Basement flooding and sump pump questions.

[DIYER WANNABE]

Ok thanks for clarifying on that. Right now it's running sparingly, and since I don't have a permanent hole to the outside yet, I have the hose in the tub, but, there isn't much going in there so I hope it will be OK. I hate to have a hose going outside through a window and having the window open so critters can get in.

Our house is a two bedroom at the moment with the basement unfinished, so how do they gauge that as far as figuring out how big to make the mound?

Thanks!

[pushkins]

When the original home was built they submitted plans (hopefully) to the city or county for approval, part of the approval process the Health Department determines a waste management system ie: septic tank and leach fields, these are based on plans submitted (number of bedrooms), this will dictate tank size, the leach field is determined by a "perk test" on the soil, the perk test shows how fast (or slow) water is absorbed into the soil. In soils that have very poor absorption rates like heavy clay for example they often advise on mounds. A mound works because they ship in soil that will absorb the waste water, as it's absorbed into the mound it allows the natural soil below longer time to absorb. Mound size is determined by amount of imported soil required to meet the peek rate.

If you were to do an addition to your home they may well revisit the tank size, although I believe the smallest tank was in the past sized to a three bedroom as standard.

[DIYER WANNABE]

Ok that makes sense.

I can't believe it is still running, albeit only about every 15 or 20 minutes now. We've never had an issue with this in the past except for last fall when we got all that rain in such a short period, and we built this house in 2008. Must just be a really wet spring....Hopefully.