Water in Basement.....Help

[scott_vt]

Afternoon Guys,
If this is what semi retired people do, then Im ready to go back to work fulltime !

Anyway i had a chance to do a little experimental excavating, and here is what I found. The top of the footer is about 4" below the floor level. I only jackhammered 14" out from the wall and the footer comes out from the base of the wall about 5" or so. That only leaves me about 9" for my trench. My question is that enough or do I need to jackhammer farther out from the wall ? Please say no ! The bottom of the footer seems to be about 14" below the cellar floor level approx. John or others whats your feeling on this ?

I have included a sample photo of the partially excavated trench, and also some tools of the trade ! I have been using a plastic bin to cart this stuff out of the basement and pulling it with my woodstove poker ! Innovative arent I ?

This afternoon Im sitting here wondering if this job qualifies as " Eddie Walkers " as how many jobs youve accomplished list ???

 

[Egon]

Use your own judgement. leave the area exposed for a while and see how the water responds. Maybe put in a few small holes that are deeper and watch what happens.

I'd suggest getting a saw and cutting a straight line for the inside of the concrete. Make a better job for finishing.

Retirement is when you start working full time. Get used to it.

 

[JB4310]

Your fine with the 9" it will give you the 2" on each side, as far as the depth goes, you want the top of the pipe even with the top of the footing and remember the 1 -2" of crushed 3/4" stone on top of the footing and pipe, 2" concrete cap is fine so your good there. you only need about 3" of stone under the pipe, so that puts you at about 8" below top of footing to dig.

You want to use the 4" ads corrugated pipe, no need to "pitch" the pipe, if you want to use some filter fabric, only on the bottom and half way up the dirt side of the trench, not all around the pipe, tee in a 4" plastic floor drain at the far end of the trench away from the sump pit, just to be able to inspect or flush the pipe if needed. Home depot has a high strength concrete mix (5000psi) 80# bag, that's what we use, it's a little tougher to work with but just make it a little softer/wetter and it's OK.

For the sump liner, wider is more important than deeper, 24" max on the depth but 18" MIN on the diameter, the reason being is that the submersible pumps have a short travel float and if the pit's dia is to small the pump will cycle more often.

Scott, if you do all of this you will have a better job than a contractor would do, first of all we never cut the floor wider than is necessary, 3-4" past the footing, dig under the floor and roll the pipe in (less to break up and remove, less to replace = time = well you Know) we or any other contractor I've seen ever uses a saw to straight line the trench, just a 3' wide chisel, sometimes we'll scribe a line to follow, I know you said you scored it with a saw and Egon mentioned it to, it will make it easier for you to finish the concrete..

 

[JB4310]

Scott, I see by that first pic your floor was tight on the footing, like I was referring to before. looks like you have a plastic "vapor" barrier, you don't have to replace that.
John,

 

[scott_vt]

Good Evenon John,
Thanks for all that very valuable information !!! Hopefully I can help you out some day in one of my fields of experience !

 

[RobS]

That's quite a project Scotty, I don't envy you a bit. You will enjoy the benefits though as you'll be able to use your basement again.

 

[scott_vt]

Good Evenin Guys,
I finally got a chance to do some excavating and pretty much did half the length of the wall Im installing the drain on. As you can see by the pics the water is only about 2" away from the to of the footer. Like everyone else in the northeast we got copious amounts of wet snow and lots of rain. I had the day off, ok Im not sure that would be the correct way to say that ! I had some free time and boy is that tough work getting that stuff dug out and removed from the basement. But we are making progress !

John, I just read your last post on the elbow on the far end for cleaning purposes etc, I was getting ready to ask that question and see you allready provided that info ! Thanks, I bought a good hoe for material removal and three 10' lengths of 4" pipe today, but forgot the elbow ! Of course the way Im going along on this project it will be spring time before its done !

 

[JB4310]

Scott, digging when it's flooded makes for heavier work as you will end up removing much more material due to it getting loose and slurry like.

Something is different about these pics, the 1st pic in your post #41 clearly shows the footing in a typical position sticking out from under the wall, but in these new pics I can't see the footing. Is it just below the water? or is this a different wall?

As far as an elbow for the floor drain, you can just cut a self made tee in, tape it temporarily and the concrete will hold everything together, the grates usually drop into the pipe.

We had about 3"s of rain on top of snow, on top of frozen ground, that's really the perfect storm for water leaks, not only in basements but those conditions wreck havoc on low slope (flat) roofs that are not in perfect condition, even those that do not normally leak in heavy rains. that slush really holds the water and keeps it from draining off as designed.

 

[ToadHill]

Scott: when all is finished make sure you use a redundant sump system with 2 pumps, one Bat operated. It's a pain to go to all this trouble and then have the power go out and have the basement flood again.

 

[MikePA]

Scott: when all is finished make sure you use a redundant sump system with 2 pumps, one Bat operated.

Perhaps the newer models are better, but the one we had a few years ago was worthless. It ran off a marine 12v battery and we found the pump wasn't all that powerful and the battery didn't last through most of our power outages.