Sump Pumps 101

Introduction:

This lesson covers the basics of residential sump pump and drainage systems as well as what a home inspector needs to know for a proper sump pump inspection. We will also go step by step what an inspector is expected to do and not do during an inspection of a sump pump system. These lessons were developed by The Global Inspection School for the exclusive use of the Global Home Inspection Association.

Outcomes & Objectives:

At the end of this lesson the student will be able to inspect a sump pump system for function and how to recognize common defects. Students will know how to document defects in a professionally written home inspection report.

Standards Of Practice

Global certified home inspectors shall:

Describe in a written report:

1. The location of the sump pit and pump.

Inspect:

1. The visible portions of the sump pump, pit and components like electrical plug, check valve and lid for proper function.

Inspectors are not required to:

1. Endanger themselves by putting their hand in the pit or water where electricity is present.
2. Disassemble any part of the sump pump system to inspect it.

Checking For Prior Knowlege

Home inspectors are expected to be able to write an inspection report, so we emphasize writing. Write a short paragraph describing your experiences with sump pumps or flooded basements.

Background

Residential drainage systems are not well understood because home inspectors cannot see them. Water damage is the most destructive thing a home inspector is likely encounter during an inspection. When we began writing this lesson we went back and looked at a home inspection training course that one of our former inspection trainees gave us. He had taken the course around 2018 and we let him do ride-alongs with us and we taught him what we knew. The course he had taken was from very well-respected home inspection training school that has been around for decades. That course had a section on sump pumps and pits which was just 4 pages long including 3 black and white pictures. Also, the lesson just talked about the pit and pump and nothing else. This lesson is about 13 pages long and has 44 pictures and 4 videos. At the end of this lesson, you will have a very good idea of how the drainage system under a house works.

The Sump Pump System

A sump pump isn’t just a pit and pump in the ground. This drawing shows a high overview of the sump pump system in a basement.

Because drainage systems are underground and not visible to home inspectors, it is a bit of a mystery. So, we wanted to give students a good general idea of what is happening to keep the water out of the basement and into the sump pit.

In the drawing we can see a sump pit and the drain tile go around the perimeter of the basement. Water is collected by these drain tiles which lead to the sump pit where it is pumped out to a safe location away from the house.

In this picture, one of my high school construction students is getting the sump pit ready to put in the ground.

We also went the extra step of drilling small holes in the plastic sump pit drum to allow more ground water in. The pit is then buried in the ground and surrounded with pea gravel. A system like this is very effective at keeping basements dry but they are dependent on electricity.

When a pit is installed in the ground it is left sticking up out of the dirt about 4″ so that when the concrete floor is poured, the top of the pit will be flush with or slightly below the basement floor. PVC pipes full of hundreds of holes crisscross under the basement floor to collect ground water and direct it to the sump pit.

In the picture is a pit is installed in one of our project houses we built.

Drainage pipes from the weeping tile system around the foundation lead to this pit where the ejection pump is located.

In this picture we have installed the exterior weeping tile. We can see the white weeping tile because the pea gravel hasn’t been installed yet. After the gravel is placed, we back-fill with dirt from the site.

The weeping tiles leading to the sump pit are on the inside and outside of the foundation wall. When rainwater comes off the roof and soaks into the ground. It then seeps into these weeping tiles and eventually to the sump pit.

The black “damp proofing” coating on the concrete foundation walls helps protect against moisture and is standard in new construction. If you are wondering how the water gets from outside of the foundation to inside the foundation, let’s take a look in the next slide.

When the foundation footing is being poured, PVC pipes are run through the footing to allow the water from the exterior of the foundation wall to the interior weeping pipes. These pipes are called bleeders, and water passes from the outside of the walls to the inside the foundation walls.

In the picture we can see the bleeders in the concrete footings. During the construction process we dug trenches into the soil where the weeping tiles and sanitary sewer pipe will be laid.

Here we are connecting the white PVC weeping tiles which are full of holes to allow ground water in. Notice how the weeping tiles connect to the bleeders.

Here we see the sump pump in the upper left corner and the white perforated PVC drain tiles as well as the sanitary sewer lines being covered up with gravel. The sanitary sewer and the weeping tiles are two totally separate systems in newer homes.

This gravel has voids between the stones and that creates spaces for the ground water to drain into the perforated weeping tile and to the sump pit to be pumped out to the city storm drains. The gravel is part of the drainage system. Sand can also be used instead of gravel.

