My sump pit was installed in the late 80s along with a french drain by the previous owner. I am considering making the put deeper, like 2' total. The current pit is about 16-18" and is made from thich black corrugated plastic pipe with concrete poured at the top. I would like to leave the top portion undisturbed and dig down just below 2 feet. Are there any suggestions to how I might reinforce the lower part of the pit? I had been thinking that hand troweling a wall of high strength mortar with an embeded wire mesh might do the trick. Anyone have any success trying to accomplish a similar task? Could the bottom also be poured cement? Would weep holes be needed?

I have a pressure tank attached to a pump in a house I inherited. I put the required amount of air into the tank schrader valve after fixing a leak in the inlet and started the pump. It filled up the tank with water and it worked properly for a day or two. I noticed that the pump was coming on too quickly and shutting off too quickly. I went down and checked the air pressure and it was down to zero, and the tank was full of water. I figured the bladder was bad, and removed the tank yesterday. I filled the air bladder up again, expecting it to leak back down to zero, but it has held 35 psi of air pressure for two days now with no water pressure against it. I don't want to replace this tank if I don't have to, but what is going on here? Would the forty psi water pressure I maintain with the pump be forcing the air out of a pin hole leak in the air bladder that will not leak down by itself? It is a pain to reinstall this tank just to test it, so I am looking for ideas before I do it.