Do you have a sump pit now? If so, it'll connect to a pipe leading to the outdoors and away from the house. The pit itself can be anywhere, but it's usually close to where the pipe comes through the foundation wall.

Plus, the pit will have one or more incoming pipes leading to the tile drainage around your foundation, and ideally that run is as short as feasible too.

Either way, you'll want to maintain easy access to check it every now and then. You'll want to know it's working (often just the satisfying hum of the pump running every now and then, but not constantly), and you'll want to be able to get in there fairly quick if something goes wrong.

I've had cases where the float gets stuck, and the pit fills up. So at least once I year I pop the cover and jiggle things around to make sure everything's sliding & working.

I also always recommend a high-level alarm. You can get a sensor to tie into your home alarm if you have one, or something separate. But pumps do fail, and you'll want a secondary warning other than sloshing through ankle-deep water.

You'd best consult with a plumber or foundation drainage contractor to make sure you're doing it right.

There are lots of ”hide my sump pump” hacks on line - i agree with Brad on easy access, for our basement sump pump we built a cover made of the floor material to help camoflauge it - its not perfect but it helps a bit. I think you could easily hide it in cabinetry

The sump pit location is what is running the show, not the shelving or cabinet locations or functions of rooms. If you don't disperse water potentially entering into the basement, none of the finishes, cabinets, or rooms matter. So place the sump pit based on where it's best for collecting water, piping, and discharge.

Then you can figure out how to hide the cover, pipes, and sound but still allow easy access, and I can guarantee you that RTA cabinets will not meet that criteria.

I have Ikea cabinets in our basement kitchen. They are a good product however they are partical board. In no way would I risk installing them near a sump pit - pumps and electricity fail.

In a corner where our sump is located, far away from our kitchen, I built the cabinet pictured. It encloses the pit and discharge lines for both the sump pump AND a back-up pump. Removing the wood top and sliding the shroud away permits access. BTW I replace pumps every 5 years.

Sorry, I should have explained the nature of the basement reno more, and why I have some flexibility on sump pit location at the moment --I do know it needs to be well positioned to connect to our weeping tile and to discharge outside! This is a rather extreme basement renovation in which we have underpinned the foundation and are lowering the floors by two feet. We are also completely redoing and lowering all the house drains and weeping tile. I'm including a photo I took yesterday for your entertainment -- that's our hot water tank hanging from the floor joists on the left, and you can see the "cliff" of the last bit of old basement floor not dug yet, as well as the temporary posts holding up our joists now that they've knocked out our old brick columns and are preparing to replace our central beam with steel. So we really are starting from scratch on basement drainage, and the pre-existing 110-year-old drains (which you can see on the floor on the left between the "cliff" and the water tank) are headed for the landfill.

The house has never had a sump pit before (didn't need it, but not taking any risks now we're down two feet) and the two possible locations are what my (very pro) contractor suggested. the one that would be in an Ikea cab is on the front of the house, and I've now realized having the pipe discharge out there might be a bit unsightly, so we might go with the back storage room after all and discharge along our back fence Still, if anyone has any further thoughts on the ikea cabinet question we'd love to hear them!

You probably need to research sump pits + pumps a little more. Understand you need a backup and what space you need for that (battery/switch or water powered), the check valves, replacing the pumps (by removing the pipe up to the check valve) if need be, removing the pit cover, etc. Having a combination of cabinets built on top of each other (base to reach over, hitting your head on face frames or in the way of pulling out a 3'-5' pipe with heavy pump attached) to fill up your 9' or 10' ceiling height with a cabinet - under the gun you or a plumber will be tearing that cabinet out come crunch time.

A better place to group a sump pit is a mechanical room that also houses things like a furnace, water heater, ejector pit, or soil stack. You don't have to worry about aesthetics.

I have a grease trap in my 50's MCM ranch it is in my basement storage room where we have all industrial stainless shelving but the racks are all on casters for ease of movement maybe just look at that option

@Patricia Colwell Consulting that is a good idea! Do you have a favourite brand/source for stainless shelving on casters?

Ok, this thread is getting out of hand. First, a grease trap (which in a house would most likely be a backwater/check valve) is very different from a sump pit and piping. Google or visit someone who has a sump pit. Here is a photo of a typical one:

Notice the 2 pipes coming out - one for the main pump, one for backup. Notice the electrical outlet. Notice the battery and switch. Notice the distance of the pit away from the wall to clear the footing. Notice the 3/4" drain, which could be from an a/c coil condensate, a water heater drain pan, or a dehumidifier, any of which you might have in the basement. Notice how you can access all around the 24" pit cover to remove it (like to cut the radon sealing polyurethane), and contort your body as needed to lift out the pump when maintaining it. Imagine water spraying out the check valve if it leaks or splashing water around when you have to change the pump. Now picture what good covering a whole 8" of clear space on top the sump cover with a roller rack would really help your storage needs. Or why you would go through the trouble to manipulate a few stacked RTA cabinets to try and cover all this.

Also notice the radon pipe, which you may want to look into separately from this sump.

Since you are adding a sump now, and apparently in an urban environment where you have more leeway in location, place it in a mechanical room or storage room and leave the pit unenclosed and unencumbered.

@3onthetree thanks, this is helpful. I don't think anyone I know has a sump pit though! Many of my friends are in condos, and I don't think they're super common here unless you've dug your basement down (and even then not always -- my parents excavated their basement 35 years ago and don't have one, and have experienced very little water incursion). We don't have a particularly high water table. Flooding is getting worse here with climate change though and every 3-5 years there's a storm that floods a bunch of basements in the city, so it definitely seems wise.

