A sump pump lives in a pit built into the lowest floor of a building: a basement parking level, a lift pit, a plant room or a garage below the street. Ground water seeps in, storm water runs down the ramp, a pipe bursts, and it all gathers in the sump. A float switch starts the pump before the water reaches the floor and stops it when the pit is empty. Many basements in Sandton, Cape Town and Durban rely on them. Tell us about your sump and we pass your request to independent pump suppliers and contractors nearby, who quote you.
How a sump works
The sump is a small concrete chamber, often covered with a steel grate or lid, that sits lower than the floor around it. Floor drains, channels and sub-soil drains lead to it. The pump stands at the bottom and pushes water up a pipe, through a non-return valve, to a storm water drain or the street. Clean water sumps suit a drainage pump type; if the sump also takes toilet or kitchen waste, it needs a sewage pump instead.
Duty, standby and alarms
One pump is a single point of failure. Many buildings fit two pumps in the sump: one works and the other waits, and a simple panel alternates them so both get used. If the water keeps rising, a high level float starts the second pump and raises an alarm, a light, a siren or a message to the building manager. For lift pits this matters a great deal, because water in the pit can damage the lift equipment.
- Basement parking levels
- Lift and escalator pits
- Plant rooms and generator rooms
- Garages and cellars below the street
Sizing for a storm, not a drizzle
The pump must keep up with the worst inflow, which in Highveld thunderstorms or a Durban downpour can be far more than the usual seepage. The installer looks at the area draining to the sump, the ramp, the height to the discharge and the pipe length. Ask whether the pit is big enough to stop the pump starting every few minutes. Power backup matters too: storms and load-shedding often arrive together.
Servicing a sump
Sumps collect silt, leaves, cigarette ends and plastic. A regular service should lift each pump, clean the impeller and the pit, test the floats, check the valve and alarm, and run each pump in turn. Buildings often book this before the rainy season. A pump that hums or trips may need a repair or rewind, and the panel may need a look by an electrician. Our control box page explains the parts.
What to put in your request
- Where the sump is and its size
- What drains into it: seepage, storm water, waste
- The height and distance to the discharge
- One pump or two, and an alarm
- Power supply and any backup
Sump Pumps for homes, farms and businesses
- Homeowners: a cellar, garage or basement room below the street kept dry in summer storms
- Smallholdings and plots: a cellar or pump room on low ground drained by a small automatic pump
- Farms: pack house drains and cold room pits emptied by a float operated pump
- Complexes, estates and body corporates: basement parking under apartment blocks kept dry with duty and standby pumps
- Offices, shops, hotels and lodges: office basements, lift pits and hotel plant rooms with alarmed sump pumps
- Factories, plants and depots: factory pits, wash bay sumps and machine pits pumped to the drain
- Mines and quarries: workshop pits and plant room sumps on surface kept free of water
- Municipalities, schools and clinics: underpasses, pump rooms and public building basements with automatic sumps
- Contractors and drillers: sump pits and pumps supplied and fitted in new basement construction
Frequently asked questions
Does my basement need a sump pump?
Can an existing sump pump be upgraded to two pumps?
How often should a sump pump be serviced?
Will you send someone to fix my sump pump?
Sump Pumps by province and city
- Johannesburg
- Pretoria
- Centurion
- Midrand
- Sandton
- Randburg
- Roodepoort
- Krugersdorp
- Randfontein
- Germiston
- Boksburg
- Benoni
- Kempton Park
- Alberton
- Vanderbijlpark
- Vereeniging
- Durban
- Pinetown
- Pietermaritzburg
- Richards Bay
- Newcastle
- Ladysmith
- Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth)
- East London
- Kariega (Uitenhage)
- Mthatha
- Cape Town
- Bellville
- Paarl
- Stellenbosch
- George
- Worcester
- eMalahleni (Witbank)
- Middelburg
- Secunda
- Mbombela (Nelspruit)
- Rustenburg
- Brits
- Klerksdorp
- Potchefstroom
- Mahikeng
- Polokwane
- Tzaneen
- Kimberley
- Upington
- Bloemfontein
- Welkom
- Sasolburg