What's Sump?

And the rains came. And haven't stopped since Friday evening. We have a sump pump in our basement that pumps water out before it leaks in (not sure how it works, really). Well, the thing is going friggin haywire. It's coming on every 3 seconds. I have two 5 gallon buckets down there ready for bail duty, and the plumber on speed dial. Our $10k basement renovation is in the hands of a piece of equipment the size of a saucepan.

Needless to say, I'm not confident in it.

As I write this, I'm imagining water silently creeping up and out of the well, infiltrating and spreading across the basement floor. Creeping into every corner and crevice. My baseboards drinking it up and expanding and warping, pulling nails from the framwork. Drywall no longer dry as the moisture bleeds up the walls.

My basement renovation has become an expensive petri dish for mold spores.

OK. Just writing about that scenario made me take action. I just called a plumber.

I'll write later to tell you about Mr. Plumberman's verdict on the situation, how much he cost me, and, of course, his ass crack.

Stay tuned.

Update 9:32 am: Never saw $500 go so fast. The sump pump was working great when the plumber came. He spent a total of 6 minutes looking at it. He told me a new pump would be $500 including installation. I said "no thanks." The old pump (which looked like it was from the 1930's) seemed to be working fine. I'd just keep my eye on it to see if there were any problems. Then he said, it'll be $105 for the visit. Oh, fuckin' great. $105 for 6 minutes of work? Put the damn pump in an earn your money pipe monkey.

Update 10:10 am: Awww. He ain't so bad. Gave me a price break on it, came to $370-sumthin. The $105 was applied to the install. So all I had to pay for was parts. Now I don't have to worry about my basement flooding. Yay! And no plumber crack, the guy had his shirt tucked in.

Update 1:09 pm: Just found out my next door neighbor had 18" of standing water in his basement. I suppose I got off light.

G