started to finish my basement. half will be finished, half (about 350 sq ft) left unfinished.
there is a sump pump installed by the previous owner located in the back of the unfinished area, fed into the sewer (I think this is bad)
originally it looked like there was french drain pipe installed around the perimeter of the basement going to the sump pump.
the floor in the area to be finished was very beat up and unlevel, so I had someone take out the slab on the finished part of the basement with the intention of taking a few inches of dirt out down to the pipe to give me a little more headroom, and pouring a new slab.
now the bad news. First we found out there was another slab underneath the first slab that is 10" thick. And it looks like they gave up digging out the 2nd slab to install the french drain about 1/2 of the way through and just cut it and left it and patched up all around the outside of the perimeter just to give the appearance of it being properly installed.
we figured there was no point in keeping the partial french drain pipe in the finished area, so we cut it at the edge of the finished/unfinished area where it was installed, poured self leveler etc. and now i have about a 1" lower floor in the finished area.
i was wondering if i can/should repurpose the remaining french drain pipe in case i ever get rainwater in the basement. on one side the pipe ends right at the finished area and runs underneath the perimeter of the unfinished area of the basement to the sump pump. can i dig a little bit of the concrete up and hook up a pvc drain or something in the corner of the finished area, so that any rainwater in the basement would make its way to this drain, through the pvc pipe, into the french drain pipe, and out via the sump pump? I assume I will also need to reroute the sump pump to discharge outside instead of into the sewer.
I realize this is a pretty out-there situation but any advice would be appreciated. I'd hate to not do anything and get a flood and create a shallow pool in the finished area when I could have pumped the water out. I can take pics if necessary. Thanks in advance for any help.
there is a sump pump installed by the previous owner located in the back of the unfinished area, fed into the sewer (I think this is bad)
originally it looked like there was french drain pipe installed around the perimeter of the basement going to the sump pump.
the floor in the area to be finished was very beat up and unlevel, so I had someone take out the slab on the finished part of the basement with the intention of taking a few inches of dirt out down to the pipe to give me a little more headroom, and pouring a new slab.
now the bad news. First we found out there was another slab underneath the first slab that is 10" thick. And it looks like they gave up digging out the 2nd slab to install the french drain about 1/2 of the way through and just cut it and left it and patched up all around the outside of the perimeter just to give the appearance of it being properly installed.
we figured there was no point in keeping the partial french drain pipe in the finished area, so we cut it at the edge of the finished/unfinished area where it was installed, poured self leveler etc. and now i have about a 1" lower floor in the finished area.
i was wondering if i can/should repurpose the remaining french drain pipe in case i ever get rainwater in the basement. on one side the pipe ends right at the finished area and runs underneath the perimeter of the unfinished area of the basement to the sump pump. can i dig a little bit of the concrete up and hook up a pvc drain or something in the corner of the finished area, so that any rainwater in the basement would make its way to this drain, through the pvc pipe, into the french drain pipe, and out via the sump pump? I assume I will also need to reroute the sump pump to discharge outside instead of into the sewer.
I realize this is a pretty out-there situation but any advice would be appreciated. I'd hate to not do anything and get a flood and create a shallow pool in the finished area when I could have pumped the water out. I can take pics if necessary. Thanks in advance for any help.
