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Richard Tade
Richard Tade is President and owner of Benjamin Franklin Plumbing Wichita, a repair/remodel plumbing company formerly known as C. Lee Tade Plumbing, which has been serving Wichita since 1950. Water heaters, gas lines, garbage disposals, toilets, faucets, drain cleaning, water services, drain lines and whole-house repiping are some of the services offered by Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, where all plumbers are licensed, have passed criminal back ground checks and are randomly screened for drugs. Richard can be reached at (316) 265-1776, or email at: plumber@tade.com
Plumbing
2002-08-01 10:25:00
Flooded basements?
Richard Tade Question:  When it rains, our sump pump runs constantly.  I'm afraid that sometime when we are out of town, it will rain and the sump pump will fail.  What should I do to avoid coming home to a flooded basement?  Answer:  There are several factors to consider when deciding how to protect your basement from flooding.  The number one consideration would be what will be destroyed or damaged if your basement floods.  This could help you decide what level of protection you want.  As with most things in life, you get what you pay for.  In my opinion, the ultimate protection would be two standard 110 volt submersible cast iron sump pumps  with an AC/DC battery back-up sump pump.  If you presently have only one sump pump, there will come a time when it fails.  By having two 110V pumps, one being installed above the other, the odds of both failing at the same time are rather remote.  As long as you have electricity, you will be in good shape.  In the event you loose power to the pumps, the AC/DC battery back-up pump will come on.   When choosing a back up system, you need to have a general idea of how much water the back-up will be required to pump per hour.  A standard sump pump will pump in the neighborhood of 2000 gallon per hour.  Most battery back-up systems will pump about half this much, or around 1000 gallons per hour.  Can you image how you would feel if your main sump pump failed during a heavy rain, the battery back-up pump comes on but cannot keep up with the amount of water flowing into the sump basin and your basement floods anyway?  This could happen if the back-up system is improperly sized.  The AC/DC system that I prefer has a pumping capacity equal to most standard 110V sump pumps, plus it will run off 110V if power is available.  The only time it runs off the battery is when no electricity is available, and it is designed to run continuously for up to seven hours on the battery.  I can't remember a time when our electricity was out for seven hours. If you don't like the battery type systems, there is one back-up sump pump that runs off your house water supply.  The problem with this type of system is it's pumping capacity.  It will generally only pump about 25% as much as a standard sump pump, or roughly 500 gallons per hour.  If you have a severe water problem, this type of system would probably not work for you.System costs:  Adding another standard sump pump and the water activated back-up sump pump - $700 - $1,000.  Adding another standard sump pump and the AC/DC battery back-up sump pump - $1,100 - $1,500.  If all this is more than you want to deal with, get a battery operated water alarm and set next to the sump basin.  It will sound when the basin starts to overflow.  Cost - $25.
 
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