Sump Pumps: For When Basement Drains Aren’t Enough
The basement drain has been a standard feature in virtually every basement for a very long time. They are a last line of defense against water getting into your house, but your entire floor would likely have to get wet before your drain will carry anything away. As such, even if your basement drain is working properly, it may be a good idea to install a sump pump, assuming your house doesn’t already have one.
Moving The Groundwater
A sump pump is a special machine which is designed to take the water that builds up beneath your house and foundation and pump it up and out to a safe distance. The pump sits in a large open-air pit with a gravel base and holes along the side, and this allows water to enter the pit from all sides.
When the pit fills up to a certain point, an automatic sump pump will switch on and start pumping out water until it gets low enough again. Manual sump pumps exist, but they are significantly more of a hassle.
Because they keep the groundwater from reaching a building’s foundation (assuming they’re working properly), sump pumps are an active and useful defense against water damage and all the other invasive fungi and insects which moisture invites with it. However, sump pumps are not universally useful.
Limited Applications
The thing about sump pumps is that they’re entirely pointless when the ground beneath your house has sufficient drainage on its own. If your house is built on a hill, if there’s relatively little rainfall where you live, or even if your city has an excellent storm drain system, then there’s little need for a pump to sit in a pit under your basement doing nothing all year round.
On the other hand, if you live in a flood zone, if the water table is particularly high where you live, or if your area experiences a significant snow melt in the spring, then a sump pump may be vital to maintaining an unflooded basement. Most modern houses in these areas have pumps installed during construction, but not everybody who could use one has one.
At AA Action Waterproofing, we have over 27 years of experience with waterproofing foundations, crawlspaces, and basements. We provide free appraisals to everyone living in our area of Maryland, DC, New Jersey, Delaware, northern Virginia, and Pennsylvania, and we can let you know based on where your house is situated whether getting a sump pump is a good decision. We can also help you pick out the right pump for your situation and install it, along with whatever other waterproofing measures you may want to take.
Whether you’ve got a full-sized basement or just enough room beneath your house to check on the plumbing, we’ve got the tools and the knowhow to keep your building’s foundation safe, secure, and dry as a bone.