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Posted by on September 27, 2007, 8:59 pm
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
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Posted by Big_Jake on September 27, 2007, 9:24 pm
On Sep 27, 7:59 pm, mattmeitz...@gmail.com 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
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Posted by Mark on September 27, 2007, 10:42 pm
> On Sep 27, 7:59 pm, mattmeitz...@gmail.com 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
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Posted by mm on September 28, 2007, 5:22 pm
On Fri, 28 Sep 2007 09:59:45 -0700, mattmeitzner@gmail.com wrote:
>> > 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.
Do you actually have a radon problem? Most people don't, and
originally, when the radon problem was discovered, remediation was
only done for people who do, when they requested it.
But I would bet that a sealed sump pump and "Radon protected" housing
really appeals to some people (women?) and by now, I wouldn't be
surprised if they put a sealed sump and fan in every house, over a
certain price perhaps, or in certain parts of the country.
How old is your house. WAs it built after radon was an issue or was it
retrofitted? How expensive is it? Is it part of a development and
all the other people in it have sealed sumps also? Most importantly,
get a radon test and test it. I think they all have to be sent in to
be analysed. When I did this 15 or 18 years ago, there were 1 day
tests and 7 or 10 day tests. The longer ones are better.
A couple years after this problem was known -- I waited some until the
price of test kits went down, but then my mother panicked and bought
me one -- I tested my basement with the 7 or 10 day test, and I passed
way below the danger level. 1/1000 of it, or something like that.
>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 am just an amateur, but I think so. After one of my first floods
(none of which were higher than an 1/8 of an inch) I cut holes in the
rubber lip of my sump pump, because the lip is almost a half inch high
and I don't want to wait until the water gets that high. So far, only
one of my floods has even wet the floor all the way to the sump, and I
don't know if any water has ever gone into the sump, but I would still
want it to be available, unless it was a source of radon.
? 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?
I would think so, but someone else will have to tell you what the
cover is like inside. Mine is black plastic and I'm sure it's mostly
hollow inside. I've seen one sealed sump but I doubt the owner knew
anymore than if he didn't live there.
P&M
>Thanks again!
>
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Posted by on September 28, 2007, 10:47 pm
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.
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