Ask Me Help Desk - Window well sump pumps

I've read several suggestions about installing a sump pump in a window well that fills up with rain water. Our window well fills up from water coming up the drain into the window well. The drain pipe is a perforated pipe so I'm sure as too much rain is draining into the ground, it's finding the perforated holes in the pipe, filling up the drain, and slowly moving it's way upwards to fill up the window well.

My question is does anybody know if having a sump pump in a window well to alleviate the issue of the well filling with water will cause any issue with a home inspection when the house is up for sale. Thanks.

Try to alieviate the problem in another way if possible. Grade the landscape. Move the perforations 10' in front of the house or burry the pipe with a pip up drain. The gutter should have a catch basin for leaves.

That said, I have to have a pump in a window well, but I only need it for severe storms.
I'm basically going to make the installation a little more permanent in the next few weeks.

It basically consists of a towel on a window ledge with a water alarm. That basically means, I have to do something about it NOW. Usually it's predictive.

Right now I'm using a Rule-Mate 500 bilge pump fitted with a garden hose connector. This is a 12 V DC pump made for boats. It connects to a section of garden hose to the front of the house.

The problem is it has no dedicated power. I have to supply power when I think it's needed and I used an extension cord and put a 120 V plug on the end of it. It was quick, dirty and temporary. I also used a variable voltage power supply. Both are not good ideas and I blew up the pump twice. The later time was I plugged a 12 V pump into 120 VAC.
The power supply is on the porch and the power comes out a window.

I'm planning to go to a dedicated cord and power supply, but may not make the required penetration through the wall, but at least I won't pop the pump.

It's just a rock filled window well, with no sump with a brick on top.

I haven't found a small enough sump for the application. It's something like 10". I could plumb the output along the wall to the front and make it permanent. But I need a sump.

So, right now it can be removed without any evidence.

Window well sums are common. Problem is for me, it's either the pump or take the neighbor to court.

Thanks for your info here. A little more on our situation is that we have a flagstone patio that extends the whole length of the back of the house. Plus, the patio is sitting on several inches of concrete that goes right up to the base of the house. So, without tearing up the patio and concrete, there is no way at this point to improve the grade. The patio installers graded the patio (can't remember the degrees) but I think the biggest issue is that the end unit next to us (we live in a townhouse) extends out about 10 feet from our house. Thus, in that corner, water does not drain away from either house very well.

The good news is that our sump pump rarely comes on even with a moderately heavy rain. The window well and drain will only start filling up during those torrential rainstorms that last longer than normal. Even last month where I live in Virginia, we got 7 inches of continuous rain which did force the sump pump to kick on and pump water out several times. The gutter downspout extends into a plastic drain pipe that goes underground all the way out beyond our property so I don't think that is an issue unless the pipe is broken underground someplace. (but again with the patio, it's impossible to dig down and chech this drainage pipe)

But my main worry right now with trying to sell this house is whether a building inspector will have any issue with the sump pump being in the window. The waterproofing guy who installed it did put in a sump pump container and set the sump pump on a couple of bricks to raise it from the very bottom. Plus, the brought the electrical cord into the house (thru the edge portion of the basement window) and connected it to a dedicatied outlet/circuit located right above the suspended ceiling above the basement window.

I doubt he will have an issue with the pump being in the window, but will have an issue on how it's installed. Particularly the electric. I haven't found something small enough to use as a sump pit.

A sump pump in a window well would make me very uncomfortable if I were considering buying a house. I don't completely understand your situation.
You say rainwater is coming into the well but then you say it is a backup of water backing up through the well drain (perforated).
1. If it is rainwater, do you have a cover on the window well?
2. Does the well drain pipe have an outlet? Is there sufficient fall in the pipe, say 1/4 inch per foot? If the drain inlet end is the bottom of well, the pipe must have to go fairly deep to drain unless the slope of the ground is helping out.
3. Why is it a perforated pipe? I don't know how close to the house the pipe is, but a perforated pipe can allow water to infiltrate the foundation rather than carrying it away.
4. What would happen if you removed the drain pipe and put a window well cover on?
I apologize for all the questions but I can't picture what exactly is going on from what I have read so far. I can tell you that a qualified inspector will advise the potential buyer to investigate further.

Well, we were told that the inspector would not have an issue with the sump pump in the window well because it is outside the house... and that the only concern he would have is to make sure that it was connected to a dedicated circuit.

There is a cover on the window well... the issue is not with water coming in through the top of the well. The issue is when there is a torrential rain storm, water is finding it's way into the drain (the perforated pipe that goes from the bottom of the window well about 6 feet into the ground... apparently it just ends there, it does not empty into any drain tile). I have no idea why a perforated pipe was used for the drain except to think that the builder expected any water to come from the top and drain out into the soil going down the drain pipe rather than the opposite situation with water coming into the drain pipe and filling it up.

For some reason, the installer didn't think about just removing the drain pipe (maybe this would have been a good idea but there is not much room to work with inside that window well and he couldn't dig outside the well because of the patio.) He dug about 2 1/2 feet down from the window well bottom, cut off that portion of the drain pipe and installed the container for the pump.

