Underground Stream?

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lisacan

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We have installed two sump pumps in a basement to handle the Jersey flooding of last week and everything seemed fine until we got an urgent call from our friend whose basement this was ,that the neighbor's lawn has flooded.
Could we have inadvertently hit an underground stream?
Any ideas what this problem could be from and how to correct it?
Thanks!
 

Geniescience

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let me C if this is right: you are a contractor or handyman, and the place you installed these in was a friend's place, and now he is angry at you?

without further details about what happened and what is happening, it's not easy to comment. You can go see it, go take a second look, and describe it a little better. Describe what you dug too.

david
 

lisacan

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I start of by stating that all of this was done with a Licensed plumber.

Here's what happened:

We made a hole and installed a sump pump in one corner.
when we dug, water started coming out like crazy, so we went with a stronger sump pump.
Although we did this, there was still water coming up so we went 10 feet away and installed another sump pump.

So now we had two pumps pumping.

Water now looks clear and is cold and seems to be from an underground stream and the pumps seem to be working consistently all the time and is pumping outside.

How do we find where this is coming from?

we tested sprinlkler system, internal water valves, and are trying the process of elimination.

We cant get a hold of our plumber and our friend, who we basically did this for as a favor, except for the plumber's fee, which was paid to him, is understandably upset.

Is there any way for us to temporarily stop or plug the flow until our plumber or another one comes tomorrow morning?

How do we find streams underground and is there a simple way of plugging up the flow or diverting them?

Thank you.
 

Leejosepho

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You might very well have hit an underground spring, or, maybe the water table is high at the moment. You might see whether a local fire department can help with pumping to an acceptable location until a repair is possible.
 

Speedbump

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Here is the problem as I see it. You have these pumps pumping full blast trying to keep up with the incoming water. That's good, but where do you put this water?

I was flooded in 1988. I had a foot of water in my house. It rained for 4 days and nights steadily. The Alafia River rose out of it's banks like it had done many times before, but rose higher than normal. An employee of mine had a brainstorm. Why don't we go to my shop, get a couple of submersible sewage pumps, put them in the house and pump the water out the windows. Now granted, even though this sounded like a wonderful idea, visualize my entire yard (not to mention hundreds of other yards all around me) under water by as much as 15 feet. Where do we pump the water to??? How do we stop it from re-entering the home?

This guy now own's his own pump business. If you want his name so you can be sure not to call him, let me know.

bob...
 

Valveman

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I don't know that much about sump systems and basements. I have done lots of de-watering wells for construction. We usually drill from 3 to 5 wells around the location. Install submersible pumps to pull the water in the wells as low as possible. This keeps the water away from the basement so construction crews can dig, repair, or build underground structures. These structures are usually made water tight, then the pumps are turned off and the de-watering wells are plugged. Looks like if you can't seal the water out, then you need to keep the sump pumps running all the time. If it takes two sump pumps to keep up, you probably need a spare or two.
 
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