With the weather warming up, many people will be tempted to start their Air Conditioning unit for the season.  What most people don’t realize is that the air conditioner has been sitting idle for almost 7 months, and there is a lot of potential for rust and corrosion to damage some of the electrical components over that time period.  Before you start up your central A/C unit for the season, it’s best to have a safety check preformed by a professional HVAC Technician to ensure that everything is in proper working order and that your outside unit made it through the harsh winter weather unscathed.

For just $19.95, we will send one of our licensed and experienced HVAC Technicians to perform a full safety check on your Air Conditioner.  That means you can put your mind at ease, give your wallet a rest, and kick back and comfortably enjoy those hot summer days for less than $20!

Our $19.95 Central A/C check includes:

• Check the freon levels
• Check all controls
• Check capacitor
• Check the condensate drain
• Inspect filter
• Inspect wiring and connections
• Check safety devices

*Cleaning or a Freon recharge is available at an additional cost

So call Gillece Services today at 1-888-66-BURGH (2-8-7-4-4) for your $19.95 Central A/C safety check!  You’ll be glad you did!

Good for only ONE task per invoice. Cannot be combined with other coupons, discounts, or offers. *Some restrictions and exclusions may apply – Call for Details.

Bacteria, virus, algae, mold, lead, mercury… words we are all familiar with; none of which belong in our drinking water!  Out of all of the utilities we utilize, water is the only one we consume internally by drinking.  Gillece asks, how safe is yours?

Are you seeing soap scum build-up?  Feeling dry and itchy?  Is your water cloudy?  Does it smell?  Taste bad?  Even though the proper authorities and water companies test and report our water for certain contaminants and impurities, it’s inevitable that some go untested and may pass through… which can lead up to unpleasant and even dangerous qualities in this essential utility.

The good news is that there is something you can do; and, Gillece Services can help to make a difference.  Our FREE Water Quality Inspection can reveal potential issues with the water in your home or office that may be affecting the quality of its uses, as well as your own health.  From cleaning clothes or washing dishes to taking a shower or drinking a glassful, water is one of the most vital components of our daily lives and should not be overlooked.  Though many of us often do; don’t let this be you and your family, or your business.

Common negative, problematic characteristics often associated with our tap water can include:

• Chlorine Water – While a key ingredient in water treatment and protection, too much chlorine can be a bad thing.  It is not uncommon for water to contain an overabundance of chlorine.  It smells strong and tastes bad.  And, it quickly and intensely is absorbed by your skin, drying out both your skin and hair, causing itchiness and flakiness.  When the chlorine level is too rampant in water, so are these related problems.
• Hard Water – Water containing dissolved calcium, magnesium, iron, and manganese is “hard.”  These metals can combine with other compounds creating soap scum spots and hard water scales or stains.  Hard water interferes with lathering of body soap, shampoo, and the functionality of other cleaning products.  It can even create scale build-up inside the pipes of your appliances, resulting in very costly repairs. It may wear out your clothing up 30x faster.  And, did you know that Instantaneous Water Heaters require softened water in order to work properly?
• Cloudy Water – Sometimes cloudiness in water can be confused with harmless air bubbles, yet it very often can be a reason for concern.  In drinking water, the cloudier the water appears, the higher the risk of it containing impurities in the form of suspended solids.  Suspended solids interfere with water disinfection which shields water against viruses and bacteria.  Cloudy water is not a healthy alternative.
• Water Odor/Bad Taste – Hydrogen sulfide in water results in a fowl smelling water similar to that of a rotten egg.  In addition, musty, earthy or fishy smelling water is the result of algae, mold and bacteria.  Metallic tasting water is usually the result of elevated levels of actual metals in your water.  We all deserve water that smells and tastes good.

Let Gillece Services clear your water and clear your mind!  We offer a variety of water cleansing and conditioning systems to remove impurities, soften water, and much more.  Whether a Drinking Water System, Anti-Scale System, or Ultra Filter… or, Water Conditioning System or Whole House Water Filter… our efficient and effective water solutions make a noticeable improvement in the quality of your home or office water.

