Help me out to automatically pump out rain water from my house yard!

Buk · Jul 2, 2021

Nigel Goodwin said:
, dig a sump at lowest point, float switch and pump inside, metal grill over the top - job done.

Fine, so long as the flood doesn't cut your electricity supply.

Nigel Goodwin · Jul 2, 2021

Buk said:
Fine, so long as the flood doesn't cut your electricity supply.

We're not talking floods, we're taking 'normal' water ingress - in the case of a proper flood there's usually no where to pump water to.

I don't see any other option? - he's already said he's at a low point, and if he wasn't he wouldn't be likely to have a problem.

gary350 · Jul 2, 2021

Buy a 1/4 HP sump pump with a float switch then connect it to electricity. Set it in low area when water lifts up the float pump comes on. When water goes down pump turns off.

Buk · Jul 2, 2021

Nigel Goodwin said:
I don't see any other option? - he's already said he's at a low point, and if he wasn't he wouldn't be likely to have a problem.

I'm back to wondering where he would pump the water to.

KeepItSimpleStupid · Jul 2, 2021

The TS hasn't been back in a while? Did he drown?

One option is a dry well.

In the development I live in, the houses are built on a hill. Each house/yard is kinda a sloped stairs with others having it worse or better.

The back yard is relatively flat with like a meter high hill to the left and a meter high hll in the rear, The back yard is essentally sunk and at about the same level as 3 neighbors down the hill. The raise in the rear gets progressivey smaller. Near the end of the hill it dropps of suddenly like 6 meters.

The front yard does slope to the street.

The soil is clay. The state has a lot of artesian wells.

So, storm drainage is a problem.

interestingly. a neighbor across the street has a sump pump that is nearly always running as though there is an underwater aquifer. Ours runs very rarely and usually during storms.

Ideally, you would want a non-electric solution, but power reliability is usually very good here.
In 50 years, one 4 day outage. The rest are usually no more than a few hours or less than a day.

Nigel Goodwin · Jul 2, 2021

Buk said:
I'm back to wondering where he would pump the water to.

Same place everyone else does, pump it up and out of the way, just to somewhere where it drains away from your property.

Buk · Jul 3, 2021

Nigel Goodwin said:
just to somewhere where it drains away from your property.

And we come full circle (again) to the possibility of connecting the sump directly to that lower point where it drains away. Ie. Install a drain.

Pommie · Jul 3, 2021

Buk said:
And we come full circle (again) to the possibility of connecting the sump directly to that lower point where it drains away. Ie. Install a drain.

The point where it drains away from your property is not necessarily lower than the sump. It could just be over a small mound for example.

Mike.

Buk · Jul 3, 2021

Pommie said:
The point where it drains away from your property is not necessarily lower than the sump. It could just be over a small mound for example.

Mike.

Good point

Nigel Goodwin · Jul 3, 2021

Buk said:
And we come full circle (again) to the possibility of connecting the sump directly to that lower point where it drains away. Ie. Install a drain.

You simply keep making the same ludicrous suggestions - a cheap pump and a bit of plastic piping, with a bucket sized hole. Or you go for your wonderful suggestion, hire a digger and dig a huge deep trench across your property, probably across a neighbours as well, and demolish parts of your house to make it run from within the basement/cellar. As it's got to run downhill all the way it could VERY easily be a considerable depth - these are called soughs - and often cost millions at today's prices, they were popular in olden days for draining mines. Then pumps were invented - a MUCH cheaper and easier solution.

There are reasons why millions of cheap sump pumps are in use!.

gary350 · Jul 3, 2021

Float switch will work.

Buk · Jul 3, 2021

Nigel Goodwin said:
hire a digger and dig a huge deep trench across your property, probably across a neighbours as well, and demolish parts of your house to make it run from within the basement/cellar. As it's got to run downhill all the way it could VERY easily be a considerable depth - these are called soughs - and often cost millions at today's prices,

Guess you've not heard of horizontal drilling.

Pommie · Jul 3, 2021

OK, I'm going to try to describe a self starting siphon (as Gophert doesn't seem to understand it or the difference between to and two). If you have two buckets at the same level, both filled with water and a pipe (also filled with water) dipped into both buckets then if either bucket is in rising water then a siphoning action will start to equal the levels. It does of course need the outlet to be as low as the inlet, actually, the same height. It's actually a very simple way to keep two levels the same - the Romans used it over 2000 years ago.

Mike.
Edit, might be 4000 years ago.

Pommie · Jul 3, 2021

Buk said:
Guess you've not heard of horizontal drilling.

Don't need it with two buckets and a pipe!!!

Mike.

Buk · Jul 3, 2021

Pommie said:
It does of course need the outlet to be as low as the inlet,

Yep. But the pipe can go uphill in between, so longnas the down hill bit is longer than the uphill bit.

And when a burst main started flooding the shared basements of a block of flats, it took the local council (DenHaag) less than 4 hours to run a 100mm pipe 380m from a nearby canal, under and adjacent block of flats and into a 1m x 1m x 1m sump dug into the basement floor by 2 men with kangos and spades.

A hose pipe, a couple of non-return valves and what looked like an upturned washing up bowl on stilts and a no power required, permanent auto-siphoning drain was installed. Amost entirely maintenance free, although it did have what looked something like an industrial sized lift flush handle to re-prime it if the valves leaked.

The Dutch like low-tech, green solutions.

Pommie · Jul 3, 2021

Buk said:
Yep. But the pipe can go uphill in between, so longnas the down hill bit is longer than the uphill bit.

And when a burst main started flooding the shared basements of a block of flats, it took the local council (DenHaag) less than 4 hours to run a 100mm pipe 380m from a nearby canal, under and adjacent block of flats and into a 1m x 1m x 1m sump dug into the basement floor by 2 men with kangos and spades.

A hose pipe, a couple of non-return valves and what looked like an upturned washing up bowl on stilts and a no power required, permanent auto-siphoning drain was installed. Amost entirely maintenance free, although it did have what looked something like an industrial sized lift flush handle to re-prime it if the valves leaked.

The Dutch like low-tech, green solutions.

Yup, you got it.

Mike.

JimB · Jul 3, 2021

Wow, all this discussion was started by a guy who wanted to know how to wire up a float switch to drain his back garden.
Amazing.

JimB

Nigel Goodwin · Jul 3, 2021

Buk said:
Yep. But the pipe can go uphill in between, so longnas the down hill bit is longer than the uphill bit.

And when a burst main started flooding the shared basements of a block of flats, it took the local council (DenHaag) less than 4 hours to run a 100mm pipe 380m from a nearby canal, under and adjacent block of flats and into a 1m x 1m x 1m sump dug into the basement floor by 2 men with kangos and spades.

A hose pipe, a couple of non-return valves and what looked like an upturned washing up bowl on stilts and a no power required, permanent auto-siphoning drain was installed. Amost entirely maintenance free, although it did have what looked something like an industrial sized lift flush handle to re-prime it if the valves leaked.

The Dutch like low-tech, green solutions.

The Dutch also don't have any hills to contend with, nor any rocks or stone - from the excavations I've seen it mostly seems to be on sand

Bit different to digging a trench through granite, limestone or sandstone.

Visitor · Jul 3, 2021

JimB said:
Wow, all this discussion was started by a guy who wanted to know how to wire up a float switch to drain his back garden.
Amazing.

JimB

The arguing goes on long after the poster has been scared away.....

Buk · Jul 3, 2021

Nigel Goodwin said:
Bit different to digging a trench through granite, limestone or sandstone.

Did I miss the post where the OP identified his local geology?

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