My house's sump pump situation is baffling

[a_scanner_brightly]

Bought a bungalow over crawlspace style house earlier this year in the wet part of Oregon.  It was built in the 50s.

We're near the bottom of a hill; probably declines a foot over the 45 foot span of our property.  The dirt under the house is pretty difficult to dig into, very sticky clay.

There's a sump pit in the (very narrow) crawlspace under the house.   And by pit I mean like a <5 galllon bucket with holes drilled into it.  Inside this bucket is a sump pump.  It has a check valve installed and drains to a rock pond in the front yard, which when it fills up to a certain height drains to the street.

During particularly heavy downpours it fires once every 20 seconds or so.  I've poked my head into the crawlspace when it's doing this and there's about an inch of water all over it.  The vapor barrier sheets kinda float on top of the water when this happens.   It takes days to recover.  It rained lightly for a week once and even after  three days of sunshine I could still hear the pump firing every 3 minutes.  I expect it's not going to live very long due to the constant start/stop wear-and-tear.

Although it's in a 5 gallon bucket, the sump pump action takes a gallon and a half of water to run it (we tested it by hand).
 
Even more annoying is the drainage pipe for the sump pump runs under two bedrooms.  It's pretty loud.  Especially when the rock pond has water in it, since the sound of water blowing into it reverberates back down the line.

Anyway!  I have a two part question.

1. Was this kind of sump pump design standard back when my style house was built? My house was built in the 50s.  It's a little hard to imagine this house and all of the houses in the neighborhood having one installed.   Maybe I'm discounting how advanced technology was back then, and sump pumps were readily available and installed.

2. If sump pumps were standard, how the fuck did anyone expect the one I have installed to be effective?  My crawlspace is so narrow (<2 feet tall) that it's nearly impossible to even pull a large enough sump pit into it, let alone do the work to install it. I expect the previous installer used a <5 gallon bucket because that's all they could comfortably fit.  How do people keep crawlspaces dry when they're this goddamned tight?

I'm pretty confused by this whole setup in general.  Is this stuff even close to best practice?  Is it really that bad to let my crawlspace get so wet?  It's basically wet af right now anyway, even with the stupid pump trying its hardest (and loudest) to dry it.  I can't shake the feeling that this house has never had a dry crawlspace during the rainy season in Oregon, and if so, why even bother with the pump when it's lasted nearly 70 years?

[El_Viajero]

I'll spare you the details of why I've spent so much time learning about crawlspaces, moisture, and drainage over the past year, but let's just say this is something I've studied exhaustively myself. I've even had conversations with several experts (people in the home performance, HVAC, and drainage businesses) about issues involving wet crawlspaces. So I'm not as much of an authority as some, but I know a thing or three. Or four.

Bottom line: You don't want a wet crawlspace. It's a breeding ground for mold. Roaches and other creatures love when it's wet down there. I'm not sure if termites are an issue in Oregon, but they are where I live. They like a moist crawlspace, too. Wet wood = yum for termites. And if you've got equipment down there (ductwork?), the mold that grows in the crawl could grow inside that stuff as well.

Wet soil around a foundation can also lead to foundation problems... greater settlement than normal, sinking porches, etc. If the foundation walls stay wet, their structural integrity could be compromised, although this would have to be significant over a long period of time to be an issue. But you did say your house is 70+ years old, yeah?

Honestly, a sump pump is a bandaid solution for a wet crawlspace. A better approach is to stop the water from getting in there in the first place. Companies that specialize in exterior drainage are expensive, though. If I were you – and I'm assuming you're pretty handy – I'd get a drainage pro to design a stormwater collection/removal system for me. Maybe they could just explain what to do rather than actually design one. Then I'd build/create/install it myself. There is always a way to direct the water away from the structure... even when you're at the bottom of a hill. However, you might be renting a Bobcat and laying lots of pipe!

Another (less ideal, but not bad by any means) solution would be to install a better sump pump. A waterproofing company can probably figure out how to install a more heavy duty one even in your cramped crawlspace. Then when the crawlspace is dry-ish, you could install a vapor barrier on the floor and put a fan or two down there to keep air moving and prevent mold growth.

[El_Viajero]

Also: Some people might advise that you encapsulate your crawlspace. I'm not sold on the necessity of this, personally, although everybody's situation is different. If you decide to go that route, you absolutely must get the water out and keep it out FIRST.

[CowboyAndIndian]

..
Honestly, a sump pump is a bandaid solution for a wet crawlspace. A better approach is to stop the water from getting in there in the first place.
...

+1

You can do this yourself. Some simple rules

• Make sure that the gutters do not dump water near the foundation, but about 10 feet away from the house.
• There should be slope away from the house. About 1" for every 5 feet or so. On ALL sides
• Understand how water flows from the high point to the low point of the lot and make sure that the path it follows  does not come near the foundation
• Keep your gutters clean. Overflowing gutters dump water near the foundation.

Take a  walk around your property and identify any issues and fix it.

One final piece of advice. Have a battery backup sump pump for the time when you loose power.

[a_scanner_brightly]

Thanks for the great responses so far.

You have convinced me that I don't want a wet crawl space.

What do you think of this plan?  I'm in the middle of carrying it out, but still would like feedback before I get in too deep.

I'm installing a french drain next to my house, on the uphill side, to catch water flowing down the hill at me.  Because I'm a few inches below the storm gutter on the street (about 50 feet away), I'm terminating the french drain at a (new) sump pit near the corner of my house, outside of the footprint of the house, and pumping it from there out to the street.  While I have the dirt dug up, I'm going to pipe the downspouts from the gutters on that end of the house into the sump pit as well.

I'll leave the puny little sump pump under the crawl space and hope it never goes off after the french drain and downspout diversions are in place.

[robartsd]

I like your plan. Getting the water before it gets under the house is important. You want good flow into the sump pit (probably the problem in your crawlspace) to allow the pump to do it's work without frequent cycling.

[big_owl]

IDK, my relatively new $620k house has a sump pump in our basement that is a similar setup to yours - only it's maybe a 15gal reservoir instead of 5gal.  We don't get enough rain around here (DC area) to cause it to run much, and my grading is pretty good, not to mention I have a walkout basement so half of it is above ground anyway.  But during a hurricane or an intense nor'easter it does fill up.  During hurricane Irene we lost power and the sump quickly overflowed and flooded part of the basement.  I have since finished the basement and also installed a backup DC bulldog pump to operate when the power is out. 

Anyhoo, your setup doesn't sound that crazy and I agree that routing more water away from your house would be helpful.  You could also simply insulate the discharge pipe to cut down on the sound and build a simple enclosure around the pump to dampen the pump noise.