Don’t overlook the only utility you take internally – water.  Call Gillece Services now for your FREE Inspection and to help make a difference right away, the right way!

It used to be that if your sewer line failed because of root intrusion or broken/collapsed piping, you had a problem that was not only wildly expensive, but also very messy. Typically, a plumber would dig a trench in your yard for the length of the line – smashing sidewalks, patios, and driveways that got in the way and uprooting any trees. He would then lift out the old line and put in a new one. In addition to the cost of all that digging, you often had to pay to repave your driveway and replace any destroyed landscaping.

For many years, this was your only option.

Fortunately, today’s best plumbing companies can offer cleaner, faster solutions.

These days, pipes can also be replaced or fixed using methods that spare your driveway and landscaping. Two of the most popular techniques are trenchless pipe-bursting and cured-in-place re-lining.

If plumbing were medicine, traditional excavation would be cutting the body wide open to see what’s inside. Pipe-bursting and cured-in-place pipe re-lining would be high-tech arthroscopic surgery.

Which one of the three is the best option for you? It depends. If your sewer is in a wide-open area and isn’t too deep, then conventional excavation will probably be the most cost-effective option. The problem is that most sewers are installed underneath of landscaping, sidewalks, driveways, large trees. In addition to that, they usually run under or through the foundation of your home and are typically pretty deep. Any work performed in a trench deeper than 5 feet requires trench shoring to prevent the trench from collapsing. This increases the time that it takes to perform the work and ultimately increases the cost of the job.

If your sewer is buried deep underground and in close proximity to landscaping, sidewalks, driveways, etc. then either pipe bursting or pipe relining will be a more cost-effective option for you. The cost of a pipe-bursting replacement might be equal to, or even greater, than doing the job using conventional excavation, but when you consider the cost of replacing the driveway, sidewalk, landscaping, sprinklers — or even potential damage to other utility lines — the total cost of the job is often significantly less.

What is Pipe Bursting?

Trenchless pipe bursting is the process of destroying your old, damaged sewer pipe while installing a new long-lasting pipe. We make small access holes where the current pipe begins and ends. A special machine then pulls a new pipe along the path of your current pipe while breaking up your old pipe at the same time. This new pipeline can even makes its way through an offset or an underground elbow. The new pipe is entirely seamless, meaning that there won’t be leaky joints every few feet that allows roots from plants and trees to get in.

Along with being far less messy – pipe bursting requires only two 2×3-foot holes – this method is also faster than digging the length of the pipe. Your new pipe can follow the exact some route as your old pipe, even making those 90-degree turns, if needed. This technique has been approved by virtually every local plumbing authority in the country, and it has little environmental impact. Trenchless pipes ranges from 3-12 inches in diameter. You can actually upgrade the size of your pipe with minimal digging using this method.

What is Pipe Re-lining?

Pipe re-lining is a way of putting a “pipe within a pipe” to make a cracked and damage pipe flow again. A fiberglass liner is filled with a special epoxy that will cure itself to the inside of your existing pipes. The line is first cleaned using heavy duty power rodders and high-pressure water or hydro jetting. This removes debris and roots. Then the line is inspected with a video camera which records the length and condition of the sewer. The liner is then pulled through the length of your pipe, turning it inside out and letting it adhere to the existing pipe while providing a smooth surface inside through which water can flow.

Pipe re-lining requires minimal digging, can be completed in a single day, and the results are long-lasting. Like pipe bursting, pipe relining can save time and money, but it won’t work on pipes that have collapsed or that are too damaged for the liner to stick to them. In these cases, pipe bursting or simple excavations are the best options.

Summary

If you live in Pittsburgh PA and you’re having trouble with tree roots, or cracked and collapsed sewer lines, you don’t have to have your yard and sidewalk destroyed to fix the problem. Call Gillece Plumbing Services and let us find the cleanest, quickest, and most cost-efficient solution for you.

