Sump Pump/Basement Question

[tgowen]

I am a new home owner who recently moved into my house at the start of December. The house has 2 sump pumps in the basement. The plumber checked them out and neither one of them works. We have had a lot of rain and snow over the past month and there has not been any sign of water coming into the basement. My question is, are the sump pumps necessary. I know the basement has had some work done on it, and think it might be possible that the water problem has been fixed.

If there is no problem, is it possible to finish the basement with the sump pumps still there? I know that basement was finished, or partially finished at some point.

Thanks for all of the help.

[BMBLBEE]

If the basment is finished or partially finished or if you plan on finishing it in the future installing one sump pump that actually works might be cheap insurance in case there is a problem. I suspect you could pick up a pump for less than $100 which will seem like nothing if you are looking at standing water in your basement some day.

[pushkins]

Do you know if any work was done to the exterior of the basement ? The sump pumps were obviously needed at some point, now if the previous owners had exterior drainage tile installed (or repaired) water entering the basement may not be so much of an issue HOWEVER it would be wise to leave at least one sump pump in operation (replace with a new one) just in case.
You mentioned that at some point the basement "was" finished, do you have any idea why someone removed the finish ?

[tgowen]

I am not sure what the status was on the home. Finishing the basement is a ways down the road, what it sounds like I should do is have atleast one sump pump up and running just in case.

We bought the house as a foreclosure. Like I said, there is no sign of water damage, and I have not seen anything since I have been here. There has been some foundation work done before I moved in, so it could be up to FHA standards. However, I do not think that really did anything to fix water issues. The basement has a 1/2 bath in it, which lead us to believe it was finished at one point.

[Redwood]

You will more than likely need them in the spring when all the show melts and the rains come...