Plumbing the sump pump
If you are forced to use a sump pump, and have determined that hand excavated french drains cannot be installed, make sure you think the installation through well. Where will the sump pump vent?
If you have a contractor install the sump pump, make sure the sump pump is plumbed in abs pipe and not pvc pipe as seems to be the habit of many installers.
Even schedule 40 pvc pipe should not be used to vent a sump pump, as it is not long lasting and is flagile if hit with a shovel.
Each year I view dozens of sump pumps that are plumbed in pvc pipe. Many of these sump pumps just pump the groundwater through the foundation wall or foundation vent and the groundwater soaks back into the ground next to the foundation. This is poor home drainage construction.
This practice results in the saturation of the foundation in that area and likely the pumping of the same groundwater that entered below grade before over and over again. Pretty stupid home drainage.
The sump pump should not be plumbed into the rain drain discharge if the rain drain discharge line only has one exit at a street curb cut and is dead headed at one side of the home, as many times the back pressure of the sump pump venting will cause the rest of the rain drain locations along the home to back up and overflow next to the home, again pumping the same groundwater over and over again.
The standard ball sump pump comes with an abs fitting attached to it, and is recommended for venting with abs pipe. Some contractors use an abs to pvc adapter because the pvc pipe is cheaper. Just being penny wise and pound foolish.
Read other articles on this site about the necessity behind preventing the groundwater from entering below grade, which a sump pump installation will not accomplish, leaving groundwater entry into crawlspaces and basements still a problem.
If you do not stop the groundwater from entering crawlspaces and basements with hand excavated french drains, you will always have the same groundwater problem and will always be pumping groundwater; except when the electricity goes off.
And that’s when you will come back to this website looking for the other articles on sump pumps and to learn why hand excavated french drains do the job that a sump pump will not do.
If you are the seller of a home in escrow with a pest dry rot and structural inspection that indicates groundwater in the basement or crawlspace, and it appears that your potential buyers would conclude the transaction by you installing a sump pump in lieu of actually solving the groundwater problem with hand excavated french drains, you are just passing the problem down the line. Those buyers will not be happy with you in the long run.