I have an old house with a floor drain in one corner of the cellar. The drain line is not connected to the sewer; it heads out into the yard somewhere. The problem is that sometimes when it rains, the cellar fills up with 4 or more inches of water. I suspect that it is backing up through the drain. I want to put in a sump pit and the most logical place is right where the drain is located since the floors slope considerably towards this drain. I'm thinking about digging up the drain, cutting off the pipe and capping t and just building a pit in that location where I can put my pump. The drain line is full of sediment and probably broken anyway. I'm not an expert so I'm wondering if this is a reasonable approach.
Sounds like a plan to me.
It would be best to figure out where that line goes outside and cap it off also.
Is that the only place waters getting in? Or are the walls also leaking.
Based on your description, the groundwater gets about 4 inches higher than the basement floor. You could probably put a pit anywhere, but you need to run perforated pipe (perimeter drain) lines around the basement to the pit. There are numerous posts on this forum that describe how to do this.
You also need to make sure your sump pump drains to a storm sewer system (if that is permissible in your community) or to a ditch that flows away from your house. This may require a long run. Piping to the backyard is not going to work, as the water will simply flow back in.
Thanks everyone for your replies. Water does seep in through the walls in some places also, but not too bad. It's a rubble foundation that is only mortared on the inside and above ground outside. The floor is about 4 to 6 inches lower where the drain is, that's why i was thinking about putting a pit there. The drain line is packed with clay. I tried to snake it out, but didn't get too far. I figured it's probably broken and wouldn't do any good. I could try to dig it up outside and find out where it goes, but I didn't want to dig too close to the foundation and the further away i dig, the harder it will be to find. Would I have any issues with a perimeter drain if there is not a layer of gravel under the cement floor?
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