This is not the same foundation as the last slide but, this is another house we built at school, and we can see the there was a rainstorm, the GFCI plug for our sump pump tripped and water collected on top of the exterior weeping tile which is under the gravel.

Even after the back-fill dirt is put in the trench, the concept is the same as shown in the picture. Water collects underground against the foundation, travels through the voids in the dirt and gravel, through the bleeders in the footing, through the weeping tiles under the basement floor, to the sump pit and pumped out to the storm drain and to a nearby lake or river. The rainwater doesn’t have to go to a sewage treatment plant.

We want to emphasize that a basement is nothing more than a hole in the ground with a drainage system around it. The drainage system leads to the sump and if the pump stops working the water accumulates like we see here. Because a sump pump is an electric motor in or near water, many areas of the world are now requiring that the plug for the pump be GFCI protected. Unfortunately, GFCI plugs can trip and this happens. That is why all basements with a sump pump should have some sort of back-up pump.

Once the gravel and concrete floor are installed water can accumulate under the floor if the pump is not working. The concrete basement floor will generally have small hairline cracks that are not a structural concern. However, the ground water can ooze up through the cracks via a process called hydrostatic pressure. Water will take the path of least resistance and when it has nowhere to go, the pressure builds up and that’s when it starts coming into the basement. Hydrostatic pressure is the pressure that water exerts on a surface when it’s standing still. Hydrostatic pressure increases in proportion to depth measured from the surface because of the increasing weight of fluid exerting downward force from above. Hydrostatic pressure can be hard to understand but a good example everyone can understand is a swimming pool. In a swimming pool, the deeper you go, the more pressure you feel on your eardrums.

Parts Of The System

Let’s look at the parts of the pump and pit. Some pits are deeper than others and this is one of the deeper ones at about 30″. Modern pits are made of a heavy-duty plastic and ribbed for additional strength. The flat portions on the sides for cutting out and inserting the weeping tiles.

Old pits are often made of clay and even concrete. The pits have lids/covers and if it is missing, it should be written in the report as a defect because pets and kids can fall into the pit and drown. Some locations may require that the lids be secured to the pit with screws.

From the International Code Council (ICC) 1113.1.2Sump pit
“The sump pit shall be not less than 18 inches (457 mm) in diameter and not less than 24 inches (610 mm) in depth, unless otherwise approved. The pit shall be provided with access and shall be located such that all drainage flows into the pit by gravity.

The sump pit shall be constructed of tile, steel, plastic, cast iron, concrete or other approved material, with a removable cover adequate to support anticipated loads in the area of use. The pit floor shall be solid and provide permanent support for the pump.”

Sump pumps are like cars, and there are high-end and low-end pumps. Zoller is generally known to be good brand, and we can see that its cost was $249 in 2024 and is half a horsepower and pumps 60 gallons per minute. The 60 gallons per minute is a good rate, not all pumps can pump the same amount of water.

If inspectors tell a customer a part of the house is old and near the end of its expected useful life, they are likely to ask you what a new one costs. Inspectors are not required to give estimate on residential repair costs but, many inspectors including our company, do give ballpark estimates.

A good inspector should know the ballpark prices of these things in their area. Most people really just looking for a general idea on cost and you should always give a wide range and advise the customer to contact a qualified contractor for a more accurate price.

Inspector sample narrative. “A quality new sump pump cost is about $250 for the unit. Labor to install the pump could make it double that amount, contact a qualified contractor for a more accurate estimate. Home inspectors are generalists and not necessarily an expert in any single area of construction. Keep your sump pit clean and monitor it closely. Water alarms, back-up pumps, and flood insurance are strongly recommended.”

Home inspectors are not there to give a proposal or bid the repairs on house. Inspectors are there to point out what is wrong. However, let’s face it, you are also expected to have some depth of construction knowledge beyond just spotting defects and putting in a report. Knowing how repairs are done, how houses are built and how much things generally cost will help you in your inspection career.

I did inspections for 24 years and never once had a complaint about my ballpark cost estimating. In fact, one investor/customer said his realtor thought I was way too high in what it would cost to renovate a house. But, when he got the contractors estimates, he said I was right in the ballpark.

Also, there is something called Property Condition Assessments (PCA) which are done for lenders like banks and credit unions which are financing the purchase of a commercial building. PCA reports are required to have estimates on repair costs. So, if you want to expand your business into commercial inspection, knowing the general cost of things like roofs, furnaces and other items is important. More on that in the commercial inspection lesson.

