How can we prevent this from happening next winter? The part that was frozen was outside of the house. We live in Kansas with heavy clay soil and the sump pump runs a lot when we have had rain (in fact, we have two sump pumps: a regular one and a gravity back up pump that does not need electricity to run). The water damage was extensive and we would like to prevent this from happening again.

Thank you for your comments.

Our discharge comes out of the house about 2' above the ground. It comes out about 12". I took a chuck of old gutter that I had laying around with a 90 deg elbow, and fit that over the end of the pipe. Then I pounded fence posts into the gournd and wired the gutter to them at a slight slope. They got about 15' out to where the slope goes away from the house. I have a rubber bucket at the end that is partially buried into the ground, the gutter discharges into this. Then when it fills it overflows and runs out along the ground and follows the slight swale that eventually makes its way out behind the barn and into the stock pond.

I have a septic system so running this much water into it was never an option. During spring melt the sump dischares about every 10 seconds.

This summer I plan on hooking up 3" PVC pipe for the drain.

Here is what it looks like this time of year.

it does create a bit of an ice dam, but it is far enough from the house that when it melts it does not end up back under the house. Took about three winters of things that did not work before coming up with this.

The main thing is to have enough slope and pipe diameter so the water will empty out before it has a chance to freeze.

Where I live is very flat so drainage and waterflow is a real challenge.

In a dry year this water source gets used quite a bit- I even have deer come into the yard for a drink. The birds love it too, and the barn cats don't need a water bowl.

Cathy

Check your city/county codes. Where we live, sump pumps eject from the house above ground then go below the frost line and hook into the storm sewer. What is illegal here is hooking your gutter downspouts into any sewer because it would be too much of a strain on the treatment plant at once.

We will often need sump pumps to be used and still have freezing nights (like right now during our flood).

Most people will use an electric heat tape around the outlet pipe all the way up to the house. These are the same electric heat tapes used to keep pipes from freezing under mobile homes here. (Some people even use them in their gutters to keep hem from icing up all winter).

Burying helps since even if the ground freezes the air above is usually colder and the earth acts as insulation.

This has a 10" drop from one end to the other. I'll be building a short rock wall by the house and that part will be under the dirt. It will be topped with plastic and gravel - I do not like to have plants growing next to the house unless they are in planters.

It's nice to get the gutter runoff going down the pipe. We will know when it rains if this helps keep the water out of the cellar.

Our sump did go out and in the 6 hours is was not working, this is what we had. Use to look like this every time it rained, but I think we've finally got the drainage around the house fixed up.

This is the old cellar section and it is about 1' lower then the basement under the addition. There is a drain that flows from this sump pit to the one in the addition where it is then pumped to the outside.

At least I don't have to worry about letting this flow. It goes down past the barn and out into the pasture.

Cathy

Extend the pipe underground.
If it has a good fall and enough size you may get away with not having it below frost depth.

The water should empty fast enough to not freeze.

If you still have problems wrap some heat tap around the first few feet of the drain line to warm the water a little.