Sidequest discovered! Press Credit Card to start the “Repair Broken Sump Pump” quest…

[caption id=”attachment_199” align=”alignleft” width=”300” caption=”Replacing the Sump Pump”]{.size-medium .wp-image-199 width=”300” height=”225”}[/caption]

Today started off much the same as the last two: getting up and out the door for school, returning home, grabbing an extra cup of coffee and heading into the basement. I got through the remainder of the East Side room boxes and had stacked the toys to the side, as they are planned to remain in this area. I started cleaning and vacuuming up the last remaining corner of the area and decided to take a closer look at the sump pump, which hadn’t been working right recently. I took the cover off and noticed some oil floating on the surface of the almost full sump, which obviously wasn’t a good sign. I disconnected the pump from the pipe and tried running it by itself. The motor hummed, but no water moved. I took the bottom cover off and tried to spin the propeller of the pump: it was locked up. Broken sump pump = basement cleanup project delayed.

This had happened before, and we called in a plumber to do the work because the original pump had been installed before they poured the floor and the sump cover was partially blocked by cement. He chipped it out, put in a 1/3 HP pump and charged us $420.00. That old pump had a one-year warranty, and lasted all of three years. But today, I was emboldened by getting the old pump out so easily so I headed to the local Lowe’s to try to fix it myself. We found a very friendly, knowledgeable and helpful associate named Colleen right next to the sump pumps. She recommended a 1/2 HP cast iron/stainless steel beauty with a lifetime warranty, for a bargain price of $165.00. She also explained exactly how I could take the PVC pipe that was screwed into the old pump and reuse it on the new one without having to cut a new pipe.

When we got home, we called the county water resources office to see if there was anything special we should do with the small amount of oil in the sump. They explained that as long as it was poured out on earth, the soil would filter everything out before it hit the water table, similar to if your lawn mower had a small oil drip. In other words, nothing to be worried about.

I unscrewed the PVC pipe from the old pump and it fit perfectly in the new one. I dropped it in the sump, quickly tightened the hose clamp on the top of the pipe and plugged it in. It whirred to life and I saw a nice giant puddle of water spreading into the side yard. Success!

So, not much to show on the cleanup side of things, but a bit more clear on the East side of the basement near the bottom of the stairs. Tomorrow, I hope to really get that rug down, unless something else breaks.

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