The pumps come in various shapes and sizes. All pumps should have a check valve shown by the red arrow. This check valve has mineral build-up on the outside indicating that it’s leaking. As water leaks out, it leaves behind minerals which build up over time.

The check valve keeps water from coming back down into the pit. We can see that this pump has legs on the bottom to keep it off the bottom of the pit. This keeps the pump from sucking up debris. Sump pits need to be cleaned out from time to time otherwise; the bottom debris can get sucked up into the motor and cause premature failure.

This is what a nice new check valve looks like, and it keeps the water from coming back down the discharge line and into the sump pit. They are connected to the standard size 1.5″ PVC pipe with hose clamps. After the hose clamps have been compressing the rubber for a long period of time, they squeeze the rubber so much that they can become loose and leak.

Sump pump inspection. This pump had a water powered back-up. Home inspectors should aways recommend a back-up pump. All pumps will eventually fail and if there isn’t a back-up pump, the basement or crawlspace will flood. We once did an inspection for a woman, and her pump failed a few months after the inspection. The basement flooded and ruined a lot of her personal items. She said a plumber came over, put on rubber boots and waded over to the pump. He gave the discharge pipe a little kick and the pump came on. Obviously, the pump had somehow hung up and didn’t come on. She said she sent the pump to the manufacturer, and not surprisingly, they found nothing wrong with it.

While inspecting the sump pump, you should: Looking for leaks at all the connections. Look for obstructions inside the pit which could interfere with the float which turns the pump on. You should also note if the power source is GFCI protected. Check for a lid to cover the pit. Using a non-conductive hook, pull up on the float to make certain the float and pump are working….and take a picture of you doing that. And lastly if there is not back-up pump, put that in your report as a defect and recommend a back-up be installed. The sump pump will eventually fail. It may fail a week, or ten years after your inspection. In either case you don’t want to get the blame for the flood damage.

Inspecting The Sump Pump System

Tree roots are attracted to water and sump pump lines have water as well as holes in the pipe so that the water can seep in. Roots can grow into the weeping tiles and grow all the way into the sump pump causing the system to fail and the basement to leak.

Some trees like water more than others, Maple, Willow and Cottonwood trees seem to be some of the worst for plugging drainage lines. Pine trees, not so much because the roots are not as deep and don’t require much water for survival. In the picture is a pedestal-style pump because the motor is above the water. Pumps have a float or pressure switch on them and when the water level goes up the pressure switch or float makes the pump come on. When the water level goes down the motor turns off.

Whatever degree of root infiltration there is in the sump pit itself, there is likely much more in the weeping tiles that lead to the pit.

Sump pit lines are not generally scoped with a camera but when we saw roots in the pit, we would scope the weeping tiles for them at no extra cost IF they paid for a sewer scope of the sanitary line. We never tried to nickel and dime our customers and sticking the camera in another line is really pretty easy. If there were roots in the sump pump line, we would offer to hydro-jet the lines for them at a later time and at additional cost. Hydro-jetting is basically power washing a sewer or sump pump line and the right jetting equipment is very effective at removing roots and other debris. We would also make a before and after video for our customers.

This is the weeping tile coming into a sump pit and we can see it has a tremendous amount of mineral build-up that can also cause the system to fail. Sometimes this mineral build-up is soft and can be removed through hydro-jetting. Other mineral deposits can be very hard and difficult to remove.

There is also a crack and a bit of deflection in the PVC pipe. The pipe in the picture is very likely schedule 30 pipe and a bit thinner than the schedule 40 pipe that is used for sanitary sewer lines. The thinner walls make it bit more prone to cracking as seen in the picture.

Video

This is a sump pump inspection where minerals were beginning to plug the weeping tile. Weeping tiles can be inspected with a sewer camera and hydro-jetted to clean the mineral build-up out. I don’t mention hydro-jetting the lines in the video because the video is old and I had not yet discovered jetting the lines. I have since jetted several lines and it works very well on minerals like this.

Here I am holding mineral build-up I was able to reach in and pull out a weeping tile. Some of it is so brittle that it shatters like a teacup if you drop it a concrete floor. All types of build-up in the weeping tiles such as roots and minerals reduce their effectiveness at draining water and can cause basements to leak. This type of hard mineral build-up is not a good candidate for jetting.

Here we see excessive mineral build-up on the pump itself. The pump is operated by a float attached to a switch which causes the pump turn on and off as the float moves up and down. If the float has mineral build-up on it, the added weight can prevent the float from going up and down and stop the pump from working and that will cause the basement to flood.

