I smell like a pig

Last night our basement started flooding. I dont know why God wanted His basement to flood, as my wife and I merely reside in what God gives us... an attitude I am trying ever so hard to acquire. (its part of the Crown Financial course we are in, recognizing that we own nothing, because everything in this world belongs to God)

So anyway, the pump seemed to work fine, it just wasnt pumping any water. My first reaction was, of course, google it. Which I did. I came across a very, very helpful forum site, Self Help Forums. If you are a home owner, you need to bookmark this site.

While this site did not have an answer to my specific problem, it is what lead me to discover my real problem. Most plumbers would have told me what they did, its an "Air Lock" problem. While I am not a plumber, and dont consider myself to be a mechanical person, this site did assist me in understanding what this air lock thingy is.

I troubleshot the pump, and followed directions as per the forum, but it did not work. I decided that I would now tinker with the pump, after unhooking the discharge pipe. AH HA! i discovered that where the discharge pipe connected to the pump, there was a corroded hole the size of my thumb. This means I do, in fact, need to buy a new pump. Thats okay with me because the old one was a pedestal pump, which I read were cheap. It was also plastic, which means cheap... Cast Iron is the way to go.

Looking around online I stumble upon one at Home Depot (I am a Lowe's fan personally), that meets the standard I wanted, and even the brand name I wanted. I go over there, and I am reminded why I prefer Lowe's. Home Depot didnt have the pump I saw online, I was told some babble about regional stores and crap. I honestly kinda tuned the guy out at the time. However I did seek his advice on their selection, and found another pump, whos name I had heard other good things about.

Cast Iron, 1/2 hp submersible pump. I am happy. I had to redo some of the piping because the guy who ran the lines last, was a cheapskate. He didn't use PVC, and hooked a crappy line right to the cheapskate pump he used. Buying the cast iron pump, I needed an iron male pipe nipple to connect the pump to the line. I figured I would use a 12" pipe so that it sat above the water line, which would prevent corrosion of the cheap pipe that was already in place. (No, I didnt replace the cheap pipe, for two reasons: 1.) its hooked up to a copper run line, and I dont want to redo that, and 2.) if we finish our basement and put up drywall, I will do it then.)

So I get the pump in place, make sure it works, secure the cheap pipe to the new not cheap pipe (5 bucks, but its iron, so its not cheap, you could probably kill someone with this pipe, I mean its a replica of the one in the board game Clue. (Layne is the basement with the pipe!)), So yah, I hook it up and shazaam! ( I was going to say wahlah, but I dont know how to spell it) it works. It is soooo much quieter too. I can barely hear it. And its submersible, so you dont see the pump at all, just the pipe. (ugh, the cheap pipe.) But anyway, we dont have to worry about it being bumped by the dogs and flooding.

I am in a very good mode now, because I fulfilled the "Handy Man" title. My wife is happy cause the basement isnt flooding, and I am happy because the laundry can get one. And this is important because I smell like a pig, and thus the title.