Houston! We've got a problem!

"Luc - The Acadian Oppo" (luc5)
05/24/2016 at 11:56 • Filed to: None

This is what I had to deal with on Saturday. A flooding basement in an 18 month old house

What was the problem? The sump pump was submerged in over 6" of mud. Therefore it was fried.

We managed to scoop out a full 5 gallon pail of mud.

Looks like this is a MAJOR problem since you should NOT have ANY mud in the sump pit.

We put a new sump pump in ($538) and within 24h it was starting to fill up with mud again.

I’m now scooping mud out of the pit daily so the house doesn’t flood.

Let me remind you that this is an 18 month old house (to the day) and I’m now getting the warranty people involved.

DISCUSSION (32)

Seat Safety Switch > Luc - The Acadian Oppo
05/24/2016 at 12:00

My buddy’s sump pump failed last winter, and when we started taking it apart we found all this.. salt .

Since we live nowhere near the ocean, this was extremely concerning.

Luc - The Acadian Oppo > Seat Safety Switch
05/24/2016 at 12:01

What ended up afterwards? did you ever find out why?

MonkeePuzzle > Luc - The Acadian Oppo
05/24/2016 at 12:03

I found my BRAND NEW HOUSE’s sump pump had never been connected :S

builders suck.

For Sweden > Luc - The Acadian Oppo
05/24/2016 at 12:04

Flooding is a recurring problem in Houston

Kinja'd!!!

vondon302 > Luc - The Acadian Oppo
05/24/2016 at 12:07

I’d start walking around the foundation of the house looking for a sink hole.

boredalways > Luc - The Acadian Oppo
05/24/2016 at 12:07

I wish I could offer advice or something other than just I’m sorry this is happening to you in your new home.

Party-vi > Luc - The Acadian Oppo
05/24/2016 at 12:09

That’s not good (obviously). If mud is getting into the sump pit then mud is also getting into the perimeter drain system that leads to the sump pit. You probably have a tear in the filter fabric around the drain, or they never installed the filter fabric at some section and the mud has built up enough to start becoming an issue. Your best option as of now is probably to get a jet/vac company to blast the drain tile lines clean, and then contact the builder and give them hell. Otherwise the mud will continue to build up and make the drains useless.

vondon302 > Seat Safety Switch
05/24/2016 at 12:09

Water softener dumping into sump?

Andy Sheehan, StreetsideStig > Luc - The Acadian Oppo
05/24/2016 at 12:09

The warranty people should definitely be involved. That’s inexcusable. Good luck with it, man. That really sucks.

Scott > Luc - The Acadian Oppo
05/24/2016 at 12:12

Not all that uncommon, new houses are not like new cars, you tend to have to go through a period of getting everything fixed so it works correctly. Luckily you have a house with a warranty.

Birddog > Luc - The Acadian Oppo
05/24/2016 at 12:14

Party Vi pretty much nailed it. Time for a Plumber and if possible a scope of the lines.

$538? I hope that was with labor.

Wacko > Birddog
05/24/2016 at 12:19

That’s canadian, so it comes up to something like tree fiddy merican.

Wacko > Luc - The Acadian Oppo
05/24/2016 at 12:20

That’s why i didn make a basement in my house. I have a floating slab

Seat Safety Switch > vondon302
05/24/2016 at 12:26

We thought so, but he doesn’t have one. The only thing I could think of was road salt contaminating the groundwater and getting pulled up by his well.

Seat Safety Switch > Luc - The Acadian Oppo
05/24/2016 at 12:27

We never figured it out. Ended up replacing the pump - we were thinking of doing a sacrificial anode (like on a hot water heater) but it probably wouldn’t have lasted any longer.

vondon302 > Seat Safety Switch
05/24/2016 at 12:31

Wow that’s alot of road salt or really high water table.

TheHondaBro > Seat Safety Switch
05/24/2016 at 12:33

Does your buddy get irrationally angry over trivial matters? Because that might explain the salt.

Meatcoma > Luc - The Acadian Oppo
05/24/2016 at 12:34

drill some holes in a bucket, line the outside or inside or both with silt fabric and place the bucket with the new sump pump in the hole. Should work until you can get the real issue corrected.

Meatcoma > Meatcoma
05/24/2016 at 12:35

Also is there any gravel at all? should be gravel filtering out that mud before it ever gets to the sump pump.

Luc - The Acadian Oppo > Birddog
05/24/2016 at 12:46

Canadian and yes including labor. Hopefully I can get reimbursed by the warranty.

Luc - The Acadian Oppo > Meatcoma
05/24/2016 at 12:47

There wasn’t initially but we did put 2 bags of gravel in there Approx 12" before putting in the new pump.

Luc - The Acadian Oppo > Party-vi
05/24/2016 at 12:49

That’s exactly what I was thinking. Either the drain pipe broke or they never put the sock on the begin with.

Meatcoma > Luc - The Acadian Oppo
05/24/2016 at 12:53

Good call.

Luc - The Acadian Oppo > vondon302
05/24/2016 at 12:54

Already did. In the back of the house the ground collapsed approx 8" right from the foundation to about 4 feet away from the foundation.

facw > Luc - The Acadian Oppo
05/24/2016 at 13:06

And here I see why most houses in Houston don’t have basements.

vondon302 > Luc - The Acadian Oppo
05/24/2016 at 13:18

Yikes! Good thing you got a warrenty.

shop-teacher > facw
05/24/2016 at 13:47

The real reason why basements are uncommon in warm regions, is you don’t have to deal with frozen soil. Those of us up north have to dig down to below the frost line. I’m in Chicago, and we’re required to dig the foundation down to 48" below grade. I bet Luc up in the frozen Canadialand has to go down even deeper. If you’re doing all that digging and forming of a perimeter foundation, it isn’t that much more work or money to go down another 4 or 5' and make a proper basement, so usually people go ahead and do it. In areas where the ground doesn’t freeze, you often times only need to go down more like 8", so the economics of digging way way more and switching from a slab to a perimeter foundation make that a MUCH higher cost. This the main reason houses are much cheaper to build down south, you can get away with much cheaper foundations.

shop-teacher > Luc - The Acadian Oppo
05/24/2016 at 13:48

Oooofffffff!! That is unacceptable!

Luc - The Acadian Oppo > Meatcoma
05/24/2016 at 14:04

That’s actually a fantastic idea! I’m gonna go find some silt fabric and do that.

Luc - The Acadian Oppo > Meatcoma
05/24/2016 at 14:08

looking up silt fabric and I can’t find anything only silt fence?

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > Luc - The Acadian Oppo
05/24/2016 at 14:44

Search for filter fabric, sometimes it’s called that.

Meatcoma > Luc - The Acadian Oppo
05/25/2016 at 10:42

You can use a landscape fabric. Same thing different name, probably not as durable as silt fence though.