Simple Makeshift Emergency Sump-Pump

Recently my roommate and I discovered, since the landlord cut down the tree that was over-hanging our basment entrance, we have water issues. And by recently I mean around 2am this morning, and by water issues I mean flooding conditions.

Problem one: Our appartment is below ground level
Problem two: Our floor is lower then the entrance.
Problem three: Water fills up the outside entrance area.

Solution: Quick thinking, a fish tank filter, and some common household items saved the day.. well, night.

Handy-Man's secret weapon: Duct tape
Garbage bags
Broom stick
A water containment device of your liking
Scissors
One fish tank filter
One very understanding fish. (Thanks Winston)

You'll have to work with me on this step. We were in a bit of a hurry and didn't take any pictures during this part. The water was rising pretty quick.

We, unfortunatly, did not have any type of hose or tubing in the apartment, so we had to make one.


So, take the garbage bag and cut it down the sides to make a plastic sheet.

I don't have pictures of the process, but to make the tube, you wrap it around the broom stick and run a strip of duct tape down the seam to complete the tube.

One length of the plastic bag was not long enough so we made two of them and joined them together with another duct tape seam.

To join the makeshift hose to the filter it was just a matter of butting the hose against the outlet of the filter and taping it in place.

Since the floor was below the water a simple siphon should work, however our homemade tube collapses on itself and didn't work. So we needed a pump. Well, we dont have a pump. But we did have a fish tank with a filter...

We placed the water filter in the water and ran the hose inside into a water basin. Once one was full we switched it with another and dumped it down the drain.

You may ask why we didn't add another length to the tube to run it up the stairs to the sidewalk. Well we didn't think the poor pump had enough power to lift the water that high.

Well the little filter did its thing. It lowered the water level 3 inches in about 40 min. around that time the rain slowed down and the water was able to seep through the cracks in the concrete to drain on its own.

The water was about 5 inches deep and rising pretty quick when we noticed our carpet was getting wet.

The hose at one point sprung a leak. As you can see from the picture the filter was producing some pressure in the hose. It was resolved with more duct tape.

As a final comment I will say this worked 100% better than I expected. The Landlord should be installing the much needed gutter very soon!