Just found a foot of water in my basement

[moparjohn]

I got home from work today at 5:30, then I went out to a friends to see a movie.  I got back around 9:30 or so, just before 10:30 I was going to go to bed, in my head I think, I would be awful to have water in the basement- we've been having alot of rain lately and today it rained all day as well.  I opened the basement door and mt worst nightmere had come true, somewhere over a foot of water was covering the floor, the sump pump had failed.  It's now 3:00 old time, the water has been pumped out, fans are on and some things have been dried.  I have a long day ahead tomorrow with trash and cleaning the rugs etc.  I can't imagine what people with real floods go through!  I have the following losses at this time; 5 plus years of car and other magazines (they were sorted by sub./year in mag holders on a low shelf) books of various topics, VHS tapes of many things (will these dry out?) car related kreepsakes, many photo albums-of which I have done my best to dry/save.  My Dukes stuff took a good hit, signed intems and paper/cardboard boxed things- most of these will be saved but now are not in mint cond.  I'm tired now and need to get some sleep for the battle ahead, again it's not much damage, but it's not something anyone would want to go through.   

[gers1968rt]

That really sucks, my sympathy for your situation.

[BMOTOXSTAR]

I have been there bro.
A Neighbor's tree went down in a big storm, few hundred year old tree. It ripped pipes udeground and it damaged our bastment drain pipe that is in  the floor. Well that is where the A/C run off would go. You can guess the rest.....

[400/6/PAC]

That sucks.
Good luck on the clean up.

[The70RT]

Sorry to hear that. Hope you can get it all back together. Been there done that. My whole basement is furnished and was full of parts and we had a creek infultrate our sewer system and It took me two weeks to get everything out then sort dry and take back down. I only had a few inches thank god. My wife has had two knee surgery's since last may when it happened from up and down our stairs for two weeks.. I feel fortunate I didn't live a few blocks closer. Some of my friends had 2-3ft. of water on the first floor. Hang in there it is real frustrating. As long as you don't have to start tearing out walls or a new furnace etc. 

[TruckDriver]

Man, that sucks! 

The video tapes are junk once they get wet.

[Charger_Fan]

That sucks Man, I haven't had to deal with a flooded basement since I was a teen...(knock on wood).

[greenpigs]

  Our old house has an underground stream or something that runs in line with the cellar and if you don't run the sump pump pump every couple days it can get deep. Example: the highest it has ever got was nipple level on me and I am 6 ' and thats the entire length of the basement. Other than that its a nice place and I am in the process of fixing it up and hope it sells sometime in the future.

[soda blaster]

I have had that happen at my house a few times now the city flooded my house. I feel for you for sure.

[General_01]

Sorry to hear that John. I hope you don't find anymore damage today. Good luck with the clean-up.

[70charginglizard]

I guess youve got a forced spring cleaning in front of you.

Seriously though. Sorry to hear about your situation there. That would really suck.

[Old Moparz]

Sorry to hear about the flooding, I've been there too & it really sucks.   

I'm actually in the process of pumping water from my basement as I type this. I've been here since 1989, & 3 years ago was the first time I've ever had water in my basement. I've always had dampness & ran a dehumidifier which solved it, but now water seeps in from where the concrete floor meets the foundation walls. I've never had anything valuable or something that was easily damaged from water because of the dampness, so when I had an inch or so of water rise up, it wasn't too bad. I kept everything elevated on pallets or strips of wood. Some were not high enough & left me with lots of cleaning & tossing out soggy boxes. 

Last spring was the worst when I had over 3" in some places. Many things got wet & I worried that the washer, dryer, water heater, boiler, freezer, & a few other things would be ruined. I pumped out a lot, but couldn't keep up & had to buy a second pump. That worked & all was okay, but it's a big headache. This year it's only been an inch or so again, but I am lucky it was the weekend when I was home & not at work. I was up until almost 2:30 AM last night before I lowered the water enough to go to bed. Local streams are very high, low areas are under water, & I see a lot of hoses coming from the basements on my street, so I knew I was going to get flooded too, but just didn't know how deep.

Good luck with your mess, but yeah, it could be much worse.   

