The Sump Pump Was Dumping Into the Sewer. Sealed With Duct Tape.

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The sump pump looked fine. Ran fine. Kicked on, kicked off, did its job. The problem wasn’t the pump. It was where the water was going.

The discrepancy

Late-’70s house in Warren. I followed the discharge pipe from the sump pit up across the basement ceiling. Instead of heading out through the wall, it tied straight into the main sanitary drain. Same pipe your toilets, kitchen sink and washing machine drain into.

Somebody abandoned the original outside discharge line and sealed the inside end with duct tape. Duct tape. On a pipe that goes through the foundation. I’ve seen a lot of creative fixes. That one made the report in about four seconds.

Why it matters

• It’s not allowed. Michigan’s plumbing code doesn’t let groundwater drain into a sewer built for sewage only.
• It backs up basements. Every heavy rain, that pump shoves gallons of groundwater into a line that was never sized for it. That’s how sewage ends up coming back up through a floor drain.
• It can land on the buyer. Plenty of Metro Detroit communities go looking for these connections. Once one gets flagged, whoever owns the house owns the fix.
• It stacks. We scoped the sewer line on this same house and found roots at a shifted joint. Now picture all that sump water pushing through it.

The fix

A licensed plumber reroutes the discharge back outside, well away from the foundation, and properly caps the old connection to the sewer. That little stub in the brick outside was the right answer the whole time.

Why I’m telling you this

Nobody catches this by watching the pump run. You have to follow the pipe. Aviation QA beat that into me: you don’t sign off a system because it turns on. You sign it off because you traced it end to end and it does what it’s supposed to do, the way it’s supposed to do it.

— KyleKyle Winn · Owner & Inspector · PreFlight Home Inspections · 586-522-8733