Everytime we get extended rain, my back yard floods because it is the lowest point in the neighborhood. Water can seep out of the soil under the house, making the settling cracks worse. This only happens every 3-4 years, as we are in California and have had a bad drought. My solution was to set out a pump in the lowest part of the backyard with a 50-ft hose and manually run it when necessary. Sometimes this kept me up late into the night...

In the past I used a Little Giant pump rated at 1200gph (but using a 5 gallon bucket, I estimated it was only pumping 200-300 gallons per hour through the long hose). It never had to run more than a 4-6 hours per day to keep the standing water from appearing. My hope is to build a small sump somewhere in the back yard and put an automatically activated pump inside it. This won't need to be a permanent installation; it is only used 1-2 times per year during years with extended storms that saturate the soil, which occur only every once per 3-4 years.

So it's due to rain hard this winter, and I'm no longer living in the house. We're about to do some water-saving landscaping, and I figure it's time to build a sump. Can anyone give me good pointers on where to start? I need to replace the Little Giant, I think I burned it out after 20 years by letting it run it dry (I fell asleep!)

Thanks!



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zoeller makes an excellent pump.
look at all these pictures to get some ideas..

[www.google.com]

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Thank you for the links to Zoeller and Plumbing Supply. The latter has sump packages that look like they solve my problem. I will call them tomorrow!



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Before you begin the process, do you have a Storm Water Authority in your community? What and where are you going to place the storm waters. Yes, the pump is important but so is the place where you are going to transfer it.
Best Wishes

Wheelchair wrote:

>>Before you begin the process, do you have a Storm Water Authority in your community?

We get so little rain in Northern California that they haven't dreamed up that tax dollar expenditure yet! But when it does rain, it all drains into my back yard. The output will be around to the front of the house and down the driveway to the street.



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Follow-up, one year later:

Thank you Packy for recommending Zoeller. I ordered a Zoeller sump pump kit from plumbingsupply.com and installed it properly (in a huge hole surrounded with 2" rocks). It is finally raining enough to matter this weekend in Northern California, and the pump is working nicely. Such a pleasure to see all that water flowing down the driveway!



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