Repairing and installing sump pumps in Dana Point
Both kinds of sump pump come through our hands: the submersible type, which works underwater at the base of the pit, and the pedestal type, whose motor rides on a post above the waterline. We repair, replace and install either one, and a visit takes in everything the water depends on. That includes the float switch that wakes the pump, the check valve that stops discharged water from draining back, the pipe that carries it away, the point where that pipe empties, and the outlet feeding the motor. Hearing the motor hum says only that power is reaching it.
Plenty of the time the pump is healthy and the fault sits next to it. A float wedged against the pit wall never lifts. A check valve that no longer closes sends each pumped gallon straight back down, so the motor lifts the same water all night. A discharge line routed uphill asks for more lift than the motor has. In each case the pump keeps working and the water stays put. In October any of them is a small fix; with rain pouring in, it is a long night.
A replacement pump is matched to the work this pit gives it: how many feet the discharge rises, and how far the pipe runs before it reaches open ground. A copy of the pump that failed tends to fail the same way. The discharge empties onto ground that falls away from the house, never onto a slope it could wash out, and never into a sewer cleanout: Dana Point's sewer carries wastewater to the J.B. Latham plant or the Coastal Treatment Plant, and storm runoff has no business in it. Silt gets scooped from the pit during the same visit, and the price is in your hands, in writing, before the old pump comes out.
What we check on every sump call
- A float that moves freely, clear of the pipe and the pit wall
- A check valve that seats firmly so pumped water cannot slide back
- Where the discharge lets out, and whether the water keeps moving away from the house
- Power from a GFCI outlet of its own, never an extension cord
- Silt, gravel and debris lifted out of the bottom of the pit
- A hose test that fills the pit until the pump cycles on and off unaided
Signs a sump pump is failing
- A motor that never rests, or one that short-cycles every few seconds
- A hum from below while the water in the pit sits still
- Water along the back wall of a lower floor or garage after rain
- A musty or sour smell rising out of the pit
- Nobody in the house remembers when the pump was last tested
- A long storm has come and gone and you never heard the pump start
Test it before the winter storms
Months can pass with a Dana Point sump sitting dry, and then a single winter storm keeps it cycling through a day and a night. Try it before that storm. Feed a garden hose or a few buckets into the pit and wait for the float to rise and switch the motor on. The level should drop at a steady rate, and once the pump stops you should hear the soft knock of the check valve closing. A missing step is a reason to call while the ground is still dry. About 1,700 Dana Point homes are kept for seasonal or occasional use; if yours is one, do the test before the house sits empty, because nobody will be there to hear the pump fail.
When a battery backup is worth it
Battery backup earns its cost where pump failure would soak something expensive: finished rooms on a lower level, a garage dug below grade that holds a water heater or stored furniture, or the parking deck under a condo or commercial building. The storm that fills the pit is often the storm that takes the power down, and if SDG&E service drops mid-storm, the battery unit keeps the pit emptying on its own. A pit that only catches a planter's runoff or a side yard's drainage is different; there the better money goes to opening the yard drains upstream of it.
Before any backup goes on the estimate, you learn which kind of pit you have. If a backup makes sense and you want one, it appears as its own line on the written estimate for your approval.
Where sump pumps show up in Dana Point
Most Dana Point housing dates from the 1970s and 1980s, and about half of it is something other than a detached house, so the sumps we meet tend to fall into three groups. First, pits beneath a lower level or a garage that sits lower than the driveway. Second, catch basins where several yard drains join before the water is pumped toward the street. Third, pumps under the parking deck of a condo or apartment building, where one motor keeps many owners' cars dry.
The cost of a failure depends on the pit's position. Below a lower level, a stopped pump lets water creep under the door and onto finished floors. In a yard basin, it sends runoff against the foundation and over the patio. Under a shared parking deck, it leaves water standing around parked cars, and because that garage is common area, the HOA has to take part in the repair.
How the plumber reaches the pit matters too. A pump down a narrow side yard or behind a planter wall needs more setup than one in a garage slab, so describe where yours is when you phone. Calls are answered day and night, holidays too, and the plumber reaches your address knowing what the pit's location demands.