Inspectors shouldn’t just state what the problem is like, “Mineral build-up on the sump pump float.” Always state the consequences of the problem. “Mineral build-up on the sump pump float. This can prevent the pump from working and cause the basement to flood. This needs immediate correction like cleaning or replacement.” Some inspectors call this, observation, implication, recommendation. The observations is the mineral build-up. The implication is that the pump may stop working. And the recommendation is cleaning the minerals off or replacing the pump.

Here I am holding a bit of mud I scraped out of the bottom of the sump pit. I would do this to emphasize the fact that the drainage system had some issues and needed correction and put these pictures in the report for the customer. If the basement starts leaking and you get a call, you can point to your report and say that you warned them. Sump pumps and pits require maintenance and monitoring, and inspectors should put that in their reports.

Video: Minerals plugged discharge line.

Mineral buildup plugged my sump pump line and couldn’t pump the water out fast enough during heavy spring rains and flooded my basement. The video explains what happened.

Video: How I Fixed It

This was part of the repair I did to correct the mineral issue. In this video I dug up a sump pump line on one of our houses to replace a cracked section and discovered how much the discharge line was restricted by mineral build-up. Some areas of the globe call this build-up “iron fungus” and there are methods for removing it. I personally think it is minerals and clay soil and not an actual fungus. I have hydro-jetted it out of several lines since making this video around 2013 and jetting works very well. If you intend on buying a sewer camera to do scopes, you should also invest in a basic hydro-jetting set-up. More about that in the sewer scope lesson.

This is a sump pump with a battery back-up pump. This system has a car battery sitting on the floor next to the pit and the battery is kept charged through a charger plugged into a receptacle. When the power goes out, the battery supplies electricity to the pump and prevents the basement from flooding.

This is a sump pump with a water siphon back-up pump. We know this is a water powered back-up pump by the copper water pipe going to the unit. This is a Guardian brand water siphon back-up pump and it actually uses the water pressure in the house to pull water out of the pit during power outages.

Also, in the picture, we know that a French drain along the wall was installed in this house after it was built. We can see that the floor was smashed up to install the internal weeping tile which had failed. The white plastic at the bottom of the wall is part of the drainage system. Holes are drilled into the bottom course of hollow block to allow water to come through. Then the holes are covered with the plastic which extends below the floor and into the pea gravel. This type of system is very effective at keeping a basement dry.

In the picture we also see that the basement foundation walls have been braced with steel beams. This is because hydrostatic pressure and expansive soils like clay can actually push basement walls inward…and it is almost always a block foundation. Bowing foundations are often water related.

This was the basement of one of our rental houses which was built in 1970 and the drainage system had already failed and the basement was leaking. We went to my favorite place in the world, Home Depot and rented a jackhammer and smashed up the floor…

We cleaned the mud out the bleeders going through the footing. Remember that the bleeders go through the foundation footing. Again, these pipes bring in ground water in from the outside, through the drainage system and into the sump pit to be pumped out.

Then we installed a new sump pit and plastic weeping tile. It wasn’t raining that day, but we can see that the sump pit is already filling up with ground water meaning that the system is working. It doesn’t have to be raining for water to be seeping into the weeping tiles.

The Concrete Masonry Unit (CMU) foundation blocks are hollow inside and ground water accumulates inside the block. So, holes are also drilled through the block to allow the ground water out of the block. The holes are generally made in the top half of the bottom row of block. This is because there is typically mortar inside the block at the very bottom and that can block the water from flowing out.

Here we see the pump pit and the weeping tile going into it. At the far wall we see the corrugated plastic that covers the holes drilled in the bottom course of block.

There are many different types and colors of the corrugated plastic, but this is the product we used for this project. This particular brand is called Delta-MS and we were very happy with it. It was so thick and tough we didn’t even try to cut it with a utility knife and used a circular saw instead.

This is a house we inspected, and this is a pretty elaborate sump pump with a backup pump and an alarm. If the water gets high enough to touch the alarm sensor, it goes off like a smoke detector and will even call you on your cell phone if you want to spend the extra money. It has two discharge pipes coming out of it because it has two pumps in the pit. One is the main pump which gets its power from an outlet and the other is connected to a battery. I estimate that less than ten percent of homes have backup pumps, but we always recommended them to our customers.

Inspector sample narrative: “No backup sump pump. It is just a matter of time before any mechanical equipment fails. Installing a back-up sump pump is a very good idea to help prevent water damage to your basement, furnace, water heater, washing machine and dryer. We strongly recommend backup pumps and alarms to all of our customers.”

