The End of the Watery Tale

The new sump pump definitely worked better but it took forever to pump the pit dry. It basically ran for 48 hours straight and barely kept up with the water coming in. I knew it had to do with the lines that were thickly coated with clay so I decided to replace them all.

I've never had to run PVC (polyvinyl chloride) before. So I stopped at Home Depot, asked a few questions, and bought 20 feet of pipe and a bunch of fittings.

I prepared the new pipe by cutting the appropriate lengths, sanding the ends, and setting up to glue them as soon as I was ready. I then began removing the old pipe by cutting it out with a saw. What I discovered was a confirmation of my suspicion. The pipe was coated with the clay ALL THE WAY to the outlet. All 15 feet of 1.5" pipe was choked down to a 1/4" hole.

The old pipe came out pretty easily but it was messy. The new pipe actually went in really well. The special glue worked great and I only had to make 1 trip back to Home Depot to buy a fitting I hadn't planned for. In all it only cost $20 for the piping material and 3 hours of my time.

After replacing the pipe, my sump pump could clear the pit in under 30 seconds! The room looks much better now too.