You have to dig a sump pit!

"Terry Carroll" wrote in message
...
I live in a one-story townhouse, with a crawlspace underneath, in
Santa Clara, California (south San Francisco bay area). Every winter,
when the rains come, I get water in the crawlspace; just a few inches
or so, but enough that I'm concerned about it.

I've been looking into installing a sump pump, but the automatic ones
I've seen at Home Depot all looked like they'd require about 9-12
inches of water before they'd kick in.

First: am I overly worried? Is it just okay to live with 3-4 inches
of water under my house for 5 months out of the year? I polled a
couple neighbors in adjoining units, and neither of them have pumps,
and both have the water issue.

Second: if I should get a pump, any recommendations for a pump that
would activate with just a couple inches of water?

I should add that the crawlspace is pretty inaccessible, so a switched
pump is really not an option.

Thanks.