**I added a pic to give you an idea of how much water is nearby. That corrugated metal pipe in the background is 12" in diameter & usually has just a small trickle of water running through it. Not this past few days though, it can't even come close to keeping up with the volume of water & the water runs right above the ground. This is on the downhill side of my property about 100 feet from my house.

[694spdRT]

Hope you can save most of your stuff. I have had a foot of water in my basement too. My house was built on a hillside and a heavy rain flooded everything. Fortunately, I was not storing anything valuable down there. After that happened I did some extensive landscaping and contoured the yard to divert the water above the house. Since that time I have had the occasional wetness(like last weekend) when the ground gets saturated but it has never been very bad.

Good luck with the cleanup. 

[derailed]

All I can say is get on top of it ASAP and dont let it happen again. I dealt with this 1 year ago now and woke up to a house with 3 foundation walls under it. Basement flooding sucks, but just make sure its not leading to something else. 1 year later and almost $25k things are about back to normal.

[moparjohn]

Thanks for the kind words.  Today my buddy Tomdroptop came up and we vaccumed up 100 + gallons of water in the carpet with the shop vac.  The whole basement has a very thin rug on it and part also has a nicer rug on top.  We vac'ed the rug and took it outside to dry in the sun.  We got alot done, heaters and fans are on to dry up the air, frezzer and water heater still working.  looks like the dehumidifier is not working, so a new one must be purchased.  I sadly threw away years of magazines, books, VHS (oh well upgrade to DVD) My entertainment center has particle board sides (didn't know this) and the bottom has swelled a litle, hopefully it will shrink down a bit it still seems ok, it was pretty $ and it's not that old. On the bright side, didn't loose any of my Dukes stuff, no electronics are damaged, no old car parts were lost, and when I'm done cleaning there might be room for some new/different stuff. John

[BMOTOXSTAR]

All I can say is get on top of it ASAP and dont let it happen again. I dealt with this 1 year ago now and woke up to a house with 3 foundation walls under it. Basement flooding sucks, but just make sure its not leading to something else. 1 year later and almost $25k things are about back to normal.

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Wow sorry to hear that John.  Funny thing is that I went to my parents house last night for my dad's B-Day....he showed me his new Basement Watchdog back-up sump system.
This is a battery powered back-up sump that works if the power or plug in sump fails.....

Pretty cheap at Home Depot.....getting one this week!!

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?distance_1=50&zip=10304&jspStoreDir=hdus&state_1=&storeZip=10303&storeState=NY&recordId=1249&catalogId=10053&productId=100055241&errorViewName=StoreFinderView&city=&langId=-1&store=&storeId=10051&List=List&storeCity=Staten+island

[dodgecharger-fan]

Thanks for the kind words.  Today my buddy Tomdroptop came up and we vaccumed up 100 + gallons of water in the carpet with the shop vac.  The whole basement has a very thin rug on it and part also has a nicer rug on top.  We vac'ed the rug and took it outside to dry in the sun.  We got alot done, heaters and fans are on to dry up the air, frezzer and water heater still working.  looks like the dehumidifier is not working, so a new one must be purchased.  I sadly threw away years of magazines, books, VHS (oh well upgrade to DVD) My entertainment center has particle board sides (didn't know this) and the bottom has swelled a litle, hopefully it will shrink down a bit it still seems ok, it was pretty $ and it's not that old. On the bright side, didn't loose any of my Dukes stuff, no electronics are damaged, no old car parts were lost, and when I'm done cleaning there might be room for some new/different stuff. John

Good to hear that it wasn't too horrific, but it still sucks to have to deal with it at all. You've got me thinking about what I need to do to protect the stuff I have in my basement.
Get it good and dry down there and maybe think about spraying some bleach or other mold and mildew fighter. Any moisture left behind will be a breeding ground for that stuff.

[resq302]

Wow.  That sounds all too familair John.  The same thing happened to dad and me about 3 years ago when we came home from the Hershey AACA meet with the el camino.  Same thing, the sump pump failed and we had a foot of water in the basement.  That was that bad week where we had like 9 straight days of rain.  The problem with dads house is that if the water level rises too fast, it comes up through the floor in his basement.  I am sure it looked the same as your basement, tubs of bins floating here and there all over the place.  Things can be replaced and if you have the same magazines as I do, I would be more than happy to give you the ones that I have that you lost.