Anyhow, this is helpful, particularly the photo. I was under the impression that the pipe could turn at a right angle just above the floor and then go up the wall, and have seen this in my google image searching. The description of what sump pit maintenance might look like is illuminating.

AC condensate etc will run into a floor drain in our utility room, so that's not a consideration here. And luckily there's no issues with radon where we live.

As you can imagine this is a huge structural project, and I am trying to rapidly inform myself on foundation structures, excavation methods, waterproofing, drains, plumbing, concrete, egress windows, HVAC, etc so i somewhat understand what my (very professional and well-respected) contractor is doing, but it's all a lot to learn!

You are wise to consider adding a pit if you're lowering your floor 2 feet. It's very difficult to determine for sure if you need to or not, but better to put one in than find out a bit later that you're 6" below the high-water line.

"Normally" the pipe runs straight up, one right angle, and through the wall to outside (below the typical frost line where you are, or 3'ish feet below grade so it won't freeze), then angled down to where it comes out the other end. But since the water is being pumped, you can have additional bends. Make sure you have a reverse-flow valve (so water can't come back in via that pipe).

And yeah, you can have a cabinet that hides it, as long as it's set up so that you can get access in a pinch. Sumps are often things you ignore, until that fateful day you suddenly can't.

One small tip is when you build the cabinet, have some air gaps such that the pipes aren't touching the cabinet itself. The pump will have a bit of a "hum" to it, and that slight vibration might transfer to the cabinet (think sub-woofer) and drive you nuts with the low drone every time it comes on.

As to the radon mention, just double-check that your local code doesn't require radon pre-mitigation since you're pouring a new floor. Ours does on any new/replaced floors. We're in a "moderate" radon area where I am (though our own levels check ultra-low).

So there's a utility room with a furnace. Put it there. Realize when people cover their sumps and piping with convoluted shapes of 'cabinets,' it is because they did not have a choice with where the pit went. Then later the location did not meet their plan for a basement buildout, and they have not yet experienced a pump failure at midnight on a Saturday during day 1 of a 3 day heavy rain. And really, if you think about it, your furnace and water heater has clearance requirements for maintenance. Why shouldn't your sump pit too?

If you look at maps of radon, both U.S. and Canada, there are not a whole lot of <2pCi/L areas. And even then one house could be high where the neighbor is fine. So when the slab is up, always put a passive loop with future stub up and vapor barrier while you have the chance. No different than wishing you had that coax or Cat6 prewired for a wall tv, cheap insurance to do it at the time it's accessible. Can also help with underslab water.

And with water, it is not just rain events. A neighbor's remodel, landscaping, or just a change in downspout locations can create a future problem with water for you.

@3onthetree I've been specifically advised by my basement contractor *not* to put it in the utility room. I need to discharge either through the southeast or southwest corner of my house (front or back yard, away from patios and walkways) and my utility room is on the north wall half way between the east and west walls, so the pipe would have to run a very circuitous and lengthy route. I'm planning a storage room in the northeast corner and cabinetry in the southwest corner, which is why these two options were the contenders. It looks like I'll be putting it in the storage room.

You could be right that we aren't adequately considering the radon question. I asked my basement guy about radon before we started the project (basically gave him a clear opportunity to upsell me on radon mitigation) and he told me "oh, you don't have to worry about radon in this area" -- and I believed him, though on further investigation it does look like there is *some* radon present in my city (just nearly as much as in a neighbouring city where it's a known problem). We aren't putting one of those fan things under the slab but we are doing 5 inches of gravel, membrane and 3 inches of insulation -- that ought to mitigate to some extent, right? I probably will do a radon test after this is all done just in case. I guess radon-sealing the sump pit is something we could always do after the fact if we found it was needed, right?

I used Uline and also some from Costco

Wire shelving; make sure it has the NSF certification and locking casters. Shelving is also available with an epoxy coating over the standard chrome. Buy a cheap rubber mallet from Harbor Freight to assist you in putting it together.

Radon finds its way through cracks and openings in the floor and walls. Pressurization (like stack effect) is a strong force, pulling the air through openings you cannot even see. So merely the presence of a concrete slab, gravel, insulation, and vapor barrier is not enough to stop radon.

Passive radon mitigation is merely a pipe stuck through the slab, with the open end allowing the air filtering through the dirt or gravel underneath the slab to escape into the pipe and be exhausted above the roof. When you seal all areas that air can rise into the basement, like drains, slab edges, sump covers, except for this one pipe, the air escapes via convective rise on its own (lower subslab pressure vs higher indoor pressure), and sometimes can be adequate to lower radon levels. If not, then you add a mechanical fan to pull the air out.

AARST CCAH-2020 standards recommend that new construction either have 4" gravel or a 4" perforated pipe loop running under the slab. In the same way you are lowering your risk by installing a sump pump, a surge protector, or pre-wiring low voltage for some unknown future electronic device, for radon you should install the 4" pipe loop when you have the chance. If you've seen installation of radon systems, you understand that "communication" (meaning the success of pulling the air through the gravel or dirt) is part-n-parcel of mitigating radon, and there are always issues with the gravel and dirt. Avoid that by putting in a pipe which allows air to move unhindered.

This simple to install, cheap corrugated pipe would connect to a vertical 4" PVC pipe with a Tee. The 4" PVC can be a stub located where it could route up through the roof or out the side of house later, or you can install it vertically complete now.

100' of 4" perforated corrugated pipe runs about $50. Polyurethane sealant runs about $5 tube. This is cheap insurance to make it much easier later if you find out you have to.

AARST also says to short-term test within 60 days after construction, but I'd wait 6mos to a year or so, if fine, then retest after a few years.