A Bilge pump is a pump used in a boat or a ship to pump out the bilges at the bottom of the boat where all the water collects.
If we're talking about pumping out crap then right at the very start when we had various guys out looking at the issue i was advised more than once to
not do that. The feedback was to have the water pumped out, yes, but pumping out the ground (all that sludge down there you see in the photo) is a bad idea. Obviously in a 'normal' house that'd be dirt, not sludge.
I've seen next doors house as before they moved in the people who bought it to sell on were having work done too - they also had a pump installed so they have the same issue. Speaking to those who were renting it before the purchase we were told that their house in the most extreme case had the water coming high enough to make the carpet wet, but they did say that our house wasn't as bad as that (in that the water didn't penetrate the floorboards).
The accessible switch was a very sensible thing to install, as you probably found - you were able to isolate the pump when it repeatedly tripped all your sockets. Is it/does it trip the MCB instantly when the pump is switched on, or is there a slight delay? Delay could mean the pumps impeller (the twirly bit which spins in the water) is simply jammed or seized with a pebble.
I'm clueless but not that clueless, i know what an impeller is
I'd say it was pretty instant. As soon as i shouted for my wife to turn it on the MCB tripped. She said that she heard the initial 'clunk' that the pump does when it starts to kick in (don't get hung up on the word clunk, it's just how i'm describing the noise it makes when it starts to do its thing - the noise wasn't anything out of the ordinary) but then it just stopped and all this took like half a second tops so i'd say pretty instant.
So the manual on/off switch is in a room above the pump and there is no alarm or any other box of any kind below the floor but it is not wired on its own individual circuit- Yes?
Correct.
The on/off switch is not just in a room above the pump but in the room above the pump. The power cable wasn't the longest in the world at all.
Time to remove the tank with the pump inside (Tank is the new word for bucket/ housing ok?).
One Q- How high is the water level now since the pump is not pumping any water away.
To get anywhere near the pump now everything would obviously have to come up, we'd need to hire a pump to pump the built up water outside - so all this will probably now be done when the spark comes out.
As for how high is the water level, i would guess at its natural level of about 6 bricks high on a 9 brick high wall. My carpet is still dry for now, that's the main thing
You are supplying a lot more information as the post develops.
Like i say, i wont hit everything first time. There'll be plenty that i a) wont think to look at b) wont know what its called - so wont know how to describe it properly c)didn't realise etc etc so as i say, just ask and i'll do my best
More importantly you say the problem is an every day thing & that would be a concern to me. I know you have had various surveys done but it really should be just a seasonal problem ( periods of high rainfall ) as flooding at this time of year indicate a water or sewage leak or even an underground spring running near the property.
We have been told by a number of people including the surveyors that there is an underground spring here (folk have used different words for it over the time but basically the ground that these houses are built on is wet). It's wet in winter, it's wet in summer. It's wet all the way round the year.
The houses were built in 1932, or at least ours was. I'd imagine it must surely have been wet then too. Perhaps that's why the crawl space is 1mtr high, who knows? Actually i think it's a tad over 1mtr but not much.
On a day like today which is pretty warm & dry & is another warm & dry day on the back of a number of warm & dry days, the water will still come up through the ground and if the pump was working it'd kick in/activate/work approx every 10 minutes give or take.
But if it's belting it down then that 10 minutes will get less & less. The longer it rains heavy for the more the time between pumps is reduced.
87 years on the house is still standing, no signs of subsidence. I'm no expert so i could very well be wrong but maybe the house was built with full knowledge of the problem & that the foundations are sound.
I did get in touch with the council some years ago who put me through to the department who in the end told me what i mentioned earlier.
We bought the house with a view to never moving but this alone does admittedly make us think about that. Aside from that we like the house & the location etc but this is a bit of a nuisance.
