On Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:14:40 -0400, micky
wrote:


If most of the roof water goes to the sump pump, I'm
suprised it can even handle it during a downpour.

I came home one day and found my sump pump runing full blast and still
the basement floor was flooded. Just a little bit but the entire floor
and not deep because all the boxes on the floor had sucked up lots of
water. Much** of the water from my downspouts goes indirectly
into my sump pump but it takes hours or days to get there. It's not
piped direct ly into the sump pump, like Craig's is.. **And much of
the water from the roof and downspouts seeps to the edge of my
property and into the stream bed on two sides of my house.

I was thinking about what I wrote here. It probably doesn't take
days for water, on top of the current water table, to get from the
backt of the house to the front.

What I do, and the OP can do, is look at the water level in the sump
when it's not raining. I always have a little water, but it's
almost 2 feet below the basement floor.

Then look when and after it's been raining. My sump pump goes on
and t hen stops for 5 minutes, or more or less. That one time it
was runnning constantly, and even then that might have been enough to
keep up with the water if the water input had been less. I've had
flooded basements for various reasons, and the water level never gets
above 1/8", and only once has it gotten out of the laundry room. I
glued a piece of wood in the doorway, so it won't get out of the
laundry room again, but it is a big sign when I sell the house that
I've had flooding, even if I've solved all the reasons it flooded. Oh,
well.

But none of this helps when there is a power failure, or pump failure,
or you're out of town for a long time and had forgotten to pay the
electric bill so you were behind before you left,l and they disconnect
your electricity.

IIRC, they make a pump of the same configuration that's bigger than
what I have 1/2HP instead of 1/3, or 1/3 instead of 1/4. I keep
meaning to replace mine. I also keep looking for a basepump, but
I've decided after years that all of the ones on Ebay will be almost
as expensive as new.