The mechanical devices poeple seem to think will last forever, despite abuse and lack of service, include the water heater and the furnace. But those are not the mechanical devices this blog is referring to.
I am speaking of a device that only a few people have but, if they have one, they sure need it. And chances are, it was installed years ago and nobody has taken a peak at it since. Sometimes they might hear it running, but, if it stopped at some point, did they even notice that it went silent?
Enough teasing, you are probably fit to be tied with anticipation for what I am about to say. I am speaking of the sump pump. In our wet region, Pacific Northwest, these devices are common in crawl spaces and sometimes basements. All else being equal, they are not the first choice as a drainage solution. So far, the natural law of gravity is more reliable if it can be used. But, if it cannot be, then a pump might be in order.
The photos below were taken under a condo. Four families are depending on this pump to keep their crawl space healthy. When I visited the site, there was 4" of muddy standing water under there. In fact, I probably should not have even been back in there, but I had a concern that enticed me to go a ways back into this "no-man's land." Home inspection ain't for sissies. It looks like the condo association put this pump in and then forgot about it. How many years has it been like this? I would answer "many." Also, based on the amount of standing water, and the capacity of the bucket used for the pump, I would say it was way undersized anyway. I heard that, in the past month, they let their maintenance man go. Hmmmm. Might not have been a bad move.
Bottom line: If you have some low-profile, but essential, mechanical device like this that is critical to the well-being of your home, make sure it works. If you do not want to get under there to check it out, hire someone who will -- nobody wants to but some of us will. Anyone who depends on a sump pump should have it inspected, for sure before the wet season gets underway next year.
Steven L. Smith
Bellingham WA Home Inspections
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It amazes me over the years as to what is seen during a home inspection.
Great Post!.
Bill
I second that emotion Bill. Thanks for the comment.
Steve
Yep, Sump pumps can be a lifesaver or they can be a pain in the but....depends on the property. Fortunately in Florida we don't have basements so we don't have sump pumps..... Although, I sure do miss my basements from up north.
Sean Allen
Nothing worse than a sump pump going out. There is no way for it to fail at a convenient time. Mine went at 9:30 PM, just enough time to get to Home Depot before they closed at 10. May be a good idea to keep a spare, they aren't that expensive compared to the alternative...a flooded basement.
Great post.
Sump pumps are dirty words in this area of the south where I live. We have almost no basements and those that we have probably have to have one of these. I sold a house last year that had a sump pump, fortunately to someone from another area who understood them. (No southerner in his right mind buys a house with one....lol) So this basement house was waiting for a person from the north, saved and reduced to bargain price.
He was on his way here to move in. I checked it out for him on the day he was coming. The electricity had gone out. The sump pump couldn't work with no electricity. The basement had LOTS of water! OMG!! Panic on my part. He just got on the phone, made the electric people get the power back on, waded through all the water and took care of the sump pump and he loves his house!
Nice blog, Steve.
When sumpthing is wrong with the sump---sumpthing else must be done---and sumpthing quick by the looks of that mess.
Barbara,
As you can tell, this is not nearly as complex a writing assignment as the previous one involving the range hood. The photo does have some similarities.
Charlie,
I think maybe you should change to taking three of the pink tablets and one of the white, not the other way around. We need to get you normalized again.
Those pictures are pretty nasty. Sump pumps are important in some areas here too.
Steve, do you even know what a stabile is? If I was stabilized, would that mean I was Mime?
Okay, all fixed. Now go take your pills.
Steve, you outdid yourself on that nasty range hood thing. You'll never be able to do a better blog. You've shot all your talents into those few well chosen words that made you the King of blogdom for at least a day. What I couldn't understand is why you got so many comments!! Charles and I really do better work and we get shunned. Right, Charles? : )
So true---SO TRUE. But we don't sleep with the AR Gods:)
Steve, the last thing I would choose to be is "normal." Some people spend their entire lives and never go crazy.
Yeesh, what a mess. good post. I love having tidbits like this to relay to buyers to watch out for...
Barbara,
Okay, I will give you that you have done better ones. Now, far as old man "B" if you took away his connection to Wikpedia, he would have terminal writers block.
Honestly, some of the best blogs I have ever done, like the one on libel, never got featured either. I have done a couple with yucky photos that made the Gods of AR happy. So I do not have it all figured out either as to what will or will not be featured. One time, I guessed in advance that I would get a feature, but only once of several.
By the way, Charlie B, in case you forget, your material is at www.wikpedia.com
Barbara, don't listen to him. I may use Wiki sometimes to back stuff up but that is only because I never used to sell encylopedias and don't have 200 complete sets out in the garage like Steve:)
Barbara,
Believe Steve. Charles, yet again, is off his meds. They took his pointy scissors away yesterday, so he would not hurt himself. I have no clue what will happen next but I am scared and the professionals are trying to decipher what is going on in there.
By the way, he is not up to date on his information. I only have 100 sets of encyclopedias left. I moved the others last week, as in sold them.
Selling them doesn't count if you are still paying payments on them afterwords----yeeessshhhh
No, your wife paid me in cash.
Boys, boys, boys.....you are almost in Junior High now and you shouldn't be picking at each other like this. I'm going to report you to the Principal of ActiveRain School if you don't behave! Now go stand in the corners until you can be civil to each other.
(What I'd say as an ex-teacher.) What I'd think is I'm thoroughly enjoying the creative insulting that you two do. Made me wake up this morning laughing!!! Plus I'm learning to spell new words like yeeessshhh. : )
Barbara,
If you would have a private word with Charlie about his immature attitude it might be helpful. He really should not get in these online huffs.
Steve, have you signed your contract yet for the "Steve & Charlie Horsing Show?"
Charlie,
Your teasing has me in such a dither that my blood pressure would go too high to participate in the horsing show, or shoe, as Ed Sullivan would have said. That dates me.
yeeessshhh....!
Steve, didn't you and Ed go to different schools together?
Thanks for yout tasking the time to provide us with this information in the Active Rain network. AR is the new "cyber backbone" of the industry, and with it's uplink to Localism.com it will transfrom the marketplace. Agents who don't see which way the cyberwind is blowing are going to find themselves at a considerable disadvantage inside of three to five years.