In alt.home.repair on Sun, 24 Jul 2005 01:22:49 -0400 "CL (dnoyeB)
Gilbert" posted:
Thats interesting. So the stream raises, floods the sewer, and the
sewer water flows into your house and starts shooting out of the
basement sink. And you don't think a backflow/backwater preventer would
stop that?
No. I put one in and it doesn't. I think it is clogged with lint.
Only a little lint in the hinge might be enough to keep it from
closing fully. (I use the washer on a regular basis, but it can take
6 months to 18 months before the stream reaches flood level)
I tested the valve probably by blowing into it, with my hands wrapped
around it, and it worked well before I installed it. It's above the
trap. The water pressure should make it seal tighter. I can only
conlcude that it is clogged, no?
It doesn't quite shoot, just streams quickly, like a quart every 10
seconds. (That was the rate before the check valve. Might be slower
now.)
Does it flood because of water trying to leave your house can not leave?
Yes and no. Yes, because if all the water overflowing the sink went
directly into the sump and was pumped out, there wouldn't even be the
eigth inch of water on the floor (and whatever gets sucked up into the
cardboard boxes, and once into the big box of soap powder, things like
that. (I had to hammer the soap into pieces after that to use it in
the washer, but other than that it was fine.)
But no because I don't think that is what you meant.
BTW, I did a little more testing and was reminded that I also have the
AC overflow filling the sump, and that starts 4 feet above the floor.
NO water was coming in through the corrugated pipes from outside, so
the AC was enough to fill the sump 10 inches in only about 10 minutes,
although when the AC went off, the dripping stopped. I guess when the
water level reaches those corrugated pipes, if they are empty, the AC
condensate would have to fill them before it could overflow the sump.
I did some testing, and I've been recalling past testing, wrt this:
Well this depends. I can unplug my sump now and the water will raise
quickly to the level of the drain tiles and slow down while the tiles
are backfilling with water. So you have to wait a considerable time for
those tiles to fill up.
In my case, that would be the perforated corrugated plastic pipes??
If not, what are the tiles?
Then since you have previously lowered the
ground water level around yoru house by sumping, you will have to wait
till the ground water level raises as well.
This makes sense, but in my case....
When I did the testing, I found that I could do this several times in
a row, switchingn on the pump by hand in between. And it filled just
as fast the last time as the first, I think.
Does that mean the perforations in the pipe weren't big enough and the
water was backing up outside? Well I don'pt know except that there
was no water coming through the walls.
So if you unplug the pump and it only raises to 6" from the top of the
pit, you still have to wait a few days to know for sure if this level is
settled. And yes you also need to know what will happen to it in a rain
storm.
I'd be afraid to let the test run when I was sleeping, but I will try
for 8 hours next time there is enough rain.
Like I say, even though there was some rain yesterday, when I tested a
couple hours later, no water came out of the pipes. The windows were
shut, AC on, and I don't know if it actually rained. I heard thunder,
that's all.
Carl
Meirman
--
If emailing, please let me know whether
or not you are posting the same letter.
Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.
|