Beautiful displays of light have been associated with Christmas for almost as long as the holiday has existed. For centuries, candle light had to suffice, but it wasn’t long after Thomas Edison learned to harness electricity that one of his associates used the new technology to illuminate a Christmas tree. In the 1950s, strings of plug-in Christmas lights become common in American households, and shortly thereafter, people began hanging lights outside of their homes.

These displays were pretty to look at, but the relatively crude technology of the time also made them hazardous. We have all heard stories of house fires started by Christmas lights. This often happened because the strings of lights were prone to overheating, or because or the lights would cause a short in the home’s electrical system, leading to a fire.

Thankfully Christmas light technology has improved greatly since those days, as have home electrical systems. But there is still a risk if you’re not careful. Power outlets still get overloaded, electrical shorts still occur, and not all lights are as safe as you think, as Europeans discovered last year.

Decorating your house for the holidays doesn’t have to be worrisome, though. By following a few simple rules, you can ensure that your family has a happy, safe, and well-lit holiday season.

Get New Lights

If you’re still using those Christmas lights you’ve had since the Carter administration, throw them out. The older the lights, the more likely they are to have damaged sections of wiring, and the more prone they are to causing a short. (If you still have the kind of lights that won’t turn on if a single bulb is burnt out, you should throw them away on general principle). Invest in some quality LED lights, which consume only a fraction of the power of older lights. When shopping for holiday lighting, look for the seal of Underwriters Laboratories (UL), an independent, non-profit company that tests electrical products for safety. If you don’t see the UL seal, don’t buy those lights. Also, nearly all modern lights came with fuses that limit the amount of current that passes through them. If your lights don’t have a fuse, throw them out.

Put Your Lights Close to an Outlet

Try not to rely on a mess of extension cords to reach a power outlet, especially outdoors. Along with being unsightly and cumbersome, an extension cord adds one more element that could go wrong – bad wiring, moisture, overheating, and so on. Instead, plug your lights directly into the nearest power point. If there isn’t one handy, you might consider have one added. Gillece Services employs experienced electricians who can quickly install new power outlets that will make lighting up your house that much easier and safer. You’ll be the envy of everyone in Pittsburgh!

Similarly, don’t overload your power outlets with endless power strips and extension cords. A single outlet can only pump out a finite amount of power. Plugging in too many cords is asking for trouble. What is too many? Depending on the amount of power drawn by the bulb, somewhere around 180 bulbs should be your maximum. With LED bulbs you can double this number.

Always use a GFCI

You know that electrical outlet in your bathroom with the red button in the middle? That’s a ground fault circuit interupter, or GFCI. These devices prevent electrical shocks and fires by instantly cutting off the flow of electricity to an outlet when it senses a problem. If your home doesn’t have a GFCI, you should seriously considering getting them installed (All homes built after 1987 must have them in the bathroom, kitchen, and garage). They’re extremely inexpensive, yet one of the greatest innovations in home electrical safety. Home Christmas lights should always be plugged into a GFCI outlet, especially outdoor lights, which are particularly prone to moisture.

Use a Timer

Do you really need your Christmas lights on during a sunny winter afternoon? Or at 4 a.m.? Save yourself some money and reduce the risk of your lights overheating by using a timer to control your lights. (Granted, you could turn them off yourself, but if you’re like most of us, you’ll forget).

Gillece Services can recommend a quality timer that will come in handy year-round.

Sometimes when people see that Gillece Services offers a $19.95 furnace inspection, they think that the low price means it’s a service that isn’t worth having done. That’s the same attitude some take about checking the fluids in their car, at least until an oil leak or radiator destroys the engine, but that isn’t our point. The truth is, there this is probably no routine home service that is more important than having your fuel-burning appliances inspected each year.

If you read the first two parts of this three-part series, you already know why. Fuel-burning appliances like heaters, water heaters, and ovens can create carbon monoxide, an extremely deadly gas that can quickly and symptomlessly kill.

