Sump Pump Cover

Many homes have a part called a sump pit pump installed in the basement or crawl space. This basement sump pit pump is necessary when the low point in the home’s plumbing is falling below the level of the sewage lines, allowing wastewater from the home to be forcibly ejected by the pump into those sewage lines. If there were no basement sump pit pump, the dirty water would accumulate in the low point of the home, probably the basement.

The term “sump pump” refers to the design of the sump pit system. In a way, it should be called a “sump & pump,” as there is a first sump pit part with a specially-built pump to eject the sewage water. The first sump pit part is merely a basin for water to enter and collect in, with the sump pump covered part sitting in the low point of this basin, standing water to enter, where it will have access to the water pumped out. This water may include some solids, so the first sump pit pump covers has to be designed for it.

A sump pump is installed in a basement, or a sump pump covered with radon is often installed in a basement with nothing more than a hole in the concrete floor rather than a box specially created for it. This creates a potential access point for radon gas, which can leak in through the open opening in the basement floor.

Radon is a radioactive gas naturally found in the earth. Due to its lightweight, it generally tends to migrate upwards, entering our homes and then falling to enter the atmosphere. The problem is that it is the number two cause of lung cancer in the USA. For this reason, it is only reasonable to take precautions against radon entering your home.

You can buy two other sump pumps and sump pump covers to put over your sump pump, but their price and utility seem a bit out of line, especially considering that the first sump pump cover is simple and not designed to be attractive. Another option is to make your own sump pump cover out of plywood and then use the money you saved to build the sump pump cover for something more useful.

sump pump, pump, basement

Sump pump State Farm

DIY Sump Cover

To make a DIY sump pump cover, you will need a piece of ¾” plywood, preferably without voids. If it has voids on the surface veneer, putty will block and sand them, providing you and the sump pump with a clean, smooth surface. This is necessary, as you need the sump pump cover to seal and drainpipe against the basement’s concrete floor.

Most people don’t bother, but I recommend sealing the edges of the lid of your sump cover with latex painter’s caulking and coating your sump cover on both sides with a couple of coats of good, heavy-duty latex paint. This will help prevent debris from the sump lid from falling off and damaging any other objects or debris from other objects or debris in it from falling and becoming water damage, protecting and preserving it.

Depending on your sump pump installation, you may need to make as many as three holes in the ground to install the sump pump and construct a sump pump pit cover. These three sump pumps and sump pump covers will be for:

  • The drain line going out
  • The electrical line
  • Your vent for radon gas

It is possible that your drainpipe or line standing water going from the ground or out is already installed beneath the sump pit in the floor, and you won’t need to make access to it. However, if it is coming up from the ground or through the floor, you must make an appropriate-sized hole with a hole saw in your sump cover. Use a rubber gasket in this hole to keep moisture and maintain the seal of moisture in the sump cover.

You will also need to seal and cover the hole for the power line providing electrical power and water to the pump. Standard grommets exist for sealing this. If not in your home improvement center’s electrical department, check the building and electrical department.

The sump cover is a block bolted to a block on the floor, using concrete blocks as anchors. You do not need a high-strength, as the blocks installed in the sump cover will not support any weight. Rather, the weight of the water will be supported by the block on the floor.

Covering for Radon

Since one of the biggest reasons for installing a sump pump and cover is to protect you from radon gas and moisture damage entering your basement or home, you will probably want to take the appropriate action to ensure that your sump pump and cover provide this same source of protection. Before installing it, check if radon gas or moisture damage is a problem in your area.

You will need to do two things to protect the sump pump covers yourself besides installing and sealing the sump pump cover itself if your area has a problem with radon gas. The first is to seal the sump pump cover to the floor. This can be done by installing foam-rubber weather-stripping, generally used for sealing wood windows. You will want a fairly thick foam rubber (1/2” thick x ¾” wide). It doesn’t matter if you stick it to the floor or the plywood or sump pump cover, just as long as you don’t leave any gaps open.

The addition of weather stripping may require you to install a few more screws to ensure the cover seals all the way around. The foam rubber will fight against the plywood compressing down to lay the lid on the covered side flat on the floor. Adding additional fasteners in the middle of the cover for the lid on the covered long side can solve this problem.

The other necessary thing is to construct and install a vent pipe. Installing and using a 4” PVC vent pipe to evacuate radon gas is recommended. This can be installed to tie into your home’s other plumbing vents, if they are large enough, or run as its own vent stack.

It might be problematic installing this sump vent stack, as the source of the sump is often in the front of the foundation of your home, so running the sump back out outside of the home can be aesthetically displeasing. If that’s the case you are dealing with, and you can’t run the full sump pump and vent pipe up through the center of the foundation in the wall, you might want to consider running the sump pumps an angled sump vent in your basement, allowing you to run the sump through it up the side of your home, rather than the front.

A 4” PVC pipe is needed so that wind passing over the ground on top of the discharge pipe and the vent will create a vacuum around the discharge pipe, drawing the radon gas up the pipe so that it can be vented into the atmosphere, where it will not be dangerous. If you use a smaller diameter pipe, there will be less of a vacuum, reducing the effectiveness of your vent.