Thorfun

I've been talking to a pump supplier who originally recommended pumps with a 2" outlet. once I pointed out that my pipe going out from the sump is 32mm he said, oh dear, and said that was quite restrictive. he has recommended a 1 1/4" outlet pump but thinks I'll only get about 50l/min at the required head height we have. I'm sure that'll be enough as the current temporary pump (https://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb844pmp-750w-mains-powered-dirty-water-pump/495xf#product_additional_details_container) is also only a 1 1/4" outlet and is coping fine. if only someone had told me that 32mm pipe wouldn't be enough (or could cause restrictive flow I should say) when we had this designed I'd have specced up a 50mm outlet pipe. 😞 yet another lesson learned too late as I can't replace the existing pipe as it's going through the concrete and is buried under tonnes of backfill/soil/concrete!

it's a great idea except the gap is below the level of the screed internally. but i will just put some of the good foam under there. i've got the Shelley flood sensor working now so i think i can rest a bit easier until i have my final pump solution in place

working on it!

this is a shame as that's waterproof concrete so it's just that small slit beneath the DPC that allowed the water in (i think!). if i didn't have that door then the basement would be swimming pool water tight. i'm sure this won't happen again but i was hoping that maybe i might find a way to reduce the ingress substantially. i might try a bit of expanding foam. i might put a couple of tubes of CT1 under there as well! surely it can't hurt?

so, not the best photos but I was getting wet. I have a step down to the courtyard as well. you can see in this photo how deep the water was internally! so despite also having a large area to 'store' water in the courtyard it was excessive. I believe the water came in under the DPC. at least I can't really think of any other real way it did. although there is a duct from the courtyard to the comms room where I guess water could've come in from as well. I'll also need to seal that up once the power cables have been put through. in the photo below you can see the line of silicone between the sliders and the dpc so I think this should be ok. I'm sure it's under the DPC that let the water in. although, with the quantities we're talking about that was in the basement it must've been coming in for quite a while. I started a new job last Monday so hadn't been in to the house since the previous Sunday and with all the rain we had I think it was a slow flooding event over the course of a number of days. it's so sad when I think that if I'd only popped out I might've noticed that the I couldn't hear the water going in to the sump which would've triggered some alarm bells. but, it's happened now. just got to get on with it all.

there will eventually be some form of drainage channel. i'm thinking short term for now just in case! i'll get a photo once it's stopped raining

thinking about my flooding issue some more and i believe it's obvious that the water got in to the basement from underneath the sliding doors. there's silicone between the door and the dpc but there's obviously a gap between the concrete base and the dpc that allowed water in from the outside. how could i best seal this gap? concrete? silicone? a.n.other method? the opening is approx just over 2m wide. just thinking that if this did ever happen again then if i can stop the water entering the basement the courtyard will fill up but the basement won't!

because I like the idea of it. 4 floats controlling the pumps and giving an alarm built in. I can also use those floats to trigger the HA system so when the 2nd pump is triggered by the float an alert can be sent letting me know that the 1st pump either can't handle the flow or is broken! and these things have built in audible alarms as another warning alarm.

consider a Tony tray for your air tightness around the joists. https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/search/?&q=Tony tray&quick=1&search_and_or=and&sortby=relevancy

the ultimate backup

yeah. that's the question isn't it. how far is enough? I'm pretty happy with my proposed solution but will check with these pump companies. I could have a separate float attached to a separate alarm that's loud enough to pi$$ the neighbours off so that if all else fails they'll come and see what the noise is all about. I will think about the power situation though as I have enough room in our CU for 1 RCBO per pump but I think that's excessive and I'm happy to run both off their own RCBO in the external garage CU. safe in the knowledge that I'll have separate alarms. will probably also keep the Shelley flood sensor going as well somewhere. for the cost of a CR123A battery every 18 months I think it's a good idea.

that's a very good point! I was thinking of putting a 'garage CU' outside in the basement courtyard and could use that for lighting/external sockets as well. I could then run each pump off it's own RCBO. but then the external CU would be a SPOF as there's a single cable from the main CU to it. when you think about it all it could all start to get very complicated indeed!

