Give people time to wake up this morning and respond. But in the meantime, I just had to repair a sump pump drain pipe. We didn't know where it led, and I wondered if it possibly went to the septic field. The plumber said no, it would not, should not. Sure enough, we found where it drained out, not to the septic.

I don’t know whether code allows a sump pump to drain into a septic but in my opinion it’s not a good idea. If you are in a rural area, why not allow your sump pump to drain out into the yard? It’s just dirty water. I’ve lived in two places that needed sump pumps and that’s what we did and it’s always worked just fine. It’s an easy fix but I wouldn’t want to put gravel and sand into my septic tank. That is a very expensive fix after you fill it up with sand and gravel. LOL!

@pagosapamie that is what i was thinking too. We are in a rural area and have plenty of space for the sump to have its own outlet. You pay both a contractor and plumber a lot of money for their skill and expertise. We trusted them but maybe this was their idea of a shortcut? I feel like several of these “skilled, experts” have just came, did the job quickly, left messes and asked to be paid!

I would not think that he would've tied in your floor drain/sump drain line into the septic. That makes zero sense. Why would you want to inject sump water into your tank? Crazy. We don't have a sump, but we have a floor drain that was piped to go out into the field in front of the house.

So, yes, obviously the sump/floor drain line is clogged somewhere between the pump and cleanout pipe :/ And if the sinks are backing up, who knows??? Weird. Regarding the debris that is inside the sump cover, that's on your contractor since obviously his guys were the ones deciding to use it as a trash can of sorts. Hopefully the pump isn't damaged and all this is a relatively simple fix.

In my area its not legal to run a sump pump outlet to a city sanitary sewer, so it makes sense that you would not connect it to a septic system. When my pump runs it will pump about 4-5 gallons out for each cycle, and may cycle about every 20 minutes after a heavy rain. It is moving a lot of groundwater out from under the basement floor.

In an unfinished basement it should be easy to figure out where the sump pump drain goes. The pipe coming out of the pit will have a backflow preventer on the pipe a short distance above the pit (usually a rubber fitting where the pipe is clamped on). From there you should follow it up and over to where it exits the house at the foundation level. Then look outside to see where the water comes out, and make sure the opening is clear.

Considering the debris you found in the pit - If you manually cycle the pump and it initially sends water up the pipe and outside, then stops, and then water gushes back into the sump, you might have debris plugging the backflow preventer flap. The water goes up at least 10 feet and then across several more feet, so there can be quite a bit of water in the pipe when the pump shuts off. The backflow preventer keeps it from gushing back down again into the pit.

If water builds up and you need to get it out of the basement quickly, I highly recommend the Ryobi pump they sell at Home Depot. https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-18-Volt-ONE-Hybrid-Transfer-Pump-P750/300258095 It runs off either battery (purchased separately) or A/C and it moves a lot of water through a garden hose. We used it several times during our construction to move rainwater out of the areas we had excavated. I usually ran it off the battery so that I didn't have to mix water with A/C power.

Bruce

No surface discharge should ever drain into the sanitary system. Or vice versa. This is why cities build separate storm water management systems in addition to sewage management systems.

Contact your builder.

Sump pump water is discharged onto the ground or into a "dry well" - rarely allowed into a sewer (big fine), never into a septic tank or its drain field.

My DH is so angry. Seems like a shortcut they decided to take. Still trying to get someone out here to help us. The first plumber backed out on our builder/contractor. So someone is lined up to come out but they haven’t gotten here yet. I hope they don’t back out too

I assume you held back some money for anything that needs to be repaired after the fact. If the builder's plumbers don't come out, call your own, get a bill from your choice and charge it back to the builder. Of course let him know beforehand that you'll be doing that since you don't want water in your brand new basement.

I know nothing about sump pumps. However, if septic not draining and gurgling, have you checked the septic breaker? Ours was accidentally flipped off by a worker. Took a while for us to clue in.

Some septic systems don't have a breaker or a pump associated with them. Ours currently is gravity fed. Our last has had a pump because it was a low pressure system and it had a septic tank (for solids) plus a pump tank (for liquid) that pumped the liquid uphill to the septic field. Ours had an alarm on it so that if the pump in the pump tank wasn't working, an annoying siren went off and a flashing light on the outside of the house went off.

Well we had to get our own plumber to come out. Cost us 150 to have the drain snaked. He had to pull the toilet because the access wouldn’t allow for his machine to go through...... I thought that was strange but whatever. He didn’t have an extra wax ring so he went to town to snake another drain grabbed us a wax ring and came back to reinstall the toilet. So while he was gone I ran the washer, shower, tub and sinks! My DH was watching the drain pipe and everything flowed really well out to the septic. I addressed the concern of having the sump drain into the septic and this plumber also thought that wasn’t a concern unless the drain clogged hmmmmm which it did! He thought it was a homeowners preference!

Unfortunately we will never know what clogged the drain. The plumber thought it could be mud or rock from the original rough in which is also what my builder thought because it was really muddy when they did the underground. My husband said he just saw a lot of blackish nasty looking crude push through and then lots of water! Needless to say I also found out that none of my bathtubs keep water because the drain stops don’t work and I think we found our new plumber! Thank you all for helping us!

I've had one rural home with septic. It was gorgeous, and I miss it, but that's another story. The sump pump discharged at the end of the yard away from the septic field.

Sympathy extended.

If you have a septic tank and also have flush issues, consider having the tank and lines pumped out/emptied.

Even a small leak over time can "liquify" surrounding dirt ( create muddy water) and move it, including into the pipe, where it can settle and again become mud. Consider replacing the pipe where any specific clog has been found.

That said, the junk -- nails, etc., -- being left in the pump were not a "natural" event and may even have damaged the pump. Your contractor and his plumber(s) need to make this right asap.

Some tree roots (especially water friendly ones such as weeping willow) can enter and fill up and stop up septic drain fields. Ditto that for any other drain fields such as sump pump removing rainwater from a basement.

Would not have any sump pump that is intended to remove only rain water ( no sewage) be emptied into any septic system. Rainwater runoff needs to be discharged into the yard/roadside ditch.

Would not want a sump pump as a default -- would want the exterior and interior of any basement wall waterproofed so no sump pump is needed. That moisture is still in the concrete that has not yet seeped into the basement and puddled on the floor IS still moisture your home will be absorbing, potentially causing health threatening mold and mildew.

Do you have a lawyer you've used before/trust -- such as for your real estate closing? Not a lawyer but you may well need to talk with one about protecting yourselves in this situation. Don't threaten getting a lawyer or going to court unless until your lawyer says it's actually in your best interest and the right time to do that. Instead, gather all documents you've signed regarding this build/purchase and document the problems (photographs -- dated notes).

In my views, given the sump pump failure, you should consider asking (courteously demanding) waterproofing outside your basement/cellar/foundation wall so the sump pump shouldn't be needed and, if necessary, even seek to withhold payment until the issue is addressed -- but ask your lawyer.

Check about waterproofing the exterior of your basement/cellar walls -- requiring digging down beside them -- or at least waterproofing inside the wall..

Check about better landscaping with the objective of "turning the rainwater" away from your basement/cellar wall.

Good luck.

@suezbell the sump pump was intended as a back up since we get torrential rainfall in the spring and a lot of areas in our area have natural springs. The concrete has been waterproofed with a rubbery compound on the exterior and we have drain tile both in and outside the walls that is daylighted out to the field. I didn’t think the pump would ever run unless we got a tremendous amount of ran or by chance have a natural spring nearby. We are finding that it does need to rain. My dh and I have decided to look into Putting in its own discharge line So it doesn’t go into the septic.