Don Phillipson wrote:
"lagman" wrote in message
oups.com...

I just moved to the midwest from Texas, into a house with a basement.
The sump pump runs every 15-20 minutes when dry, and every few minutes
when raining (The previous owner installed a drain tile in the front
yard that empties into the sump, and the area I live in has a high
water table). The previous owner claimed that the pump ran even more
frequently before the tile was installed.

Your sump pump should not run on days when there has
been no rain. Your description suggests either (a) the
water table has risen (since the house was completed)
so the sump pumps runs every day, pumping water drawn
from the water table, or (b) underground drains are collecting
water from elsewhere and channeling it into your basement.
You need expert advice to remedy this. The cost of
electricity is less important than finding out whether your
bad drainage is likely to get worse.

Well, if OP's post is to be believed (and I see no reason not to),
unless the former owner misrepresented the situation (which would be a
violation of the real estate disclosure laws undoubtedly so would have
recourse against him), the frequency of the pump cycling is now less
than it was before the drain was installed.

It's certainly not unheard of for water tables to be high enough in
portions of IA for there to be high enough water tables to cause the
need for sump pumps. In that case (and it sounds like it is from the
description), it wouldn't be expected for the water to stop immediately
just because it didn't rain for a day or two (or a week or a month,
even). I wouldn't be for buying a house w/ a basement w/ these kinds of
problems, but many are coping.

For OP, sounds like the former owner did a reasonable thing. In such a
serious area you may want to check into the possibility of investing in
one of the water-driven emergency pumps for the event of longterm power
loss/outage.

It's unusual for a jurisdiction to allow for drains into the sanitary
sewer system so unless the drain is going into a storm sewer not the
sanitary sewer system it may not be kosher.

--