This article is a combination of a post I made on 12/28/13 and an article I wrote in The Highland Park Newsletter.
Others in the neighborhood have sumps like this buried in the yard. As stated in the article, you would know if your electrical panel has a spot for a "sump". If you can get into the crawl space of your house, look for the power cord leading out your foundation. If you have the plans for your house it should be in those.
The following is my article in the Highland Park News;
Of interest, and the reason I thought I would write, is that several of our lots are affected by the high water table on this property. So abundant, in fact, several homes along SE 48th St [McBride, Hawley and others] have wells, for some of their water needs. During the wet months the water table rises and you all know the soggy nature of backyard lawns and gardens especially in winter.
Down the back lot lines of #70 and 71 bordered by #63 and 90 and down through 72, 73, 75, 76, 77 and opposed by 89, 88, 86, 85 [that’s me], 84, 83 used to run a seasonal brook [best description I can come up with]. This was a problem for developing a residential site. What to do…bury it. Paul Taylor [the site supervisor] directed the water flow underground and installed a 12 inch thick plastic pipe, hooking into this pipe was perforated pipe collecting springs and other “up-welling” from all the properties and routing that to the main pipe that runs maybe 500- 700 feet down these lot lines. The pipe terminates in a catch basin at the street SE 46th pl. between lots 80 and 81. If you go to that street catch basin on a day after lots of rain [but not raining at the time] you can hear the run-off. It’s huge… We called this engineering job, Taylor Creek, named after the Buchan supervisor.
Another common fix Buchan used was sump pumps. These are used to collect the rising ground water and direct it towards a catch basin, which was a 4 ft stainless steel drain pipe, turned on end with a sump pump in the bottom. The sump turns on when the water level gets high enough to trigger the pump and directs the water to the side sewer [same line your down spouts drain too]. The sump runs off your panel service. To see if you have a sump just look at your electrical panel for “Sump”. Chances are if you see water under your house and you have a sump…your pump is toast. The Bennett’s [#92] have changed one, Browns [#86] and Me [#85]. We are on our 3rd one in the 25 years.
The trick might be finding the sump. The Brown’s was buried in the front flower bed and easy to find because I saw it when the house was built. It was buried about 2 feet down covered with a metal plate. I have a wine cellar and it’s easy to get to from my crawl space.
If water stands for a good length of time under your house it can erode your foundation, communicate somehow with the wood of your house and cause dry rot. The foundation could settle and crack inside walls. All in all it’s worth checking out.
Again, I would guess that the before mentioned lots, or those adjacent to them likely have some form of water drainage including a sump. Check it out and it might solve some problems you have had or are about to have. Good luck.
Posted with permission from Mark Smith [1/7/14]
ReplyDeleteSwampy Wet Yards
I enjoyed Ted Burris’ article last month on our high water table in Highland Park. As we look to the North, South, East and West of Highland Park and see that we are at a higher elevation than most of our surrounding neighborhoods, it is surprising how high our water table is. Who would have guessed!
We moved into Highland Park in April, 1990, so after almost 24 years in Highland Park, we’ve seen many changes. One thing we have noticed is that our back yard is becoming much wetter, and it was becoming muddy around the foundation. I called Carl Buchan for his advice, and Carl referred me to Steve Bodine, of Bodine Construction, at 425.881.2577. They specialize in drainage issues, have all the high tech equipment, and are absolutely fantastic!
They inspected the entire downspout and drainage system with a video camera, and even ran the camera about 300 feet to see how the drainage system connects to the catch basin system down the street. Also, they were able to locate a sediment basin in my back yard that had become buried and clogged with dirt for probably 10- 15 years. They completely cleaned this out, and it works great. Additionally, one of the downspouts has never worked properly. It overflowed during heavy rain. The camera found a piece of metal in the bottom of the drain system that had probably been there since the house was built. They were able to remove the metal, and now the downspout works great!
Lastly, they installed a new French drain system along two portions of the foundation of my home. The original French drains had become clogged with dirt over the last 24 years and were not properly removing excess water. Now, everything works great. No more water sitting against the foundation, and less water in my backyard. This was money well spent!
-Mark Smith, Lot 66
Pump installation. can be performed without a plumber or contractor and the cost for this is also less. When you purchase these pumps, you will find many models to select from. They are available in different materials including thin metal housings, plastic housings, cast iron housings, and thicker metal housings. The cheaper ones are plastic and thinner metal housings, but oftentimes spending more on a sump pump is a good idea as it will keep your basement safe for longer.
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