Project details
Skill
1 out of 5EasyThe installation is straightforward, but digging the trench and hole can be exhausting.
Cost
$200 to $400
Estimated Time
4 to 6 hours, depending on the size of the drywell and hardness of the soil
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.
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