Three months ago I bought a property which has an inspection pit in the garage. It (the pit) has brick walls, and a concrete floor. Following heavy rain a few weeks ago, about 60mm of water collected in the pit. I bought a submersible pump from Argos and pumped out the bulk of the water, but it has not yet dried out completely. The pit was dry when I viewed the property last November. The question is ~ is it inevitable that an inspection pit will accumulate water following heavy or prolonged rain? Has anyone had experience of this problem, and what was their solution?
L'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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L,
had exactly the same problem in my garage. Turns out that during a heavy downpour the soakaway on my drive struggled to cope and the next path of least resistance was under my garage door and into the pit. Had to lay a small concrete dam to stem the tide. Tricky to connect the two as I didnt see the damp until the next time I went to use the pit, as it takes forever to dry out - my pit is covered when not in use.
Goes without saying you need to leave your pit uncovered to dry out, and this can take a while, and there are obvious dangers in doing this.
Andy
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This probably won't help you, but I once knew a guy who drove a forklift truck into an HGV inspection pit! Got it well stuck. They had to get a crane in to lift it out.
Sorry to digress.
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You can buy that stuff from Wickes, that seals leaking flat roofs even when wet, and use it to paint the floor and say, 2 foot up the walls. Its a silvery colour, sorry don't know any more detail than that.
There are various other bitumen type paints that may have a sealing effect.
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I have an inspection pit: it never floods because the drive into the garage is up a slight slope so surface and ground water seeps away from it.
I would never have a pit where drainage is the other way.
The only solution is either a pump or to sort out the ground water table. The latter is usually impossible. A fibreglass liner can be ok but if yor current pit floods, the groundwater will lift it up:-(
madf
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Soakaways don't last for ever. They can fill up with sand & stuff. I know, I've just had mine dug out and overhauled. Has made the cellar drier and the yard doesn't flood when I wash the cars.
H.
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Stranger in a strange land
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i have dug two pits, the first was in a garage on a very steep hill, in my innocence i thought water would never get into the pit because it would simply drain down the hill, wrong water seeped through the brickwork at low level, it took two attempts to seal it as follows, a 1 inch thick coat of rendering with a water proofing cement additive, this slowed the seepage but did not stop it, finally a couple of coats of a black bitumen type paint did the job, unfortunately i cant remember the names of the cement additive or the paint,(it was 20 years ago). For my second attempt in my present house again on a slight slopping hill, i used a one piece liner, dropped it in the hole, laid the concrete base over it and bricked to the top, result a bone dry pit.
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L'escarcot, a small 'sump' at the lowest end of the pit might help. (Assuming a sloping or imperfect floor) Full width and about a foot deep. Can be pumped out easily.
Duckboards are a good idea as well, until you drop something.
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