Hi everyone, I've been tasked to fix my mother-in-law's ancient & poorly designed DIY French Drain sump pumping system, and I don't know a lot about that kind of stuff. So, I thought I'd post my ideas here and see if you fine folks could give me some pointers and/or advice!
First, I'll try to explain what is there and then I'll explain how I'm thinking about handling it...trying to be as succinct as possible...
The Sumps: they consist of 3 12" diameter corrugated pipes set into a river rock pit. Each pipe is approximately 4' deep, though one is more like 5'. Each sump has a 1/2 HP, 74 GPH submersible sump pump plumbed with check valves and 1.5" PVC up out of the pit. Once out of the pit, each 1.5" PVC has a 90, then connects to a 1.5" firehouse via a barb connector. The firehose is routed over the yard to a deeper river rock pit about 200' away from the house for discharge. The pumps are hard-wired into an electrical system that was professionally installed at some point in the past, along with a high water alarm. The whole operation is open to the elements, with the exception of the electrical bits...they are contained within conduit and weather proof boxes.
My idea: The pain point of grief here is the firehose part... Its oldand not very efficient (read: leaky), and then she has to leave firehoses laid out across the yard for 3/4 of the year. So, I'm thinking about replacing the hoses with more PVC and burying the pipes, so its not such an inefficient eyesore.
Each firehose will be replaced by pipe, but shortly after leaving the sump, they will come together into a double wye and run out of a larger diameter pipe out to the drain area.
My specific question - what size double wye should I consider for the combined output of the sump pumps? Also, any feedback/advice would be appreciated, too!
One last thing... As the title implies, I kind of have to put a ribbon on a pig with this project... I know that this whole thing needs to be ripped up and redone (and that's what I really want to do), but that's not realistically going to happen anytime soon. My task here is to make it more efficient and less of an eyesore.
Thanks for taking the time to read my novel!
First, I'll try to explain what is there and then I'll explain how I'm thinking about handling it...trying to be as succinct as possible...
The Sumps: they consist of 3 12" diameter corrugated pipes set into a river rock pit. Each pipe is approximately 4' deep, though one is more like 5'. Each sump has a 1/2 HP, 74 GPH submersible sump pump plumbed with check valves and 1.5" PVC up out of the pit. Once out of the pit, each 1.5" PVC has a 90, then connects to a 1.5" firehouse via a barb connector. The firehose is routed over the yard to a deeper river rock pit about 200' away from the house for discharge. The pumps are hard-wired into an electrical system that was professionally installed at some point in the past, along with a high water alarm. The whole operation is open to the elements, with the exception of the electrical bits...they are contained within conduit and weather proof boxes.
My idea: The pain point of grief here is the firehose part... Its oldand not very efficient (read: leaky), and then she has to leave firehoses laid out across the yard for 3/4 of the year. So, I'm thinking about replacing the hoses with more PVC and burying the pipes, so its not such an inefficient eyesore.
Each firehose will be replaced by pipe, but shortly after leaving the sump, they will come together into a double wye and run out of a larger diameter pipe out to the drain area.
My specific question - what size double wye should I consider for the combined output of the sump pumps? Also, any feedback/advice would be appreciated, too!
One last thing... As the title implies, I kind of have to put a ribbon on a pig with this project... I know that this whole thing needs to be ripped up and redone (and that's what I really want to do), but that's not realistically going to happen anytime soon. My task here is to make it more efficient and less of an eyesore.
Thanks for taking the time to read my novel!
