Dirt in sump hole

[JHZR2]

Hi,

Long story short, we have a curtain drain and sump hole in our basement (installed 2 years ago). The drain has never pulled water to the hole, but we no longer have water in the basement so it is working somehow.

With all the rain and the hurricane, we got water rising up in our sump hole. The water table rise pushed sand and silt/dirt into the sumphole where the water flowed in, so there is a little pile.

The sump pump is not sitting in the dirt/pile.

Should I keep after this and clean it out, or is this an exercise in futility? I assume the pump is designed to handle sand and dirt in the water.

Thanks!

 

[opus1]

I'm no expert, but my answer is "it depends."

I also would imagine that the pump can tolerate a little bit of sand/grit, especially if it's a pump that's advertised as being able to handle solids of a certain diameter -- and before someone jumps on me, I do know the difference between a sewage/"grinder" pump and a sump pump, but there are are "sump" pumps advertised as being able to handle solids of a certain size so they are out there. But over the long run, sand/dirt = grit and that will probably shorten the life of the pump.

The bigger concern, as I found out this summer, is if you have a vertical float -- your pump may not be in the sand, but the sand may accumulate under the float and prevent it from dropping down far enough to shut the pump off, and this *is* a bad thing. If you have a tethered float or an electronic one, I'm guessing this is less likely to happen.

 

[The_Jeff]

When water appears on your basement floor, is it clear? Mine is. Hopefully the design accumulates a quantity of water before it kicks on.

My "sump" pump (actually technically a utility pump-- there's a difference with the UL?) has a screen similar to a fuel pump sock. I expect turbid water would wash silt off of this well enough that it could keep pumping.

My pump is very oversize so it runs a few seconds then shuts off. Hopefully the pulsing would shake stuff off too.

 

[Al]

Clean it out. I have a sump where the water comes from a pipe through the basement wall. To lesson pressure on the wall.

I get sand/dirt carryover. I scoop it out by hand.

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
When water appears on your basement floor, is it clear? Mine is. Hopefully the design accumulates a quantity of water before it kicks on.

My "sump" pump (actually technically a utility pump-- there's a difference with the UL?) has a screen similar to a fuel pump sock. I expect turbid water would wash silt off of this well enough that it could keep pumping.

My pump is very oversize so it runs a few seconds then shuts off. Hopefully the pulsing would shake stuff off too.


When water used to come through the wall, it was clear. Since the interior curtain drain was installed, there has been no water coming through the walls, nor flowing through the pipe. Seems like the drain just helped to redistribute water around the footings, etc.

The water that came into the sump hole appeared clear, the silt /sand just settled in there. The pump under operation seemed to churn it up, but really it seems more like the water table is low enough under the basement floor that it does not really induce operation of the pump to churn things up much...

My pump is also oversize.