The Handy Homeowner Girl

As you know, my sump pump and crawl space flooding have been a neverending saga.  In August, we thought we’d finally found the solution by installing my sump pump in a plastic garbage can with strategic holes, deep in a hole in my sandy crawl space.  The fall and winter are always the worst times for storms here at the beach, so I thought I was set for the season.  But then, this happened:

The garbage can with my sump pump was crushed by sand

Because of this:

It's over the bottom of the drainpipe. That's a good four/five inches of water next to the foundation.

The yard is pretty mushy after all this water

We decided the plastic garbage can didn’t work so well after all.  The sump pump was still working, but because the can had been crushed, the space for flooding was smaller so the pump was running constantly.  Good way to burn out the motor.

Our next plan was to use a metal garbage can, still with some holes, but this time also with two by fours screwed inside to help the can keep its shape in case of crushing sand.  “Perfect!” we thought. 

Then, this happened:

Oops. Tipped over.

You can't even see the top of the pump because the water is so deep. I really hate this crawl space.

My poor heater was again in danger!

The can kept it’s shape, but became too buoyant in the water that it ended up just floating away and not draining the water.  For a few weeks, I left the pump sitting on a small piece of tile on its own in the crawl space, just to keep up with whatever water came.  Then, we came up with a new solution – drilling holes lower in the garbage can to allow water to flow in at an earlier point and weight the can down to keep it from floating away.  Additionally, my dad secured two two-by-fours to the can and the floor joists above, which keeps it snug in place.

Last week, we were pounded by yet another storm which caused some of the worst flooding I’ve seen in my yard yet (I still have to figure out better drainage for the yard, but that will wait until next year). 

This is what I was greeted with about 7am

Wow water!

One corner of the yard...

Another corner...

And another corner - the deepest water is of course by the house!

Always fighting mildew here - gotta scrub my shed again!

Waves of water were starting to come up towards the house

Pretty deep over the boots that day, and I sank into the ground everywhere I walked.

But the pump was working! Look at it go!

And water then flooded my driveway, then froze two days later. So now will have to come up with a solution for that too!

When I checked the crawl space, the pump was running and everything was in place.  Unfortunately, there was SO much water that it was just about kissing the bottom of my furnace (who puts a furnace under a house in a place with a high water table?!?).  Fortunately, the rain stopped just as it was getting to critical mass and the pump finally caught up.  It was pumping water out for days and after another storm this past Sunday continues to do the same.  But I’m confident that it’s staying in place and doing it’s job for a change, which is a big relief!  Of course, it’s only mid-December, so we have a ways to go with flooding and storms – now that the ground will be more frozen, the water has nowhere to seep into.  But I console myself with knowing more about sump pumps now than I did a year ago, and being able to solve whatever (hopefully) comes up!