{"id":15,"date":"2010-08-22T21:13:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-22T21:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/?p=15"},"modified":"2015-03-14T13:04:12","modified_gmt":"2015-03-14T13:04:12","slug":"sump-pumps-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homegardencompanion.com\/house\/sump-pumps-part-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Sump Pumps (Part 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well hey!!! Here I am posting 2 days in a row!!!<\/p>\n

Today we (my son & I)finished excavating the remaining 4″ or so of clay\/subsoil from our sump pit. It had accumulated a small amount of water overnight, which added to the weight of this subsoil. Anyway, after removing this remaining bit of subsoil (down to the 28″ depth), I placed the corrugated plastic sump barrel in it. BTW, I did drill alot of holes in the upper half of this barrel to allow for “under the floor” seepage into the barrel, which should help prevent seepage coming up thru the floor since it will now find its way to the sump pit. <\/p>\n

Once the barrel was in place, I backfilled the outside area with 800 lbs of gravel, then topped this with 200 lb of concrete. My one regret was that I didn’t listen to my gut feelings on the concrete mix (which my contractor friends had suggested). My feeling was to use sand mix concrete or vinylcrete…and now I wish I had. The problem with the regular concrete mix is that you can’t feather out the edges to the existing floor for a nice smooth finish (because of the aggregate). With sand mix (or the expensive vinylcrete) you can feather it. Oh well, too late now. However, it is not really an issue in my 90 year old unfinished basement since aesthetics are not a highpoint feature of my basement.<\/p>\n

I also ran my new designated electrical circuit for the sump pump. I already had an unused 20A breaker in my panel to utilize, so all I had to do was run the romex cable, install a box and a GFCI, make the connections, and test…and now I am good to go.<\/p>\n

I will now let the concrete cure overnight. Then tomorrow I will install the pump and do the plumbing…and then report the results.<\/p>\n

PHOTOS:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sump Pit<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
post hole digger<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
barrel<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
spud bar in basement corner<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n