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Downspout extensions for your gutters serve to get water away from your house.  The more water that you can get away from the house, the less that will get drained off to your sump pump. I have gutter extensions for both the front and back downspouts of our home that funnel water away from the foundation. These can be purchased at any home improvement center.

Greetings!  

Hurricane Isaac is currently dumping dangerous amounts of rain in the Gulf of Mexico. The weather forecast is calling for those rains to hit Indiana beginning this Friday. Remember Labor Day, 2003? That was the year of the "100 year rain." I have not heard predictions for the amount of rain expected here other than this storm could be a drought buster.  

Please read on for some things to consider for your home in regard to this upcoming storm.    

 

The average life of a sump pump is 3-5 years, but this is relative to use. I have replaced pumps after 2 years and others after 12 years. If you have a good battery back-up system, the option exists to run the primary pump until it dies. I have some customers that don't like that train of thought and prefer to change out pumps every 5 years.  

Battery back-up sump pump systems are like most things that we purchase, you get what you pay for. A $200.00 system at a home improvement center is not the same as a professionally installed system. Here's a link to a battery back-up system that I use:

Pro Series 2400

I have carried a pager with me 24/7/365 ever since I started the business over 11 years ago. Friends have teased me about carrying a pager in the 21st century, but I persevered because I felt redundancy in communication is important, especially as a service plumber.

After recently looking at the monthly $30.00 fee and the amount of use that the pager was getting (1-2 pages a month at most), I finally conceded to conventional wisdom. I have now switched to my iPhone for those emergency service calls/texts. That number is 317-490-7469.

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As part of your checklist before leaving for vacation, be sure to add turning off the main water valve to the house. This simple step can spare you a ton of aggravation by preventing a burst hose or water line from flooding the house.

Sincerely,