That moment my basement flooded and the sump pump was doing nothing

So I'm down there last Tuesday night around 11 PM grabbing a box of Christmas decorations, right? I step off the last stair and my foot goes straight into about an inch of cold water. I had just checked the sump pump two days before because we had all that rain and it seemed fine. But I guess the float switch got jammed on something, some old piece of plastic or a toy my kid dropped down there. I spent the next hour scooping water into buckets and hauling them up the stairs, meanwhile the pump is just sitting there silent. Finally I took the cover off, fished out a broken Hot Wheels car, and the thing kicked on like nothing happened. Lost a few cardboard boxes of old books and a rug I should have thrown out years ago. Has anyone else had the float switch get stuck like that, or is it just my luck with old houses?

3 comments

3 Comments

stellanelson12d ago

Honestly? You lost some old books and a rug you already wanted gone. Sounds like the flood did you a favor. Next time just check the pump before you go wading in with Christmas boxes.

ray_campbell469d ago

@stellanelson you're not wrong though.

theagibson12d ago

Oh come on man, "did you a favor?" Really? Tell that to my back after hauling buckets of water at 11 PM in the dark. That was a solid hour of tripping up wet stairs, not some easy decluttering win. And books aren't just "old books" to everyone, some people actually read and keep stuff. Plus a rug might not be a priceless treasure but it still costs money to replace, so losing it is just an extra expense you didn't plan on. The real lesson here is that pumps fail at the worst possible time, not that the water damage was a blessing in disguise. A half hour of preventative maintenance would have saved me a whole lot of hassle, but I guess that's just too logical for some folks.