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It’s no better. In fact it’s worse. It’s been about 10 days or so. The snow and rain from Sunday and Monday were the death knell for my old sump pump. It just couldn’t keep up. So last night I heading out to Home Depot to pick up another, just in case the old one crapped out while the store was closed. I wasn’t planning on using it, just having it in case… I’m glad I bought it, since in the time it took me to go from home to the store and back, the water content in the basement had nearly doubled.

Hooked up the new one. Had to get all new pipes for the larger fittings and didn’t want to constrict the flow any more than necessary. Set it up, and it worked like a charm. Except… Wait, once the bulk of the water was sucked from the hole in the floor, and it started to just maintain the low level, it started it’s cycling phase. Five seconds on, four seconds off. During the off phase, all the water in the 1 1/2″ pipe (6 feet of it straight up) would shoot back down into the sump well and nearly fill it. Crap. I forgot the one-way valve.

I freakin’ ASKED the person in Home Depot, “Is there anything else I need? Do I need some other kind of fitting, part, whatever?” I TRIED to cover my bases. I’ve been burned WAY too many times in the past in situations like this. And sure enough, I forgot something, even though I did my best to avoid that. I *spiky ball, daggers, fire* hate when that happens! Why can’t these salespeople HELP ME! Now, it’s too late, since the store is closed. I decide to wait ’til morning. The pump will last.

Morning.

Look downstairs only to be greeted by Noah floating by with with a jaunty grin and a soggy box of long-forgotten, soon to be thrown out stuff. There’s three inches of water down there. Mind you it never got about a half inch until now.

The basement is filled with silt. Lots and lots of silt. The pump bogged down at some point last night and was no longer pumping. It was leaning listlessly to one side, gasping for water, but only getting air. Its base completely encased in muck. I can’t believe the volume of muck. It’s so deep, and wide ranging, like manure at a dairy farm.

Off to the hardware store again. This time to the one by my office. It’s a little closer. And they’re a little smarter. Mostly. I get the one-way valve, I learn it’s actually called a check-valve (whoopee). Head home to install it. It doesn’t fit. It’s an 1.25″ and I need it to screw onto a 1.5″ port. Great. Back out for a bushing. I put it all together and the check-valve works wonderfully, though it’s not needed for about a half hour of constant pumping to get the bulk of the water out. Once the level is low enough, then the pump starts cycling and no water flushes out of the pipe back into the well when the cycle is off.

Through the wonders of technology and free online services I bring you boring, grainy, and poorly lit video of the happenings.

The initial sucking.

The nearly-done sucking.

The lake outside.

Oh, yeah. And that hole by the house in that last video? Apparently my ground is like swiss cheese (hopefully Kerrygold) because I sank in up to my knee right there. That can’t be good.

Please let the sun come out and dry things up! But the forecast is for showers until Friday. Fan-freakin’-tastic. It’ll be two weeks, I bet, before the water table subsides. Plenty of time for me to lug a couple hundred pounds of silt up and out. Anyone want to help?

This entry was posted Tuesday, April 17th, 2007 at 12:07 pm and is filed under Amusing, Random Thoughts. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.