You know that dreaded feeling when you find a random pool of water on your basement floor?
Yeah, I was right there recently. Mathlete and I were down in the basement talking about lighting placement when I glanced over and saw this:
Our first order of business was the check the sump pump to make sure it was working properly. Thankfully it was because, at 10pm on a Sunday, I didn’t want to be searching for a sump pump replacement.
After checking the sump pump, we figured that there was a clog in the pipe somewhere. Mathlete figured out that there was something clogging the pipe between the outside drain and the drain next to the air conditioning unit {where the puddle was}.
Our first attempt was to use a snake to try and unclog it. The curve of the pipe though made that pretty futile.
Insert sad face.
So, our next attempt was {maybe} a little unconventional but I figured it was worth a try. We grabbed Mathlete’s wet/dry vac. While he took the grate off the inside drain, I went outside to cover up the outside drain.
That way, we wouldn’t just be sucking in extra air. Once the drain outside was covered, he flipped on the vacuum.
After a minute or two, we heard something get sucked up in the vacuum. We checked and the water level seems to regulate at each drain so we were good!
The water…not looking so good. Blech!
Ever had sump pump issues? How did you end up solving them?
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Thankfully we have never had a sump pump issue. However, we did have our hot water tank lose all its water onto our basement floor. That was not a fun day.
plumbing problems are the worst! I always end up calling a plumber!
We had a sump pump at our house. I never saw it because I never wanted to go underneath our house. My husband Kyle was always the one to take care of sump pump problems.
Glad you found a solution for yours! 🙂
~Lisha
We are having a drain issue that the snake won’t fix. Perhaps I will suggest this before we make that call to the plumber. Thanks for sharing!!
Icky, gross, drain issues! What was causing the clog? Thanks for sharing this at my Make it Pretty Monday party at The Dedicated House. Hope to see your prettiness again on Monday. Toodles, Kathryn @TheDedicatedHouse
Eew! Drain issues are such a bummer.
Thanks so much for linking up at I Gotta Create! <3 Christina
Oh yuk, that’s no fun at all!
Oh yuk, that’s no fun at all!
Never had a sump pump clog, but have used the shop vac to unclog the shower once!
Glad you fixed it-a broken sump pump can get expensive quick
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