Is your Sump Pump Working Properly
How Do You Know If Your Sump Pump Is Working Properly?
Being a water damage restoration company in Louisville allows us to see and deal with many issues most homeowners don’t encounter every day. The most common issue for water damage in Louisville, KY, is the failure of sump pumps. Your sump pump can fail to work for many reasons, and that’s what I want to cover here. Having a sump pump failure on a rainy day could cost you several thousand dollars.
Let’s review how your sump pump works and what its function is. Sump pumps are designed to be in water and pump the water out of your basement. You may ask yourself where this water comes from. It’s very simple. All the water we get from a rainy day drains down around your foundation and goes under the concrete slab in your basement. If we get a lot of rain, this water will start rising up, and your sump pump pit will start filling up to the point where your sump pump will begin pumping this water away from your foundation walls. This is a quick explanation of how your sump pump works.
If your sump pump isn’t working properly, you will have what is called water backup. Many insurance companies sell water backup endorsements for your policy. If you don’t buy this coverage separately, you could be in trouble. Most of the time, when something like this happens, you will be spending over $7,000 on average. Water backup from your sump pump will often have a very drastic impact on your home. When you call a company like Rodriguez Cleaning & Restoration to assist you with water damage, most of your flooring will need to be removed because this water is heavily contaminated and polluted. Baseboards and drywall that were contaminated will also need to be removed and disposed of.
The first thing is knowing what a sump pump is and where you can find it. Let’s begin with where to find your sump pump. If you don’t have a basement, you don’t need to worry about sump pump issues. If you want, you can skip this article, but I still recommend you read it because you could help a friend and save them the headache of going through a terrible water damage situation that could be prevented by knowing how to maintain or check that your sump pump is working correctly.
As mentioned, if you don’t have a basement, you are fine. But if you do, let’s find your sump pump. Look for a dark hole that is most often in a corner, behind a door, or in a closet. If you have an unfinished part of the basement, check there first. You will find PVC pipes or other pipes coming out.
Now that you’ve found it, the first thing is to make sure your sump pump is plugged in. Your sump pump works with electricity. If you unplug your sump pump by mistake and don’t plug it back in, I guarantee you that a water backup is about to happen in your basement.
Let’s make sure your sump pump is connected to the electricity and that the outlet has power.
After your sump pump is plugged in, let’s review how it operates. Your sump pump has a switch that varies in shape and form. Most of them have a floating switch. If you take a bucket of water and dump it in the hole or tank, you should hear the sump pump running. If you’re not afraid to use your hand, you can raise the floating piece up, and it should start the pump.
Another overlooked issue is dirt in the bottom of the pit (tank). Many of these pits have never been cleaned in the past. This dirt could clog your sump pump.
Now that we have checked your sump pump and confirmed that it’s working properly and the pit is clean, we need to ensure that the sump pump is dumping the water in the right place and far enough from your foundation. Your sump pump has a line attached to it that you need to make sure is not broken. If it is broken, I recommend you call your local plumber, and they can fix it for you.
You will need to find where this line is dumping all the water. This line should be at least 2 feet away from your walls. By being away 2 feet, we know this water won’t flow back in. If your line is too close, all the water that is being pumped out will come back in with the rest of the water from the rain. Eventually, your sump pump won’t be able to keep up with the water flow, and you will have water backup into your house.
I hope this article is helpful to you, and if you need any assistance with water damage in Louisville, please give Rodriguez Cleaning & Restoration and Restoration a call at 502-365-6779.
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