Protect Your Basement from Flooding: Upgrade to a ½ Horsepower Sump Pump

An inch of water might not seem like much, but an inch of water covering one acre equals 1.13 tons and over 27,154 gallons[i]. Generally speaking, the structure of most homes are constructed to deflect rainfall away from them where it can be safely absorbed in the ground. However, when downpours continue over a period of days, the ground can become saturated, and a home can feel the weight of water as the inches of rainfall grow. As the volume of water pools around a home, it will flow down the path of least resistance, often flooding a home’s basement. To eliminate flooding, most basements are constructed with a sump pump and battery backup system.

What is a Sump Pump?

In the lowest part of the basement, your home should have a pit that drops below the surface of your basement floor. This pit is specially designed to allow excess water that floods a basement to flow into this hole. A plumbing device called a sump pump is fixed within this pit. When the water levels of this pit rise, the sump pumps activates, sucking the water out and pumping it outside where it can drain away from the house.

Surprisingly, many homeowners are unaware of what a sump pump and a backup system are. For them, their sump pump is just another part of their home that quietly functions to protect their home’s basement in the background. Generally, they do not give it another a thought until it fails to do its job, causing a basement to flood.

Make Sure Your Sump Pump Has the Power it Needs!

In the past, the most common plumbing-related issue for a flooded basement was a malfunctioned sump pump. However, our expert plumbing technicians have made house calls to find a flooded basement despite a fully functioning sump pump working hard to eliminate the water. Unfortunately, the sheer volume of water is far beyond these lower capacity sump pump’s ability to handle it. They simply do not have the power to deal with the amount of water in their systems.

In these cases, the sump pump involved does not have the literal horsepower to handle the basement flooding effectively. Most basements that have sump pumps use three-tenths horsepower. In layman’s terms, these sump pumps can only drain about 34 gallons of water a minute. However, on days where the rainfalls far exceed the norms, the ground becomes saturated to the point that even the most watertight basements experience flooding. In these instances, 34 gallons a minute simply isn’t enough to eliminate the excess water in a system. This is why the team at Andy’s Pipe Dream recommends installing the Zoeller Half Horsepower Sump Pump.

Protect Your Home and Avoid Costly Water Damage with the Zoeller Half-Horsepower Sump Pump

During heavy rainfalls, the saturated ground can cause water to leak through the known and unknown cracks in a basement. Water damage can not only be devastating to a home’s structure and the contents within, but it can lead to long-term complications like outbreaks of mold, which can threaten the health and safety of you and your loved ones. If left unattended, it can even cause damage to a home’s electrical system causing it to malfunction or soak the wood beams setting in wood rot.

At Andy’s Pipe Dream, we want to give our customers the power they need to combat such hazards. That is why we recommend that all our customers install the Zoeller flow mate 0.5-HP 115-Volt Cast Iron Submersible Sump Pump in their homes. This revolution in plumping technology increases a home’s ability to pump unwanted water from a home’s basement at an exceptional rate. Unlike the less powerful models, the Zoeller Half-Horsepower Sump Pump can drain up to 60 gallons of water a minute. This higher capacity is usually the boost most homes need to prevent basement flooding caused by environmental factors like heavy rainfall.

Empower Your Sump Pump’s Ability to Protect Your Home by Installing a PRO Series Backup Sump Pump System

The Zoeller Half-Horsepower Sump Pump is an innovative piece of technology that protects your home from environmental-caused flooding. However, it does need power from the home’s electrical grid to operate. Considering that a storm can sometimes knock a home’s power out during a heavy rain, we recommend that our clients get a battery-operated backup sump pump system. We install the PRO Series Backup Sump Pump System with a battery backup. Although it does not grant the same level of power as the Zoeller Half-Horsepower Sump Pump, it offers a homeowner some peace of mind that their home is protected from flooding during a power outage.

We Are Ready to Help

Want our experts to protect you? We will send one of our licensed and insured expert technicians to evaluate your needs and custom design a sump pump system that works for you.

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