Drainage, sump pumps, outdoor taps and irrigation

Water that moves around a building rather than through a fixture: sump pumps and their discharge, outdoor taps and hoses, and garden irrigation. Much of this work is driven by the season, and none of it is inside the pressurised supply within the building.

Common failure modes

• A sump pump that has never been run since the day it was fitted
• A float switch fouled by debris or held against the pit wall
• An outdoor tap left charged with water through a freeze
• A discharge line that returns the water to the same pit
• An irrigation head bent or blocked and never checked after the winter

Procedures

• How to clean out a sump pump pit and check the check valve so the pump stops cyclingA sump pit collects ground water, and over months it also collects the things ground water carries: fine sediment, and s
• How to tell if you have a hidden water leak using your water meterA water bill that jumps for no clear reason often means a leak somewhere in the plumbing, and the reason it is easy to m
• How to keep water pipes from freezing in a cold snap, and what to do if one has already frozenDemand for this page arrives on a forecast, which is the worst possible moment to start reading. So it is written in the
• How to fix an outside tap that drips or won't shut off by replacing the washer and the packing inside the stemA frost-proof outdoor tap — also called a frost-free faucet, a freezeless faucet, or a sillcock — looks like an ordinary
• How to start up a garden irrigation or sprinkler system in springAn in-ground irrigation system sits full of trapped water and empty pipe over winter, and both Rain Bird and Hunter Indu
• How to test a sump pump and its float switch before the wet seasonA sump pump spends most of its life doing nothing, and then it has one job on one bad night. The failure people actually
• How to test a sump pump battery backup and check the batteryA sump pump's battery backup only earns its place during the exact event most likely to defeat the primary pump: a storm
• How often to test well water and what to test it forA private well is not covered by the rules that protect public water systems, and no government agency tests it for you.
• How to winterize a garden irrigation or sprinkler system before it freezesAn underground irrigation system drains water from its pipes in one of three ways: a manual drain valve you open by hand
• How to winterize an outdoor faucet so it does not burst in winterThe single most expensive misunderstanding in home plumbing is that a frost-free outdoor tap looks after itself. It does

Where this stops

A water main, a sewer connection, a septic system and any below-grade drainage installation are outside this repository. Backflow prevention devices are tested under licence in most jurisdictions; find the licensed tester, do not test it yourself.