love01
08-08-2018, 07:00 PM
Hello - my wife and I just purchased an older house and while cleaning out the basement of old furniture came across a hole in the basement floor.
We believe a french drainage system was installed during construction in the mid 1940s. The house is on a hill with a decent slope down. There are 2 channels that lead to the pit/well and 2 pipes. One pipe runs under the concrete basement floor to the pit, the other pit runs from the outside of the house into the pit (which brings mud/silt into the pit).
After researching a bit we were convinced it was a gravity sump pit or gravity sump well (since the house is on a hill). We also have a gravity fed septic system which is why we're drawing that conclusion.
As i mentioned, the hole was 1/2 filled with mud/silt so this evening I decided to dig it out in the hope of finding drain to confirm... nothing. It's brick on all sides inside the whole.
There's no water in the pit/well and we had a week of non-stop heavy rains... there are signs of past water however.
Can anyone tell us what this thing is and what its supposed to do? Any assistance would be appreciated.
We believe a french drainage system was installed during construction in the mid 1940s. The house is on a hill with a decent slope down. There are 2 channels that lead to the pit/well and 2 pipes. One pipe runs under the concrete basement floor to the pit, the other pit runs from the outside of the house into the pit (which brings mud/silt into the pit).
After researching a bit we were convinced it was a gravity sump pit or gravity sump well (since the house is on a hill). We also have a gravity fed septic system which is why we're drawing that conclusion.
As i mentioned, the hole was 1/2 filled with mud/silt so this evening I decided to dig it out in the hope of finding drain to confirm... nothing. It's brick on all sides inside the whole.
There's no water in the pit/well and we had a week of non-stop heavy rains... there are signs of past water however.
Can anyone tell us what this thing is and what its supposed to do? Any assistance would be appreciated.