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#1
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sealed sump pit for radon mitigation
I'm about to finish my basement and wanted to test the sump pump, but
the cover is sealed with silicone caulk for radon mitigation (there's a radon pipe coming out of the pit). So my question is that if the pit is sealed, then if the basement flooded, how would the water get into the pit for the sump-pump to activate? Would I need to manually break the seal and open the lid? If I'm out of town when this happens, am I just screwed? I thought maybe there was a gap between walls and floor as had been suggested, but it's sealed with the same caulk as the pit lid. Has anyone seen this before? Am I just missing something? I've never had water in the basement, but want to be safe rather than sorry. Thanks |
#2
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sealed sump pit for radon mitigation
On Sep 27, 7:59 pm, wrote:
I'm about to finish my basement and wanted to test the sump pump, but the cover is sealed with silicone caulk for radon mitigation (there's a radon pipe coming out of the pit). So my question is that if the pit is sealed, then if the basement flooded, how would the water get into the pit for the sump-pump to activate? Would I need to manually break the seal and open the lid? If I'm out of town when this happens, am I just screwed? I thought maybe there was a gap between walls and floor as had been suggested, but it's sealed with the same caulk as the pit lid. Has anyone seen this before? Am I just missing something? I've never had water in the basement, but want to be safe rather than sorry. Thanks The purpose of the sump pump isn't to pump water out of the basement if it fills up with water. It's purpose is to collect water from the drain tile and pump it out of the house. If you took the cover off, you would see the drains running into the sump crock. JK |
#3
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sealed sump pit for radon mitigation
On Sep 27, 8:24 pm, Big_Jake wrote:
On Sep 27, 7:59 pm, wrote: I'm about to finish my basement and wanted to test the sump pump, but the cover is sealed with silicone caulk for radon mitigation (there's a radon pipe coming out of the pit). So my question is that if the pit is sealed, then if the basement flooded, how would the water get into the pit for the sump-pump to activate? Would I need to manually break the seal and open the lid? If I'm out of town when this happens, am I just screwed? I thought maybe there was a gap between walls and floor as had been suggested, but it's sealed with the same caulk as the pit lid. Has anyone seen this before? Am I just missing something? I've never had water in the basement, but want to be safe rather than sorry. Thanks The purpose of the sump pump isn't to pump water out of the basement if it fills up with water. It's purpose is to collect water from the drain tile and pump it out of the house. If you took the cover off, you would see the drains running into the sump crock. JK in other words the sump fills with water from UNDER the floor so it still works with the cover in place... is the radon pipe you mentioned hooked to a ventilator. If the pipe is pulling air in from the sump, then the seal is not very critical, even if the seal is broken there will be a negaive pressure in the pit due to the ventilator and it will pull air... but you want to keep it resonably well sealed so that it pulls most of the air from underneath the floor, but if it pulls a little through the seal, its not a real problem.. You should manually run the sump pump for a few seconds every few months so that the bearings do not seize up... Mark |
#4
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sealed sump pit for radon mitigation
The purpose of the sump pump isn't to pump water out of the basement
if it fills up with water. It's purpose is to collect water from the drain tile and pump it out of the house. If you took the cover off, you would see the drains running into the sump crock. I understand that the "Main" purpose of a sump pump is to pump out water that is never actually in the house to begin with, but isn't a secondary (and potentially very useful) usage to pump out water that does somehow accumulate in the basement? I know that growing up, whenever we had water heater issues, and the basement flooded, the first thing we did was to squeegee the water over to the sump pit so the pump could do it's thing. You should manually run the sump pump for a few seconds every few months so that the bearings do not seize up... This is what I want to do - to test the sump pump to make sure it works, regardless of whether it's to pump out basement water, or water from the drain tile. My question is: Is it worth pulling up the caulk to test it, only to have to re-caulk it afterward? Can I bore a hole in the top of the sump pit cover, test it, and then plug that hole with an airtight (but not caulked) rubber plug? Thanks again! |
#5
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sealed sump pit for radon mitigation
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#6
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sealed sump pit for radon mitigation
We've owned this house for about 1.5 years, and on the initial
inspection we got it radon tested and it passed by a mile. The radon kit and sealed sump are exactly what you postulated - they're put in every home in the development...ours is only 10 years old. But at the same time, radon kills and I don't want to assume that just because it wasn't a problem before that I can just go break a seal that was intentionally made without good just cause. In fact, my situation is similar to yours in that the lip of the sump pit rises above the slab by about 1 inch, so that there would be a lot of water in the basement before it would drain into the pit, but I'd like to know if I even have that option available if need be. Thanks for your advice. |
#7
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sealed sump pit for radon mitigation
replying to Mark, Luke wrote:
How do you manually runt it if it is sealed? Cant get to it. -- for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/mainte...on-253765-.htm |
#8
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sealed sump pit for radon mitigation
On Saturday, April 14, 2018 at 6:44:07 AM UTC-5, Luke wrote:
replying to Mark, Luke wrote: How do you manually runt it if it is sealed? Cant get to it. -- You're too late. "11 YEARS AGO" after Mark posted to this newsgroup, he was abducted by giant mutant gerbils from outer space. The Air Force was unable to catch up with the flying saucer and Mark hasn't been seen or heard from since. It's feared that the giant mutant gerbils used Mark as a sex slave then ate him when they tired of buggering him. It was a real tragedy and Mark is missed by his family and his pet Earth gerbils. o_O [8~{} Uncle Space Monster |
#9
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sealed sump pit for radon mitigation
On Saturday, April 14, 2018 at 10:01:24 AM UTC-4, Uncle Monster wrote:
On Saturday, April 14, 2018 at 6:44:07 AM UTC-5, Luke wrote: replying to Mark, Luke wrote: How do you manually runt it if it is sealed? Cant get to it. -- You're too late. "11 YEARS AGO" after Mark posted to this newsgroup, he was abducted by giant mutant gerbils from outer space. The Air Force was unable to catch up with the flying saucer and Mark hasn't been seen or heard from since. It's feared that the giant mutant gerbils used Mark as a sex slave then ate him when they tired of buggering him. It was a real tragedy and Mark is missed by his family and his pet Earth gerbils. o_O [8~{} Uncle Space Monster nah, I'm still here. you have a good question. My pump has two wires that come out of the sump, one for the motor and one for the switch. I can run the pump by plugging the motor wire directly into the wall instead of into the switch. I don't need to open the cover to do this. If your pump has a different, arrangement, then you need a different solution. What kind of float switch do you have? Mark (escaped from the gerbils) |
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