How deadly is CO? When firefighters in Palm Beach, Florida, which has experienced a rash of carbon monoxide deaths this year, entered a home on a call, six of them had to be hospitalized due to CO poisoning.

There are two steps you must take to be certain that your home is safe from carbon monoxide. First, get have a quality carbon monoxide detector (or detectors, depending on your home) installed by a qualified professional. We covered this in the second part of our series.

Next, have your furnace and other appliances checked for leaks. There are plenty of qualified companies around town, but this is why you should call Gillece: Not only does Gillece Services offer the most affordable furnace inspection in Pittsburgh (higher volume for us means lower prices for you), but our technicians are equipped with the most sophisticated technology available.

The old way of inspecting the heat exchanger in a furnace (the part where carbon monoxide would escape) was to rely what a technician’s fingers could feel and what he could see using small mirrors. The fact is that only about 20 percent of a heat exchanger surface can be viewed with a flashlight and mirror.

Gillece technicians use a high-end infrared camera that allows us to inspect the entire exchange for cracks and defects. This camera — the Inspector — is the only furnace inspection camera that utilizes a high definition/high resolution camera and monitor. All other cameras use a basic modified home security camera that wasn’t intended to spot the kinds of small cracks that can form on inside of furnace heat exchangers.

Here is the key: Infrared photography dramatically highlights corrosion within a furnace heat exchanger, while ordinary cameras completely miss the corrosion.

Some companies brag about having color cameras. This would be great if you were broadcasting the camera to a television, but color can actually make it more difficult to spot corrosion. The Inspector is not a black and white camera, rather it is a true high resolution infrared camera, and infrared can only be viewed on a black and white monitor.

So get peace of mind when it comes to carbon monoxide. Read up on the danger, get a quality detector for your Pittsburgh home, and have your appliances checked for leaks.

Carbon monoxide is often referred to as a “silent killer.” It is tasteless and odorless, and it can kill in minutes at high exposure. At lower doses, it slowly starves the body’s vital organs of the oxygen they need to survive while creating only vague, flu-like symptoms.

If it sounds scary, it should. Each year, hundreds of people die from CO poisoning in their own homes, and thousands more are hospitalized. The most dangerous CO sources are common household appliances like ovens, heaters, water heaters.

The good news is that carbon monoxide poisoning is extremely easy to prevent. With a few simple safeguards, you can be certain that you and your family are safe from this deadly gas.

In this installment of our three-part series on CO, we’ll look at carbon monoxide detectors, a must-have device that is all too often missing in our modern Pittsburgh homes.

There have been many advancements since carbon monoxide detectors first entered the market. Today’s detectors have sensors that last 5-10 years, can trigger alarms and flashing lights when a threat is detected, can be hard-wired into a home’s AC wiring, and can let you know when they need replaced.

The first CO detectors to enter the market more than a decade ago had “biomimetic” sensors, meaning that they contained a gel that changed color in the presence of carbon monoxide. This provided a fairly accurate indication that CO was in the house.

“Opto-chemical” sensors work on a similar principle, changing color upon reaction to carbon monoxide. But these are less precise than biomimetic sensors.

“Electrochemical” detectors contain a special fuel cell that is able to detect the amount of carbon monoxide in the air with remarkable precision. Dangerous CO levels will trigger an alarm to warn your family. Some models have displays that will tell you how much CO is in the air at the moment. The newest electrochemical detectors also have low power requirements, relatively long lifespans, and can be hard-wired into your home’s electrical system.

“Semiconductor” detectors use an electric circuit to measure the amount of CO in the air. They are capable of taking very accurate measurements and sending them to a display. Many models include alarms and strobe light warnings. These types of detectors have relatively high power demands, but long lifespans.

For heavy sleepers, or people with hearing problems, a variety of CO detector accessories are available, including vibrating pillow pads, strobe lights, and more.

