Sump and ejector pump service in Los Angeles
Two kinds of pump do two different jobs. A sump pump moves rain and groundwater out of a pit. A sewage ejector moves wastewater from toilets, showers and laundry that sit lower than the sewer, and its basin is sealed and vented because of what it holds. Sumps come as submersible units that sit in the water or pedestal units with the motor above the pit; ejectors are submersible. We repair, replace and install both, and every visit covers the floats, the check valve, the discharge line, the alarm and the power supply along with the pump, because a pump can have electricity and still move no water.
On a hillside house below the street, the ejector is the only thing standing between the lower floor and its own sewage. Wipes, paper towels and grease foul the impeller or wrap around the float. A leaking check valve lets the discharge line drain back into the basin, so the pump lifts the same wastewater again and again. An alarm that someone unplugged because it chirped gives no warning at all. The discharge line on a steep lot can climb a long way before it reaches the gravity lateral, which is why a replacement is sized by the height it has to lift and the length of pipe it pushes through, not by the label on the old pump.
Buildings with subterranean parking usually run two pumps in one pit, with a controller that alternates them and an alarm for high water. That backup hides failures: one pump can die quietly while the other carries the whole load until the storm that needs both. Silt and leaves from the ramp drain, and oil from the parking stalls, settle in the pit and jam the floats. We clean the pit, run each pump by itself, check that the controller really alternates, and test the alarm. Nothing is replaced until you or the building owner sign off on the written estimate.
What a pump visit covers
- Floats that rise and fall without snagging and start and stop the pump at the right levels
- A check valve that holds, and a shutoff valve on the discharge that still turns
- A high-water alarm that sounds, placed where someone will hear it
- A dedicated outlet or circuit with GFCI protection where the code calls for it, never an extension cord
- Silt, leaves, wipes and grease cleared out of the basin
- A live run with water in the pit, and each pump run on its own on a two-pump system
When your pump needs a call
- The high-water alarm is sounding, or it was unplugged to stop the noise
- The pump runs without a break, or starts and stops in short bursts
- A sewer smell on the lower floor of a hillside house
- Lower-level toilets and showers drain slowly or gurgle
- Water standing on the garage floor or at the foot of a stairwell after rain
- Nobody remembers the last time the pump was tested
Test it in October, before the rains
In Los Angeles a pump can sit through spring, summer and most of the fall with almost nothing to do, then face several days of storms in a row. Pick a dry week in October. For a sump, let a garden hose fill the pit; once the float lifts, the pump should start, pull the level down steadily and shut itself off. For an ejector, run the shower and flush the lowest toilet a few times, and listen for the same start and stop. Press the alarm's test button while you are there. If one of those steps fails, phone us during the dry spell, not once the storm is here.
When a battery backup pays off
It earns its place where a dead pump would do real harm: a garage level full of cars and storage cages, a lower bedroom in a hillside house, or a stairwell that ends at a door. Winter storms and power outages tend to arrive together, and that is the night a backup is for. On an ejector, a backup pump or at least a battery-powered alarm matters even more, because the alternative is sewage on the floor. A pit that drains only a planter or a narrow side yard is usually better served by clearing the drains that feed it.
Which of those describes your property is the first thing the plumber tells you. If a backup makes sense, it appears on the written estimate as an optional line, priced on its own.
Where pumps turn up in Los Angeles
The Santa Monica Mountains run through the middle of Los Angeles, and the streets that climb them decide where pumps live. Below Mulholland Drive, in the Hollywood Hills, and on the steep blocks of Silver Lake and Mount Washington, houses step down the hill from the street, and many lower floors drain to an ejector. In the flats of Koreatown, Westwood, Sherman Oaks and Downtown, apartment and condo buildings put their parking underground, and the garage drains end in a sump. Exterior stairwells to lower doors are scattered across the rest of the city.
What a failure costs depends on the pump. An ejector that stops backs sewage up into the lowest shower and toilet. A garage sump that quits lets storm water spread across the parking level and into the elevator pit. A stairwell pump that fails lets water climb the steps until it finds the door. In a condo building the pit and its pumps are usually common property, so the association or the building manager is part of the repair; mention that when you call.
Access is part of the plan. A hillside basin at the bottom of a long outdoor stair, or a garage pit behind a locked gate, takes more setup than a pit next to a driveway. When you call, say where the pit is and who holds the gate code or the key. The phone is answered day and night, every holiday too, and a plumber is sent out from our Los Angeles location to your address, carrying what that particular pit needs.