Since water filling up the window well has for all purposes been resolved with the sump pump, our broker also doesn't think that this should be an issue with the inspector. But I just wanted to see if anybody else that had window well sump pumps (which is not that uncommon from finding discussions on the internet) ever had any inspection issue. From what everybody has told us (up until you now), we shouldn't have an issue... but I'm trying to find out as much as I can.

Quote:

Originally Posted by smearcase

A sump pump in a window well would make me very uncomfortable if I were considering buying a house. I dont completely understand your situation.
You say rainwater is coming into the well but then you say it is a backup of water backing up through the well drain (perforated).
1. If it is rainwater, do you have a cover on the window well?
2. Does the well drain pipe have an outlet? Is there sufficient fall in the pipe, say 1/4 inch per foot? If the drain inlet end is the bottom of well, the pipe must have to go fairly deep to drain unless the slope of the ground is helping out.
3. Why is it a perforated pipe? I dont know how close to the house the pipe is, but a perforated pipe can allow water to infiltrate the foundation rather than carrying it away.
4. What would happen if you removed the drain pipe and put a window well cover on?
I apologize for all the questions but I can't picture what exactly is going on from waht I have read so far. I can tell you that a qualified inspector will advise the potential buyer to investigate further.

Quote:

Originally Posted by KeepItSimpleStupid

I doubt he will have an issue with the pump being in the window, but will have an issue on how it's installed. Particularly the electric. I haven't found something small enough to use as a sump pit.

Why do you say that there will be an issue with how it's installed? The electric line is brought into the house at the top of the basement window and is plugged into an outlet there that is on a dedicated circuit. The electrician told us no issues at all with the installation.

Thanks for your thoughts!

The electric is at issue because you are running the cord through a window, it should have its own weather proof outlet on the outside of the builing and it should be a GFCI out let of breaker, that's #2.

The sump pump in the window well wouldn't bother me if I were considering purchasing the house. Well not any more that any other drainage issues I would be looking at. However, I suggest that you try snaking the drain line. Its purpose is to take water away not put it in the window well. It must be blocked. Try finding where it comes out of the ground. It may however feed into the foundation drain. Snaking it may rupture it but it's not doing you any good as it is now, so what's to loose.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hkstroud

The sump pump in the window well wouldn't bother me if I were considering purchasing the house. Well not any more that any other drainage issues I would be looking at. However, I suggest that you try snaking the drain line. Its purpose is to take water away not put it in the window well. It must be blocked. Try finding where it comes out of the ground. It may however feed into the foundation drain. Snaking it may rupture it but it's not doing you any good as it is now, so whats to loose.

Actually, that was the first thing a contractor tried to do 20 years ago when we decided to try to eliminate the water filling up the well during torrential rains. However, all the snake did was hit dirt/clay at the bottom of the drain so it appears that 1. either the drain was built to just empty any water into the soil or 2. the original builder accidentally filled the drain with so much backfill that no water can go down past the dirt to any draintile. However, the contractor who did the installation said that the drain just ended and did not go to any drain tile.

If push comes to shove and a buyer wants the issue permanently resolved without a sump pump (although the having a sump pump there has worked perfectly for about 25 years now), my only thought would be to hire an expert to dig up the patio and concrete around the window well and dig down all the way to the end of the drain pipe and see if it could be fed into the drain tile at the bottom of the foundation. The water contractor that installed the current setup (before I just had a portable sump pump connected to a garden hose and that worked very well also... except that these pumps didn't last very long so we got a more professional installation done) said that he didn't believe that the well drain went anywhere past six feet into the ground... Again, my guess is that the builder's philosophy was that any water coming into the window from above and going down the drain would just filter out into the ground or if it didn't even reach the top of the drain it would just filter through the rock base at the bottom of the well - since it shouldn't be very much water coming into the well from the top anyway. Unfortunately, the builder didn't forsee this issue that water would actually come up the drain rather than down it.

Since we haven't had any water come through the basement window for the past 25 years once a sump pump was installed (water came in about 4-5 times before this during a five year period), it's really not an issue anymore. We went with the contractor's suggestion way back then because he said since there was absolutely no water issue with the basement walls, that installing a sump pump in the window well was the most practical and best way to go (again because of the surrounding flagstone patio and concrete base).

Anyway, I hope I have described the situation so that it's fully understandable and I appreciate all the comments that you guys are giving. We haven't been concerned about this for decades but now that we are selling the house, we are wondering whether this would be an issue or not. I'm getting a lot of mixed opinions here and elsewhere... most say that it should not be a problem at all but a few others have said that it might be.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ballengerb1

The electric is at issue because you are running the cord through a window, it should have its own weather proof outlet on the outside of the builing and it should be a GFCI out let of breaker, that's #2.

Well, again... the electrician that did the work installing the outlet assured us that it was NOT an issue with the cord coming into the window and being plugged into the outlet that was installed at that location. The new outlet that was installed is in fact a GFI outlet with a dedicated circuit in the breaker box. We also checked with another electrician for a second opinion and he also said the same thing... no problem with the cord coming into the house through a hole in the top of the window frame. (it's not coming in by through the opening of the window itself... but through a hole at the top of the window frame which was sealed after installation.