When shopping for a CO detector, it’s important not to base your purchase solely on cost. If you don’t believe us, the EPA or any other government agency will tell you the exact same thing. A CO detector won’t break your bank, but it’s not an area where want to try to cut corners.

People generally know they can rely on smoke detectors because, in general, they are a solid safeguard. Even a cheap smoke detector bought at a drug store will probably do a decent job. But CO detector technology isn’t as uniformly reliable as smoke detectors. Some CO detectors are better than others and will do a better job safeguarding your family. And regardless of which brand or technology you buy, CO detectors must be re-calibrated every few years.

We also recommend having your CO detector hard-wired into your home’s electric system. Too often, people forget to check and change the batteries on their smoke and CO detectors. In the case of a fire, there is at least smoke and heat to warn you of danger. With CO, you might have no idea until it is too late.

Once you have a CO detector installed, don’t be lulled into a false sense of security. Your detector should be your last line of defense. The first is making sure that your appliances are not slowly poisoning you.

SIDEBAR

If your CO detector alarm goes off, the EPA advises you to:

1). Make sure it is your CO detector and not your smoke detector.

2). Check to see if any member of the household is experiencing symptoms of poisoning.

3). If they are, get them out of the house immediately and seek medical attention. Tell the doctor that you suspect CO poisoning.

4). If no one is feeling symptoms, ventilate the home with fresh air, turn off all potential sources of CO – your oil or gas furnace, gas water heater, gas range and oven, gas dryer, gas or kerosene space heater and any vehicle or small engine.

5). Have a qualified technician inspect your fuel-burning appliances and chimneys to make sure they are operating correctly and that there is nothing blocking the fumes from being vented out of the house. Gillece Services will make a house call any day of year, any time day or night all around Pittsburgh and the surrounding Western Pennsylvania region.

See the third installment of this series to learn how to get started – COMING SOON!

Practically everybody knows that carbon monoxide (CO) is deadly to humans and animals, but not enough people bother to do something about it. That’s why every year, hundreds of people die from carbon monoxide poisoning, and tens of thousands more are hospitalized. In this three part series, Gillece Services will highlight the danger posed by carbon monoxide, then show you how to safeguard your Pittsburgh home and more importantly, your family.

First, the threat.

CO is often called the “silent killer,” as it is virtually undetectable to the human senses. You can’t see, hear, or feel it, and in its pure form, it’s odorless. Exposure to high concentrations can kill quickly and even small amounts over time can cause serious illness and death.

Chemically speaking, CO is a single oxygen atom bonded with a single carbon atom. When a carbon fuel like gasoline, coal, or natural gas is burned, two carbon atoms bond with a single oxygen atom to form CO2, or carbon dioxide. Inevitably, though, some of the burning is incomplete, and the result is CO, meaning just one carbon atom bonds with the oxygen atom. While excess CO2 isn’t healthy, you would know if there was a threat because you would immediately start suffocating, like a scuba diver whose water tank stopped functioning. Carbon monoxide is much stealthier.

Around the house, the most common CO threats are your furnace, your water heater, any kind of portable fuel-burning heat device, and your gas oven. Cars in attached garages are also dangerous if they’re left running.

One New Mexico apartment complex recently saw five carbon monoxide poisonings that were traced to a defective water heater, while an elderly Pennsylvania couple was found dead in their house after their car was left running in the garage. In Colorado last month, a man died from a faulty heater in his RV.

Carbon monoxide kills by entering the bloodstream and effectively blocking the intake of oxygen. This starves your brain and vital organs of the oxygen they need to survive. If the exposure is high, death comes quickly, sometimes within minutes. If the exposure is low, but continued over a period of weeks or months, carbon monoxide levels accumulate in your blood and slowly destroy your body’s organs.

If it wasn’t bad enough that humans can’t detect carbon monoxide in the air, the most common symptoms of CO poisoning, especially low exposure poisoning, are vague. Typically people report headache, dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion. Often, these are confused with flu symptoms. People who are sleeping can die from CO poisoning without ever experiencing symptoms.

