I brought a waterfront house with a basement that was flooded. The basement is for storage and not living. It is only 6 ft tall and about 14 x 10. After pumping out all the water, I notice that there was a hole in the concrete for a sump pump about 16 inches deep and 14 inches wide. However, the wall of the hole has collapsed and that was the reason water was coming up. After several drop months, the water finally disappeared from the hole. At which point, I removed the dirt around the hole’s wall and bottom. I found out that the bottom of the hole is just made out of bricks sitting side by side in the dirt. Nott think much about it, I concreted in the bottom and the side to repair the hole. I still left a wide and deep enough opening to accommodate a new sump pump.

Now that I though more about it, I believes that the un-concreted bottom was to allow water to rise into the hole where it will be pumped out. I am sure this was to prevent the rising water level from pushing against the concrete slab. I don’t know how often the water level actually gets that high. Should I be wonder about that? Should I drill some holes through the new concreted bottom to allow water to rise in to the hole?

Thanks.

 

You need to remove the concrete in the bottom of the sump pit because the concrete will prevent water from entering it.

Sump pits act by allowing them to fill with water from water table rises.

If there is concrete in the bottom and sides of the pit, it will not function at all and water will simply enter the basement in other locations.

The best method to construct a sump pit is to dig your hole, then insert a prefabricated pvc sump pit liner.

The liner is about half the size of a garbage can and has holes built in all around to allow water to enter.

The sump pump then gets installed into the sump pit.