sump pump problems

The sump pump in our house was originally piped to the sewer, which was against the code. It was repiped to pump into the driveway.

Normally this works fine. However, when it is this cold, we get a sheet of ice across the sidewalk.

My original plan was to bury it in the driveway, all the way to the street. However, piping would only be a couple of inches below the surface. That risks formation of ice, either in the pipe or where it opens into the street, and thus blocking the sump pump.

How to resolve?

I don't think it's legal to dump it into the street Eaither.

I don't believe you're allowed to send it to the street either. Same sheet of ice problems. Can you just send it to the lawn?

Our sump pump is very active due to an old stream that was filled in. Following a rain like we had Monday, it can turn on every 5 minutes for the next 2-3 days. That is a lot of water.

It is my understanding that sump pump water has to go into storm drains. That can only be done via the street, as I don't think we are allowed to tap into storm drains directly?

Our neighbor's sump pump is buried from their basement up to the curb where it daylights.
Its water is then directed into the gutter and down (across my driveway) into the storm drain.

Any way you can let it discharge onto a downhill bit of soil somewhere it might be absorbed or into a drywell if there is quite a bit of water?

We had ours tied into a storm drain a few yrs ago - we needed to get a permit in order to do it.

kmk said:

Our neighbor's sump pump is buried from their basement up to the curb where it daylights.
Its water is then directed into the gutter and down (across my driveway) into the storm drain.

This is how ours and every other one on my block (of which there are several) is done. (except, luckily, my driveway is uphill from the sump pump exit.) And it's been that way since well before we moved in almost 20 years ago.

Mine is tied into the underground piping leading from my leaders to storm drain.

Draining to street is illegal? At least half a dozen drain to the street on my block...

The rules have changed. We did drainage work about 10 years ago and the town engineer put a catch basin in the street for us to tie into the storm drain.

Construct a rain garden on your property and have it drain to that? Otherwise you could construct some sort of seepage bed with some well drained soils(sandy material) and have it drain into that.

You can run it to the street there is really no other option but i would put a clean out cap right where it comes out of the house so if it did freeze you can open it to get the water out of the basement.

I think our sump pump pipe that runs under lawn froze. I don't hear it running, and it normally in wet weather runs multiple times every hour... Do we need to unplug the sump pump?

Actually, it isn't all the way full, so maybe its not running because the water outside is frozen. I guess we'll see. Rookies here...thanks.

Yes it will overheat you shouldn't have to worry about ground water due to the cold weather but just check it.

If it is running and not pumping any water out...

These lines will freeze if...

A. The diameter of the pipe to the curb is too small... (should be at least 3")

B. The line coming through the wall is not piped "INDIRECTLY" (fitting loosely into an open underground line so it can overflow outside if a problem occurs with the underground line.)