Again, if a customer calls you to complain that their sump pump quit and the basement flooded, you can point out this defect and suggestion in the written report and ask if they took your advice. They likely also didn’t correct the negative grade on the exterior of the house or the downspouts depositing water too close to the foundation. I don’t mean to make customers sound like the enemy but, this does happen. Some customers don’t even read their report. They may take one or two bits of information from the report like, the roof and furnace being old and ask for money off the sales price and forget about the rest of the report. Inspectors should recommend any equipment like backup pumps to prevent damage to the property.

Alarms are another layer of protection that the home inspector should be recommending to their customers. There are alarms with Wi-Fi and will call you on your cell phone when the alarm goes off and cost well over $100. This simple unit was just $12.48 and could save a homeowner many thousands of dollars in damage and a home inspector a costly lawsuit.

The following warning went in the sump pump section of our reports.

**********************************WARNING**********************************

MATT FLETCHER HOME INSPECTIONS LLC DOES NOT WARRANTY SUMP PUMPS FROM FAILING OR BASEMENTS AGAINST LEAKING. IN FACT, IT IS MY OPINION THAT ALL BASEMENTS WILL LEAK OR FLOOD AT SOME TIME AND TO SOME DEGREE. IF YOU MUST STORE VALUABLES IN THE BASEMENT, PUT THEM ON SHELVES AS HIGH AS POSSIBLE AND MAKE SURE YOUR INSURANCE COVERS DAMAGE DUE TO SEWER WATER AND GROUND WATER. SEWER AND GROUND WATER MAY BE TREATED AS TWO DIFFERENT ITEMS IN YOUR INSURANCE POLICY SO, READ IT CAREFULLY.

SUMP PUMP WARNING: MANY HOMEOWNERS INSURNACE POLICIES MAY EXCLUDE SUMP PUMP FAILURES, BEWARE OF WATER DAMAGE TO YOUR HOME. YOU SHOULD PURCHASE EXTRA INSURANCE THAT COVERS ALL TYPES OF WATER INFILTRATION AND DAMAGE IN YOUR BASEMENT.

This sump pump system had a main pump, back-up pump and even a plastic envelope with a service log inside. If you see something like this, it is a good idea to pull it out and take some pictures of it. If the service log isn’t up to date put that in your report as a defect.

I know I am a broken record but, in my experience water issues are at least ninety percent of home inspection complaints, the basement is at the bottom of the house, underground and receives the most water damage.

That is not a main sewer clean-out. This is a French weeping tile in a basement floor. The installer was clever enough to put in these clean-outs on every wall of the basement. This provides access to flush, hydro-jet or camera the system to see what is going on. These clean-outs should be required by codes but are not in our area.

Out of sight, out of mind. Sump pumps in crawlspaces are often neglected. This is a short video of a sump pump in a crawlspace where the system was not installed very well and was leaking water into an already wet crawlspace. I have always believed that a crawlspace should have a sump pump especially if they are near a body of water.

Sump pumps will definitely help keep the soil drier and humidity levels down in a crawlspace. When a crawlspace floods, it doesn’t cause the type of damage it does in a basement. However, standing water in a crawlspace can evaporate and damage the entire house. A wet crawlspace can even result in mold in the attic.

This is a sample picture we made to show customers and students how a discharge line should look.

When the water is pumped up and out of the pit, through the check valve and into the exterior drain line, this is generally what the discharge should look like. The 1.5″ discharge line connects to a 3″ underground line and should have an overflow sticking out the side of the 3″ line. This is in case the underground 3″ line becomes blocked; the water still has somewhere to go.

The water then goes to the storm drain and directly to a lake or river and not to a sewerage treatment plant. In most residential neighborhoods, this is how the system works. In some very old neighborhoods rain/storm water does go the sewage treatment plant. Sewage water is also called black water.

Here we see a sump pump over-flow line that has been plugged, probably because it was dripping water, and this is a defect for the inspection report!

Video:

Incorrectly installed sump pump in an old home. It appeared they just dug a hole in the basement floor and dropped a pit inside. There didn’t appear to have been a weeping tile installed under the basement floor.

These are my students digging a trench of the sump pump discharge line for the house we built that year. The sewer went out the front and the sump pump line when out the back of the lot. This is a common scenario in newer subdivisions.

Sump pump lines will often go to a drain at the rear corner of a residential lot. Several homes will discharge ground water into this same storm drain.

Sump pump water is just rainwater which has soaked into the ground and is generally pretty clean and does not need to be treated before going to a lake or river.

