the ejection
starting and the water flowing back in the well thru the drainage
pipes. It doesn't make sense to me, so I must be missing something.

I know everyone's first suggestion would be - check the drainage to
ensure the pipe is intact. I'd LOVE to, trust me. Problem is that
its under my deck, which is too low to be accesable. Peeking under
there, I can see the pipe come out of the house and to into a 5 or 6"
diameter pipe going vertically into the ground about 2 feet from the
house. My assumption is that it goes to a drain tile or some farther
place in the yard from there, but I have no way to confirm this.

So my questions are - what is likely causing the water to rush back in
so quickly thru the tiles, is that unusual / a concern, and how should
I go about fixing it if required?

Any input would be appreciated. This thing is making me super
nervous, though we've yet to have a flood in the year we've lived in
this 28 year-old house.

Jeff

Okay, others have said pretty much the same thing but here goes again.

The '5 or 6" verticle pipe is acting as a drywell apparently and being
only 2 ft away from the foundation is either directly in a perimeter
drain gravel bed or has made it's own channel feeding directly into
it. If you can get a camera down into it somehow you can see if maybe
it is broken/collapsed or whatever. If the pipe is intact to the
bottom and shows no connection to a pipe leading away from the house
the only solution I can see is to abandon what is there and reroute
the drain line. That should be possible without tearing up the
deck.

I really don't see much hope of being able to fix the problem using
the same installation even if you did dig it up - that discharge needs
to be a lot further away from the house.

Harry K