Greetings!
Water and electricity. The torrentials rains of the last week have flooded the mid-west and there are some basic safety measures that need to be noted when dealing with flooding inside of your home. |
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Never Step Into A Flooded Basement With The Power On |
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How many times have you heard the expression, "Water and electricity don't mix." Electrocution is a very real danger with a flooded basement. And it doesn't have to be a significant amount of water to have this happen. A 1/4 inch of water can electrocute a person as easily as 2 inches of water. Here are some steps to take if your basement floods:
- Turn off the electricity for the basement at the breaker panel. If there isn't a circuit breaker that will isolate the power to the basement, turn off the main circuit breaker to the house. Before you turn off the power to the house however, make sure that all of your computers have been backed up and shut down to prevent losing any work or files.
- If the circuit breaker panel is located in the basement, call an electrician or the power company to turn the power off.
- The simplest way to pump out a flooded basement is by using the sump pump. So if the basement has flooded because of a sump pump failure, get the pump replaced by a professional plumber and let the pump do its job. If this isn't possible, renting a pump from a tool rental store may be the second best solution.
- If the power has been lost to your neighborhood, trying to pump out the basement may not make sense unless you are willing to have a back-up generator running 24/7 to run the sump pump or a rental pump. With the price of gas rising, this could potentially be an extremely expensive undertaking.
- Be sure to have flashlights on hand with plenty of batteries.
- Have an extension cord available that can run from your basement to a power source.
- If you use a gas powered generator, be sure to have this located outside where the exhaust can be safely vented to the atmosphere. NEVER run a gas powered generator indoors!
- If you don't have a battery powered back-up sump pump system, consider making this investment with the understanding that you get what you pay for. A $200.00 system purchased at a home improvement center will not do the same job as a professionally installed system that costs $1500.00 or more.
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| How Long Do Sump Pumps Last? |
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I tell people that the normal life expectancy of a conventional sump pump with "normal" use is 3-5 years. If this is an active sump, that number goes down and if it isn't, then the number of years goes up. I just recently replaced sump pumps for 2 of my neighbors whose sump pumps were both 12 years old.
The standard horse power sump pump is 1/3 HP. You can get bigger pumps such as 1/2, 3/4 or 1 HP, but oversizing a pump may create problems.
Hydromatic and Zoeller are the two most popular brands among plumbing professionals with Hydromatic being my preference because of the switch being separate from the physical pump body. This design will readily allow for the replacement of a switch whereas Zoeller's design does not.
The check valves for sump pumps also need to be replaced along with the pumps. The parts on check valves don't last forever and I have seen the types with the rubber boots blow apart and flood basements. The best type of check valve is the PVC glue type. |
