What's the rule for PVC pipe size vs flow?

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back in the 50's. they use to install water heaters. half in the attic.

the top of the heater was in the attic, the bottom was in a closet.

what do you have above you ?


I closet ?


On one end of the hole, a bedroom and closet. The other end is the bathroom. The gas water heater was in the kitchen before my parents bought the house. The Federal Housing Authority told the previous owners no way, you're not selling until you move that water heater out of the house due to carbon monoxide dangers. The house next door apparently has it in the house still. Nobody was living there when it busted and it caused a disaster. So I'd never find anyone that would do such a thing legally now. So that's hon this hole and wall were built. They built the wall in a half-butt kind of way, too.

I'm going to search around and see if I can special order one. The only issue might be finding a company willing to install it when I bought it online.
 
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So I'm rather curious, now...

I'm just outside of Atlanta, Georgia. We recently broke a 132-year record for the number of days without measurable rain. We haven't had rain in about 50 days. We got about 2.3 inches inches of rain yesterday within about an 8 hour time period. We got well over a half of an inch today in about 2-3 hours with some extreme thunderstorms and downpours. Nearly 3 inches of rain in two days and I see absolutely no water flow in the floor of that hole, apart from the expected little bit that runs under the crawlspace door into the wall/hole, which I will address in the future. That was barely enough to put 2-3 inches of water in the existing pit in the floor and nowhere near close to triggering the pumps.

The difference between the last time we had a big rain event like this and this time was I filled in the 7.5'L x 4'W x 4.5'D old concrete septic tank that I finally found in the back yard a couple of months ago. Filled that with 7 cubic yards of fill dirt. That tank was not far from the back of the house.

Would the drought have caused the dirt to soak up all of that rain and not flow into the crawlspace, or did my filling of the septic tank stop water flow coming from that hole behind the crawlspace wall? I'm kind of suspecting that water flowed out of that hole, but also around and in/through the wall blocks all the way around the wall. It is only washed out in that area. The rest of the sides have dirt all the way up to the top of the wall and no evidence of any water washing it out. The debris also isn't flowing into the hole through the wall.

I have compiled this one large image with a description of each thing that I have observed. Am I thinking within reason here or should I still continue trying to fix this and assume that it might come back if it rained even more?

http://oi66.tinypic.com/34z0m4h.jpg


I expected to come home today and hear at least one pump coming on and go down to see water flowing across the floor. I see nothing. Do you think it just didn't rain enough or what? Usually that much rain seems to trigger the pumps and water would be coming out from every crack and hole all the way around the way around the wall that it could find. Mostly from behind that particular area with the hole in the dirt. Nada today. All of the rain is gone.
 
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So if I theoretically removed the water heater and got an on-demand natural gas water heater mounted up higher than the crawlspace dirt (which is level with the ground outside) on some type of wall and got the furnace flipped sideways and hanging from the floor (should hang about as far down as the top of the wall,I would guess)....

What should be done with the big hole? Should I still put in gravel and new pumps with a proper outlet ran for the pumps?

Knock the wall down, remove it completely and fill it with screened fill dirt? Would that eliminate the underground water issue? Or, if it is still there, cause some sort or backup issue due to hydrostatic pressure? As far as I know, it couldn't come higher than the wall used to be and shouldn't come that high under dirt placed in the hole (taking it up to the level of the current crawlspace dirt) anyway. I could have any local company come and haul away the blocks of wall if I removed it.

Just trying to figure out the best solution to nip this in the bud and be done with the water in the crawlspace nonsense.
 
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if it was me. dig a hole, set the pit,concrete the floor

b335772d9352bc65732ddb256b443c1bbb77b7dedd7ce0ebdafebb285ecc9a2a.jpg
 
Well, part of a pit is already dug out technically where the pumps are. Pretty sure that's concrete under there. However, with the concrete on the floor...if I put that down on top of the floor, the water will basically run out of the wall and may or may not run on top of it. It may run over the top and also underneath it, sandwiching the water between the already-presumed concrete floor with a bit of dirt on top and the new concrete floor above it.

The same for the vapor barrier. It goes under the concrete, but if I put the vapor barrier down on top of already-existing concrete with dirt on top of it, then I'm putting another layer of cement on top and trapping water between both concrete floors in the hole. So I'd also have vapor barrier between the old concrete floor and the next concrete floor.
 
................................moved for questions.
 
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you NEED to wire your pumps to lead/lag

pump 1 comes on, pump 2 will come on if high water is detected

then the next cycle

pump 2 comes on, pump 1 will come on if high water is detected

then next cycle

pump 1 on pump 2 if needed

etc etc...

you do NOT want one pump sitting there not being used

You are essentially describing lead - lag control .

God bless
Wyr
 
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