Yesterday we had torrential rain and my basement flooded. This is rare: only other time this has happened in this house was when the power went out for 16 hours during a strong storm. I believe I've figured out why this happened - there is a gap in between where my sump pump discharges and where the underground drain pipe drains to the street. I think when the rain was very heavy water pooled around this gap causing my sump pump to not keep up with the flow into the sump.

Anyhow, how do I fix this? Seems I need a new pipe, but how do I remove the old one? It appears stuck on with a black substance. Is that plumber's putty.

If I don't want to do this myself, could a handy-man do it? I'd like to stop short of calling a plumber ($$$$) if I don't need to.

2 pics attached - 1 of the pipe coming out of the house and going into the ground, the 2nd a close-up of the gap.

Thanks!

 

Run a garden hose or get several full buckets of water at the sump pump and with another person watching the place where you think the water may be overflowing fill the sump and keep the pump running for several minutes. If there is no water spilled from that gap that is not the problem.

If there IS water spilled from that gap post back and we will figure what to do next.