Brian

[BMOTOXSTAR]

Thios is my nephew in his basement 2 years ago when we had flooding here in NE,Ohio.

[Old Moparz]

Wow sorry to hear that John.  Funny thing is that I went to my parents house last night for my dad's B-Day....he showed me his new Basement Watchdog back-up sump system.
This is a battery powered back-up sump that works if the power or plug in sump fails.....

Pretty cheap at Home Depot.....getting one this week!!

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?distance_1=50&zip=10304&jspStoreDir=hdus&state_1=&storeZip=10303&storeState=NY&recordId=1249&catalogId=10053&productId=100055241&errorViewName=StoreFinderView&city=&langId=-1&store=&storeId=10051&List=List&storeCity=Staten+island

Excellent idea!    I know where I am going during my lunch break today, that big, ugly, stucco box with orange trim.

[71charger_fan]

When that happened to us, I found the foundation drain outlet at the bottom corner of the front yard had become plugged. We had gone several years with a completely dry basement. Then, as soon as I finish a third of it, it floods. Same as you, tons of old magazines.

[moparjohn]

OK, it' Thur. night, I've been cleaning all day (except for 2 hours, washed Charger and drove it around a little) 3 days of cleaning, yesterday I did 10 tubs of laundry, stuff everywhere!  The good news is there has been no real loss, I'm on the downside and I can grasp the finish line.  I have most of the trash out, lots of cardboard, cardboard does not belong in my house anymore!!! carpets are cleaned, except for under my model railroad (only 11 4x8 sheets of plywood ) and I think everything will be done with two more days work.  I'm more organized now and got rid of some stuff I did not need too.  I  will be selling some Charger stuff I have that  beat the flood, just don't want so much stuff laying around so watch for my list. thanks again for the moral support!! John

[BMOTOXSTAR]

Well,
I have my own water problems.
I am  doing a post on the entire saga. Man, it sucks.

[ramit]

Just make sure you run the back up sump pump a couple times a year to make sure the ball inside the float doesn't stick.

[Guns N Rotors]

Don't forget to do the " three brick trick" when you install the new sump pump.

[ramit]

What is the "three brick trick"?
 

[Guns N Rotors]

When you remove the old sump pump, clean all the silt from the bottom of the pot.

Place three 2" bricks on the bottom of the pot so they form a triangle.

Set the new pump on top of the bricks. This will keep the pump 2" off the bottom.

This will help keep the pump from sucking up silt and will help the motor last longer.

[ramit]

That is good to know.

[The70RT]

OK, it' Thur. night, I've been cleaning all day (except for 2 hours, washed Charger and drove it around a little) 3 days of cleaning, yesterday I did 10 tubs of laundry, stuff everywhere!  The good news is there has been no real loss, I'm on the downside and I can grasp the finish line.  I have most of the trash out, lots of cardboard, cardboard does not belong in my house anymore!!! carpets are cleaned, except for under my model railroad (only 11 4x8 sheets of plywood ) and I think everything will be done with two more days work.  I'm more organized now and got rid of some stuff I did not need too.  I  will be selling some Charger stuff I have that  beat the flood, just don't want so much stuff laying around so watch for my list. thanks again for the moral support!! John

I am glad it wasn't too bad and your getting back to normal. What sucked when I got hit last year I didn't have a sump pump because my basement never leaked. Low and be hold our sewer system was inundated by a flooding creek a mile away and backed up into everyones basement that was approx a mile from the creek. A pump station was flooded and the pump got submerged and shorted. Luckily a neighbor told me when it started (2am) and I tried to plug off the drain as best I could and I only got a few inches. Me and the wife took off work for a week. It took me a week to bring everything out and tear out all the carpet, a week to clean and dry the basement. I only lost paneling in one area. It then took month to get my front garage back by sorting through all my parts and saving what I could and putting everything back. Most everything was in boxes so all the bottom ones got wet and a lot of them collapsed and fell over. I was blessed because most everybody else had 3-4 feet. when they woke up that morning It also cost my wife two knee surgery's from up and down the stairs a zillion times. This has only been one of the setbacks I have had since I started my resto.