I just generally agreed with you, on the other thread. I'm still resisting the gravel because it will displace water making the level higher to start with. Sure, the water will flow through the rocks, but put some water in a bucket, add some rocks; the water level will rise.
It is looking like I have no choice but to go to plan B. I was asking various HVAC workers on some other forums and some of them said, "They put that system in for $4,380?!? Who are they?? I need them to install mine! I can't even do it for that little amount!" Everyone is recommending a full tear-out and replacement. Even the in-person quotes. Essentially starting over. Many have said, "I'm not touching that" even for $2,000 to $3,000 price tags. Vibration concerns of sitting it on top of the wall. Vibration/buckling concerns of hanging it from the floor. Many HVAC techs are saying that getting some general contractor for less money might cause them to take a shortcut that could spew carbon monoxide all in the basement and house. I need a plan B. This has "fail" written all over it. The furnace is supposed to be good for 15 years according to the installers. I'm totally giving up on moving it. I'm not seeking any more quotes to move it.
First things: Furnace still needs to be elevated as-is (same height) on "something" more solid than those taped-together styro blocks that they have it on. Some type of moisture barrier placed between the furnace and what it will sit on. Very curious as to how to pull this off with the current furnace weight on it. Wondering if the company that put it in will send some people out to either temporarily hold it up in place while something else is put under it or if they can temporarily strap it from the floor joist or something. There's no question that will have to be done. Gravel and water won't work with styro blocks. The company that put it in didn't seem too concerned with changing them. I may have to have another company do it. Their elevator doesn't seem to go to the top.
I've got $3,000 saved. Current list of thoughts/questions for a plan B:
Holes drilled in the base and/or lower middle of the wall to help the water not take forever to come out. I have no idea how big I should drill the holes to be. That may be why the pump comes on for days after a lot of rain. A large amount held back in the dirt by the wall's limited output of cracks, crevices and the sideways-turned cinderblocks (many of which may be blocked by washed-down dirt). The side with the highest open flow out of the actual base cinderblock is to the left of the water heater on the floor. Nothing notable seems to come out of the other sideways cinderblocks.
Unsure thought: I'm not sure how much flow I'll unleash (in the next big stall-out rain system lasting 3-4 days, for instance) by drilling holes all the way around the wall, either. Yet I have to do that before putting up any sheet drain. The thought has been entertained that when gravel is brought in for the floor, enough to also fill in all of the cinderblock holes to the top would be ordered. Fill it nearly to the top and cement over it with inches of cement, all the way across the top of the wall. This should keep any dirt from washing out of the wall or help prevent blocking holes that are drilled, since the gravel would be a barrier in between the dirt and the holes in the wall. Also, bugs/spiders wouldn't have anywhere to live in the wall. In the near future, I'm going to fumigate that whole basement with several Raid smokers. I've seen black widow spiders in the base of that wall. Not risking a bite while working. Too many creepy-crawly everythings down there due to the moisture.
Dimple board (sheet drain) surrounding the inside of the wall. I need to figure out what the highest quality, thicker dimple board is.
Questions about dimple board: Screwed to the wall? Nails won't work on those crumbly-like cinderblocks. They're solid, but I can tell they aren't nailing material. What keeps the attachment points of dimple board from leaking water? Some sort of rubber washers around the screws?
Possibly dig the sump hole deeper before adding gravel and a basin, to give water a little more room to go under the gravel and basin. I'm actually wondering just how much dirt has washed down into that hole everywhere. There's at least inches of dirt over by the water heater. When I put in the second (temporary) pedestal pump, I dug down about a foot deep or more into solid red clay. They didn't even have a "hole" there (or maybe the dirt washed in and filled it over the years). Just the pedestal pump sitting on top of almost-flat dirt. It was scary looking. Should I try to dig down and find what "should" be a cement bottom in the areas all over the hole floor and get as much dirt as possible out? I have no idea how deep it would be. It "may" give more room and make the other stuff appear elevated simply because I dug out around everything. That's a lot of work, for sure. I'd have to just try to pack it behind the wall or something.
Type of gravel: Is 3/4" dustless crushed best? Would cementing over the gravel be inviting disaster in case water went on top of the cement somehow (say, a water heater failure or any number of issues) and the water couldn't reach what would be the sealed sump lid?
The biggest sump basin that I can find is probably not going to be over 24" x 30" deep and some of those look like they want $400 for a thick garbage can basically. I'd prefer it to be already perforated. The highest basin capacity average seems to be 22 gallons. That's a far cry from the current 60 gallon or so open pit that fills to the top and gets pumped out at once (takes 1.5 minutes for that 1/3HP pedestal to pump it out).
The pumps that I put in will be submersible. I'm already sold on Ion Storm Pro's for their ability to move tons of water with very low amps. Good for the overall power bill, but even better for backup if power is lost. 4.6 running amps per 1/3HP, kicking out 3,330 GPH per pump. So two 1/3HP could get rid of about 111 gallons per minute. Pondering whether one of them should be a 1/2HP just in case the flow is a little higher and faster than expected due to the extra space that the gravel will take up and the smaller basin to pump from. A single pump like the 1/3HP could run every 3 minutes for about 20 hours on a good marine battery if the power failed. Backup battery system (Pump Sentry) will step up the voltage of the battery to power the main pump(s). Water flow is far too high for a water-powered backup pump.
Crawlspace door will be rebuilt (I can do that myself). After it is ripped out, I'm going to pour about a 3" high/thick cement ledge across the bottom of the door. The new door will be built 3" shorter and fit closely on top of that. Still plenty of room to get in, but the ledge will keep the water out. Making a drain outside of the door and punching a hose through that wall into the hole for water flow (a previous idea) would be nearly impossible.
All gutters are going to be replaced (I can do that myself) and have long extensions placed on them. I see drips in the gutter seams and the old (single piece of) wood behind the gutter is making the gutters sag below the shingle runoff point in a lot of areas. Confirmed that water is missing the gutter near the basement door, for instance. That's the corner closest to where this hole is.
Whew. :hide: This is going to be a lovely project (not). That's a lot of questions and a lot of work. Hopefully different people can chime in and pick apart some of those questions. Way too many questions for one person to tackle, but I have a ton of stuff to figure out in a fairly short time (before the big summer storm systems and tropical storms kick up again). Most of that I can do myself.
