From: "Eric Tonks" 
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
Subject: Re: Sump pump mystery
Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 12:04:54 -0400

How long did you wait after it levelled off? It is possible that at about
one foot down, the water is now spilling into the gravel fill which is
between the footings and under the concrete floor. This will change the
apparent fill rate drastically making it look as if it is no longer raising.
If you wait for it to fill this porous area, it may resume climbing higher
and start to spill over. Also if this area is filled with water it could
cause your house to settle faster than normal and create a very damp
basement floor.

This could be observed when you turned the pump back on, if it ran for a
while without lowering the water level much, it could be a sign that it was
draining the under floor gravel layer.

"Chris"  wrote in message
news:1e962c1f.0405250528.2992cfc2@posting.google.com...
> Hi all,
>
> I recently moved into a house (NOV2003)- and have always noticed that
> the sump would run fairly ofter (once every twenty minutes or so).
> This was the norm thru most of the winter. Now, Were getting a ton of
> rain here in Michigan and the pump was cycling every 3 minutes. This
> got my attention when the power flickered during the last storm- so I
> set out to get both a backup pump and possibly a battery. With
> high-frequency of the pump running, I wanted to know exactly how much
> time I'd have in the case of a long outtage. I unplugged the pump and
> waited...and waited- the water leveled off with the sump about 3/4
> full. Would it be a crime to raise my pump or float-switch up about a
> foot? At that level I'd still have about 1 foot before spill-over in
> the heaviest of rains and I calculate about foot and a half during the
> winter. Would allowing (what I believe is)the seasonal water table
> stand high in the sump put any consequential pressure on my
> foundation? Anyone have a similar experience?
>
> Thanks,
> -chris