I have been building and rebuilding the sump pit at my mom's for it seems a year....i would build it and it would collapse in on itself. If unattened a minimum of 2 hours a day, a foot or more of water comes in and it would take the furnace. My mom is over 70 and is disabled. She cannot run the pumps, much less get down the stairs to watch the water level. we have gone thru about 7 pumps in the past year.

 

The soil is layered clay and is always wet with the high water table that was left by Irene last year. the main problem was the clay, it was always becomiong a slurry and it would plug the pit's pump and overfill it

after struggling and struggling, i decidsed to go all in. i dug the whole pit out 6+ feet deep, 6 feet wide and 6 feet long; mind you this is in a crawl space where you cannot stand (barely kneel). i have over 1 tons of 3/4 inch stone, all brought in 40 lb bags 1 at a time. layered on top of landscape paper (the filter lets water pass but dirt doesn't) with the pump housing barrel placed on a cinderblock, over a layer of stone. i got a 1/2 horse automatic pump from tracter suppply and plumbed it in with 2" pipe at the discharge.

after all the time it was ready on monday morning (no kidding) and it worked great!

after 4 days, she has less than 1 inch of water and that is very manageable until i can get the other small pit in.

a year of headaches almost over! i am so relieved

glad to hear you can help mom out! good job on the dig, tuff stuff!

i gotta tell you...it was like being shackled to a corpse...more than not i was spending 6 hours a day there.