Homes With No Sump Pump

Many older homes don’t generally have a sump pump but they do have a weeping tile. The system often ties into the sanitary sewer or storm drain and the ground water is directed to the municipal sewer system or storm drain.

No pump is needed because the entire system slants slightly toward the sewer main and the water travels in that direction. These systems have fallen out of favor. This is because many of these systems combine rain and sewage water. And when rain and sewage systems are combined, raw sewage can back-up through the basement floor drains.

All drainage systems eventually fail. Over time, the weeping tiles will fill with mud and roots and restrict or even completely stop the flow or water and that’s when the water starts backing up into the basement.

This is a 90-year-old home where the drainage system has failed, and hydrostatic pressure is pushing water up through the small hairline cracks in the floor as well as where the walls meet the floor. The dark area around the water heater is ground water.

As stated above, not every weeping tile/French drain in a basement has a sump pit and pump. Some areas of the globe will allow a weeping tile to drain into the sanitary sewer system and that is what we see going on there.

The corrugated black plastic is full of thousands of holes, collects the groundwater and it drains into the white PVC sanitary line. So, all of this water goes through the sewage treatment plant. If you are a home inspector who also does sewer scope inspections, you can see the plumbing Tee for the weeping tile inside the sewer through the clean-out when you pull the cap.

The advantage to this system is, no sump pump is needed and therefore no electricity is required. The disadvantage is, if the city sewer backs up, you can actually get a sewage backup into the weeping tile and have poop and toilet paper stuck under your basement floor. This is another reason that clean-outs for the weeping tiles are a very good idea.

Smelly Sump Pit

In the picture we see a sump pit with a thick layer of grease floating on top. The odor coming from the pit was even more of an indication that something was ‘fishy’ about the installation. It turned out that the kitchen dishwasher was discharging water into the sump pit, and it had been like that for several years. Someone had done a handyman repair and diverted the dishwasher into the sump pit, and no one ever noticed. I have also heard of at least two different situations where a basement bathroom was added, and the toilet water was going into the sump pit. When you are inspecting sump pits, make sure they pass the “smell test” before you move on!

Sump pumps should not be confused with similar looking sewage ejection pumps. Sewage ejection pumps are generally meant for bathrooms that were added in a basement where the plumbing is not under the basement floor and must be pumped upward and connect to the sewer.

Sewage ejection pumps are sometimes called a lift station. In the picture we see a sewage ejection pump, and we can tell the difference from a sump pump.

1. Everything is tightly sealed. There are pipes going in and out have rubber gaskets around them so that no sewage fumes can escape. 2. It always has multiple pipes sticking out of the top, one is the ejection line, and the other line a vent stack to let fresh air into the pit.
3. The cover is bolted down and has a gasket to keep sewage fumes in.

Just to give you an idea of how much water can come out of a basement sump pump, it was enough to fill this garden pond in about 30 hours. We built this pond, and it holds about 5,000 gallons of water. The pond is about 30″ deep and about 16’x17′ across. That is a lot of water which is also clean enough to maintain healthy goldfish and lots of frogs. This volume of water can absolutely shift and damage a foundation or seep into the basement and flood it.

Review

This is a crawlspace being built and this is what the home inspector doesn’t see during an inspection. The weeping tiles have holes in the bottom to allow water in and direct it to the sump pit.

This is what the home inspector can see during an inspection.

Video:

The video above discusses the sump pump system in a house under construction. We start in the basement and show the sump pit and weeping tiles. Then we go outside to show where the water goes once it leaves the house. The storm water drain is in the back of the lot and is separate from the sanitary sewer line.

Water damage is the most destructive issues a home inspector is likely to encounter.

Your inspection report templet should default to the sump pump being defective because, it doesn’t have a back-up pump and/or a water alarm.

Except for a few very, very old homes, almost every building has a drainage system under it to keep the basement dry.

Instead of stopping water, sump pump systems basically let water in and then pump it back out to a safe location. French drains/weeping tiles that direct water into the sewer sanitary line also drain water from under and around the foundation.

The pipes as well as the gravel under the basement floor are part of the drainage system.

Sump pump water does not need to go to a treatment plant and generally goes directly to a lake or river.

Sump pump systems work well but are dependent on electricity and therefore, home inspectors should recommend back-up pumps.

Please watch all of our sump pump videos on our YouTube channel. There are playlists related to each lesson in this program. Global Home, Commercial & Sewer Scope Training – YouTube

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