If caught in time, carbon monoxide poisoning can be reversed, but depending on the levels in the blood, it can lead to permanent physical or neurological damage.

The greatest tragedy in carbon monoxide poisonings is that they’re completely preventable. By installing quality detectors and having your gas appliances inspected by a professional with the right equipment, you can literally save lives.

Gillece Services, a Pittsburgh-based Plumbing, Heating, Cooling and Electrical company, also offers products and services that improve your Indoor Air Quality. Call 1-888-66-BURGH to learn more!

See the second and third installment of this series to learn how to get started – COMING SOON!

In the fourth and final installment of our series about preventing water damage, we’re going to examine methods to back up your sump pump in the case of power failure.

If you have a quality French drain supplemented by the right sump pump, you’re already well-protected against basement water infiltration. Barring a 100-year flood or some other rainwater catastrophe, your basement should stay dry — as long as the power stays on. Unfortunately, unless you have a reliable backup system, all of your protection vanishes when the electricity goes out.

There are two ways to back up your sump pump: battery power and generator power.

A generator has an internal combustion engine that is powered by gasoline or diesel fuel. When your home’s electricity fails, you can manually turn on the generator to power your sump pump. For even better protection, the generator can be hard-wired into your home’s electrical system so that it automatically activates during a power failure. This option is particularly useful if you’re not at home when the electricity goes out.

It is important to make sure that your generator’s power output matches your pump’s requirements. No matter how good your sump pump, if it’s not getting enough power, you will likely end up cleaning out a flooded basement.

A battery back-up system requires that a second pump be installed in your basement, usually in the same hole that your first pump is in. The water level sensor for the secondary pump is slightly higher than that of your main pump. If the first pump fails, either mechanically or because of a power outage, the battery pump takes over.

Battery back-ups are great because they also protect against two types of failures – power and mechanical – but they only work as long as the battery lasts. Also, you must keep a fresh battery on the unit. It’s all too common for people to forgot about changing the batteries until it’s too late.

The ideal solution for many people is a combination of generator and battery back-ups. If your home suffers a prolonged power outage or 10 hours or more, this might be the only way to guarantee that your pumps keep working and that your basement stays dry.

But when it comes to sump pumps and back up systems, there is no one-size fits all solution. Much depends on your home, your basement, and your budget.

Gillece Services has expert plumbers that can evaluate your home and recommend a sump pump system that fits your needs and that will give you peace of mind during heavy rains (or melting snow). Gillece Plumbing can also quickly and painlessly install a pump, a backup generator, or an entire French drain system. We have experienced technicians in all of the trades, so whether its a backup generator or battery backup sump pump, we have the expertise to get the job done right the first time – and thousands of satisfied customers can attest to the quality of our work.

Let’s face it. Perfect customer service is an impossibility.

Never in the history of business has there been a company with a 100 percent customer satisfaction rating.

Why? Because people are difficult to please, and we mean that in the best possible way.

Every individual is unique, and when somebody purchases a product or a service, he or she has different needs, wants, and expectations. At one end are the people who only want the highest quality product, no matter what the cost. At the other extreme are people who want the cheapest possible solution.

Most people lie somewhere in between, but there’s no cookie cutter way of pleasing everybody at once.

At Gillece Services, we decided 30 years ago that we would provide the highest-quality service at the lowest possible price. Does that mean that we’re the least expensive plumbing, heating, air conditioning, or electrical service around? No.

It means that nobody in Western Pennsylvania does a better job than Gillece Plumbing and HVAC. In fact, a surprising percentage of our work involves re-doing other people’s “fixes.” We also get a good number of referrals when jobs prove to be beyond the capabilities of our competitors.

Highest-quality doesn’t necessarily mean highest-cost, though. We pride ourselves on the efficiency of our technicians. They can solve virtually any problem at any time of the day or night, saving you not only time and inconvenience, but often money as well.