evening all. hope you're all getting ready to sit down and enjoy Strictly at Blackpool. thank you for all the advice. I've decided to do this pump solution semi sensibly. I've been looking in to proper dual pump control systems using 4 floats to control them. like this https://www.pumpsukltd.com/puk-v2b-twin-pump-panel.html or this https://www.henrypumps.co.uk/control-pump-plus-single--twin-pump-control-panel-2397-p.asp or this https://www.tritoncontrols.co.uk/alarms-and-controls/twin-pump-controller.html or this https://drainstore.com/pumping-stations-pumps/pumping-station-dual-pump-control-panel-12amp/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-sjqqeW6-wIVw-DtCh1rwgrGEAMYAiAAEgKFp_D_BwE or this https://pumpexpress.co.uk/shop/duplex-up-control-panel/ ok. I think you get the idea. they all seem to do much the same thing and have an external 12V alarm trigger which I can easily plug in to Loxone I would presume. Some even have GSM modules that can be built in. if I can also monitor the 2nd pump so that if that ever comes on I know that there's most likely something wrong with the 1st pump so I can get that fixed while the second pump is taking up the work. I think this way I don't need a 3rd pump as it should give plenty of redundancy and notification of potential issues coming. @PeterW I will contact the above companies and ask them to design the system to assist with any potential future insurance claim. anyone have any experience with any of these control panels? otherwise it'll be me just picking one on price and looks! 😉 oh, and I will also have a separate high water alarm sensor outside of this control panel in case of failure of the control panel. and with the house battery backup I think I'm pretty much covered and don't have any single point of failure.

I could literally put a concrete block at the bottom of the sump to put one of the pumps on! that'd give me the different levels. much to think about.

it just seems alien to submerge electronic components in water! finding it hard to get my head around the concept.

no showers. just a WC/basin so macerator it will be. just waiting on the verdict for yours before deciding if we'll ever bother installing a WC/basin in the basement.

great minds think alike as they say. I'm sure there are other less complimentary sayings for the two of us as well but we'll just ignore those for now.

yeah. we have a 2m deep hole (approx 600mm x 600mm wide) in our basement courtyard. all the groundwater from around the basement flows in to their from 2 x land drains outlets. we then have an outlet from the sump to our RWH tank. the sump was created from shuttering and poured in water proof concrete at the same time as the basement so I wasn't going to bother with a plastic tank as I have a waterproof hole already! I just need to get a couple of pumps hooked up to the outlet. I do like @saveasteading's idea of different float heights and will look in to it some more.

I was literally going to copy something like this but with a 3rd pump a little higher up in case of double lower pump failure. but I have found a local-ish basement sump pump company and I'll ask for a quote. the most annoying thing about that sort of company is they offer a 'service agreement' and the cheapest on their website is £30/month!! so if it's like an alarm company where they insist on you taking a service agreement out then that's a lot of money a year.

missed this comment, sorry. it's good advice and I'll take a look online at what I can find.

the water was a bit brown so I would guess that's considered dirty. but not sure I can open Loxone components! luckily no flooring or fixings are installed in the basement yet. just concrete walls and screeded floor. so once the puddle pump has finished and we run the dehumidifiers for a bit we should be back to where we started. @ProDave in your opinion would you use electric cable that's been underwater assuming it's dried thoroughly? I have some 10mm cable I was saving for our hob which was affected. I guessing that once it's dry it'll be fine to use but thought I'd ask a professional. 🙂

no power at all going to the stuff stored in the basement. hadn't been installed yet. we don't have a warm airing cupboard but the house warms up quite nicely when the sun is streaming through the windows (like today) and I'm not planning on installing any of this stuff this side of Christmas so plenty of time for it to all dry out. thank you. I'm feeling a lot better about it all.

personal belongings we're going through them all to catalogue all the losses and can then make a decision. the biggest loss is the materials and tools that I stored 'safely' in the basement to keep them out of the way! all my Loxone equipment, AC units, power tools, electric cable, Quooker, UVC control unit, RWH control unit and lots more were down there and all got wet. I know it'll dry but I'm concerned about potential corrosion of circuit boards etc for this stuff. anyone know if water damaged electrical/electronic components/units can be used once dried or if they need to be thrown out and replaced?

https://shellystore.co.uk/product/shelly-flood/ this looks perfect! thank you so much. 18 month battery life. hopefully we'll be finished the house by then.

I have battery backup for the whole house. Am also now thinking of a dedicated UPS just for the sump pumps! for prolonged power cut I would have to look at hiring a generator I guess. or just stand next to the sump with a bucket and start bailing.