Why One Sump Pump Won't Save Your Crawl Space

Can a single sump pump really protect your home from flooding, or is there a more comprehensive strategy you need to consider? Join us as Michael Church from Crawl Space Ninja debunks common myths about crawl space waterproofing and reveals the must-know techniques for effective water management. From French drains and vapor barriers to advanced installation techniques, Michael covers it all. You'll learn why simply installing a sump pump might not suffice, especially for larger crawl spaces, and how to combine multiple systems to ensure your home remains dry and secure.

Michael provides actionable advice for both DIY enthusiasts and seasoned homeowners, emphasizing the importance of a full perimeter trench system and external water management solutions like downspout extensions and curtain drains. Discover why a sump pump every 140 linear feet is essential and how to keep even the most expansive crawl spaces free from standing water. Don't miss this episode if you're serious about safeguarding your home from water damage and maintaining a healthy living environment!

Check out Michael's book, "Crawl Space Repair Myths-Busted" now available on Amazon!

Need help: https://crawlspaceninja.com or https://diy.crawlspaceninja.com

Transcript

Speaker 0: 0:00

Michael Church, crawl Space Ninja. We are continuing our crawl space misconception series and today I want to talk to you about the sump pump. There's a lot of contractors out there where they will for lack of a better word halfway do a water management or a waterproofing system, and some want to go the cheap route and only install the sump pump. Is that enough to keep your crawl space from flooding? There are several things that you need to do to address standing water in the crawl space. Now, if your crawl space is 200 square feet, you might get away with just putting in a sump pump and make sure it's properly installed. Don't just throw it down on the mud and hook an extension cord up to it. Make sure you put it in a basin and you surround it with gravel and all that kind of stuff, and we've done some videos about that if you want to search that out. But basically, what you want to do is you want to have the basin installed and the sump pump installed and then, as the water comes in through the foundation wall or percolates up from the ground, depending on where your water is coming from, you want to have some form of French drain that will capture that water you know, 30, 40, 50, 150 feet away and immediately direct that water to the sump pump. So if you've got a fairly large crawl space which is thousand square feet, 500 square feet, 2500 square feet, it may actually not only need a sump pump but a French drain along with a properly installed vapor barrier, along with outside water management like a downspout, extensions and French drains and curtain drains installed outside, not just the sump pump itself. Now, the sump pump should always be installed immediately.

Speaker 0: 1:41

If you're doing this yourself, go ahead and get the sump pump installed. Always be installed immediately. If you're doing this yourself, go ahead and get the sump pump installed. Give that standing water somewhere to go. But then eventually you want to dig a full perimeter trench around the entire perimeter of the crawl space. If it's got a lot of square footage, you may even cross connect through the center of the crawl space to the outside, especially if you've got water percolating up, to get that water to that sump pump as quickly as possible. And keep in mind that the rule of thumb for Crawl Space Ninja is that we install a crawl space sump pump system every 140 linear feet. So if you've got a 3,500 square foot crawl space or you've got a lot of linear footage because of how the crawl space is broken up. You may actually need more than one sump pump with the French drain system and the vapor barrier you are installing. So, michael Church, crawl Space Ninja, hope that helps you all out. Hope you make it a happy and blessed day. We'll see you later.