But we have learned in our three decades of experience that even doing the best work in town won’t make everybody happy.

Sometimes, a customer wants a high-end solution at a low-end price. No what matter what some companies tell you, this just doesn’t exist in reality. You really do get what you pay for.

Sometimes, a customer just wants a low-end solution. We don’t do that either. If there’s a problem, we want to fix it, not just apply a Band-Aid so that you have to call us again in a few months.

It’s impossible to avoid criticism. Look at the case of USAA, the vaunted insurance company specializing in serving military personnel. Not only is USAA consistently ranked among the top customer service providers in any industry in America, they’re even one of the best places to work in the country.

Yet a quick Google search reveals what appear to be numerous individual complaints about USAA. The only praise you’ll find are from major news sites like Business Week and CNN. In reality, these complaints represent a fraction of a fraction of USAA’s business (and some may be from scam sites that try to extort business into having “bad reviews” removed).

That’s one of the timeless truths about business. When we are happy with a service or product, we tend to keep it to ourselves, but when we are unhappy, we’ll tell anybody who will listen.

Each year, tens of millions of prescriptions are written for the antibiotic Cipro. It treats pneumonia and other infections of the lungs, skin, and joints. It has saved millions of lives and has quickly improved the quality of life for millions more people. It’s even the cure for anthrax. But when is the last time you heard somebody say, “Cipro is fantastic!”

Do an internet search for the drug, however, and there are dozens of complaints. The unhappy represent a tiny percentage of the people who have used Cipro, but they are by far the most vocal. It’s just human nature.

At Gillece we know there will be critics, but we proudly stand by all of our work. We know we can’t make everybody happy, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to stop trying. People who want the job done right will always be satisfied with our work, and we hope that people who want cheap workarounds will realize that cut-rate solutions aren’t really solutions at all, they are temporarily postponed problems. As tens of thousands of satisfied Pittsburgh residents can attest, when you want the job done right and done right now, you call Gillece.

In our previous installment of this four-part series, we addressed interior French drains, a common and extremely effective way of keeping your basement dry in even the wettest Pittsburgh weather.

Now let’s look at the sump pump, the device that makes French drains so effective.

To recap, an interior French drain is essentially a trench dug under your basement floor. When water seeks in through your foundation, it flows into a small basin, or pit. Inside that basin is a sump pump, a electric device that water through a pipe that empties outside of your home. When the water in the sump pump basin reaches a certain level, the pump kicks on, and your basement stays dry.

A properly working drain/pump system will save many times its cost in potential water damage repair bills. Just a small bit of water leaking into your basement can do serious damage to your basement floor, especially if you have a finished, furnished basement.

But installing a sump pump isn’t as simple as digging a hole in the ground and plugging in the pump. There are many types of pumps available, and finding the right one for your home is crucial.

Pedestal pumps sit above the sump pump basin, and are relatively inexpensive and easy to repair. Submersible pumps are actually installed underwater, which makes them more difficult to access, but they are out out of sight and safer for homes with children. Generally, a pedestal pump will have a longer lifespan than a submersible.

Pumps are rated in two ways: 1). The amount of water it is capable of pumping in a minute or in an hour, and 2). Maximum lift — the vertical height that it can pump water without losing flow strength.

A pump might advertise that it can pump 1,600 gallons per hour, but that might on be only at the base of the unit. When that water travels through a 10-feet-long vertical pipe, the flow might be cut in half to 800 gallons per hour. Thus, you must find a pump powerful enough to meet the unique needs of your home.

Typically, the more powerful the unit, the more expensive it is. Though you might save a few dollars now buying an underpowered pump, it won’t do you much good during a heavy summer rainstorm.

Gillece Services can help you find the right pump for your home, and our expert plumbers can save you time and headaches by performing a quick, seamless installation. Leave the plumbing, jack-hammering, digging, caulking, and sealing to us, and enjoy your newly-dry basement.