In this video, This Old House landscape contractor Roger Cook installs a sump pump dry well to collect discharge water coming from a couple’s basement.

Project details

Skill

Cost

Estimated Time

How to Install a Sump Pump Dry Well

  • Temporarily connect discharge hose from sump pump to a long PVC pipe. Extend pipe well away from dry well excavation site.
  • Set the dry well in position and use ground-marking spray paint to mark the dry well’s rough outline onto the ground. Make the circle 2 feet wider than the dry well.
  • Dig an 8-inch-deep trench leading from the sump pump discharge hose to excavation site.
  • Use pointed shovels to dig a 4-feet-deep hole for the dry well.
  • Fill the bottom of the hole with crushed stone.
  • Line the bottom and sides of the hole with landscape fabric, then add more stone.
  • Lay 1½-inch-diameter PVC pipe in trench extending from the sump pump discharge to the hole.
  • Use a 1½-inch-diameter hole saw to cut a hole in the side of the dry well.
  • Place the dry well into the hole, set the cap on top.
  • Insert the PVC pipe into the hole cut in the side. Backfill around the dry well with stone.
  • Backfill the trench with soil.
  • Add a 90-degree elbow and vertical pipe section to the end of the PVC pipe in the trench so that it extends up to the discharge hose.
  • Install a rubber connector onto the end of the vertical PVC pipe.
  • Insert discharge hose into the rubber connector, then tighten the hose clamp.
  • Install a spring-loaded pop-up top to the dry well cap.
  • Backfill the hole with dirt and plant grass seed.

Tools

Tools & Materials

  • Shovel
  • Drill/driver
  • Screwdriver
  • Hole saw bit - 1 1⁄2 inch