Sump pumps are a common piece of water control equipment found in many homes. They are meant to remove water from under the foundation floor before it enters the home and discharge the water far away from the house.
What is also commonly seen with sump pumps is them discharging into the homes waste piping and ultimately the city sewage system. This is not acceptable and most, if not all municipalities do not allow this practice.
The first picture is of a nice enclosed sump pump installed by a well known large local basement water control company. I have seen many of these on my home inspections by this particular company and all have been well done.
The second photo is of where the installers of this pump decided to run the discharge pipe, directly into the homes waste systems main clean out pipe! Yes that's masking tape around the base of the pipe to "seal" the hole.
Now the problem with this install is sewage gases will be emanating from the pipe and into the home. Not only do they smell bad, but they are very unhealthy and dangerous.
What really reeks about this odoriferous pipe problem is the sellers had a pre-sale inspection, which did not mention the sump pump discharge as a defect. When the buyer requested it be repaired, the sellers refused citing their home inspectors' clean bill of health for their sump pump system.
The buyers' agent then contacted the city health department and through their assistance was able to get the sellers to "wake up and smell the coffee". This situation will be rectified for the buyer without any further stink and everything is smelling sweet for this sale.
James Quarello
JRV Home Inspection Services, LLC
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