[dann0187]

Hello! So I am about to begin installation of a sump pump in my crawl space. ugh!!! lol I have a split level home built in the 70s. There is no sump pump installed in the house. I have owned the home for about 7 years, during this time, the lower level / crawl space has gotten wet a couple times. This has only happened when it rains for like a week straight. From what I am told is that there is a spring running between mine and the neighbors house. I assume when the water table rises, that's when I get the water?

I have actually seen water coming in the crawl space at the base of the floor and wall. That is the location I was planning to put in the pit. That location is the back wall of the crawl space, almost mid wall.

I assume there is no drain tile along the inside wall? because there was never a pump installed? Is the middle of the wall an ok place to put the pit? After I dig the hole, can I put a hole in the wall, near the footer, for a pipe to drain any water that comes into the block? Or should I just basically install the pit like a seepage pit? I plan to run the pipe from the pit to a down spout. This spout runs water off the roof into a pipe that runs out to the road. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you!

 

[AllanJ]

The sump pump and its pit and the drain tiles have to be below basement floor level.

If you have a choice of laying the perimeter drain tiles just outside the foundation wall or just inside, then outside is preferable. What influences the choice is how far down you need to dig if you do it from the outside. While you are at it, paint waterproofing compound on the exposed, wire-brushed-clean, outside surface of the foundation wall that will be reburied when you are done with the project.

The pit needs a sump pump unless a drain pipe (this is not the drain tile setup) originating from the bottom of the pit can slope down gently and eventually reach the ground surface which in turn means that the ground above must have a steeper slope down away from the house in that direction.

If you don't have drain tiles then it is possible to have water coming up between the floor and the foundation wall several feet away from the pit even though the sump pump is working correctly.

 

[AllanJ]

Do not excavate below the foundation footings although yuou can dig a narrow trench underneath just wide enough for a 4 inch pipe to connect the drain tile line with the pit if the latter is on the opposite side of the foundation wall. This pipe does not have to be straight across horizontally.

 

[Ghostmaker]

Just a stupid idea but why not you and your neighbor install a french drain to the driveway from the spring?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_drain

 

[gregzoll]

It may not even be a spring. Could be as simple as the grade and extending the gutter downspouts.

The county should have record of that area before the building of any homes.

USGS.gov also has the maps available online.

If there was any signs of a underwater Spring. You would have noticed that an a high water table a long time ago.

My parents lived in a subdivision, that if you dug down about five feet, you would hit the water table, because of the mines that run under the houses in that part of our city.