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Dan Espen[_3_]

Ralph Mowery writes:

In article ,
says...
I woudn't own a house that "needed" a sump pump. New code here
requires all new houses be equipped with one whether required or not.
This house sits high, in sand. Drainage is fefinitely not a problem.
My first houde was the same - high and dry -frainage was never a
problem.

There are lots of homes built where they should not be. Then they flood
out and people cry about it. My first home was near the top of a hill
and did not have a basement so did not have to worry about water.

I bought another house years later. At the back of the property about
100 feet from the house is a stream that is normally about 2 feet wide
and has less than a foot of water in it. Then it is flat for about 30
feet and starts up hill to the house. The house is about 15 or 20 feet
above the stream so I do not worry about the water getting up that high
and thought the stream would flood the first 20 or so feet so did not
let that be a deal killer. Sure enough it has flooded that 20 feet
about 3 or 4 times each year. It usually goes down in a few hours after
the rain stops.

Sometimes the code is written with things that many do not need, but
just a blanket code.

I'm very near the top of a hill, but still used to get seepage into the
basement. I had to have a french drain put in. Then about 10 years ago
the underground streams must have changed course. Now I see no more
than an inch of water at the bottom of the sump pump hole and the pump
almost never runs.

Clay soil.

The message is, it's hard to be sure you're going to be dry.

--
Dan Espen