Flooded basement

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Good news, Bad news, worse news.

Good news is, I will have to take most of the day off work.

Bad News is, the type of stuff I have to do to cleanup will be much harder work.

Worse news is, I will likely have to work longer hours this weekend, because the first portion of this project has a deadline on monday morning.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Our ground was saturated from the last two weeks worth heavy rains.
NOW, 4.5" in the rain gauge since midnight, another storm cell just starting to hit Glencoe and Looks pretty big.

Cellar #1 had a few inches of water before I plugged in the sump pump at 6am.

Cellar #2 had a foot of water in it, no sump hole, I just put a Pump on the floor and then finish with a shop vac. But can't really do that til the rain stops...cuz it just keeps coming in. This happened last summer for the first time in the 20 years I lived here, I figured it wouldn't happen again, so I didn't dig out a sump hole...Dang. I guess I have another project on my list.

[Pb2au]

Holy cow, that is terrible. Where I grew up, our basement flood like clockwork every spring. I dreaded it. Finally i talked Pop into putting in a proper sump and pump to deal with it.
Look on the bright side, you have a temporary indoor pool! :kidding:

[MT Gianni]

Any drywall or mold issues to deal with? Best of luck we have had a very rainy week that's headed your way.

[MrWolf]

I live on a small lake so I have two sump pumps, one with a marine battery backup on an auxillary pump. I remember back in 2004 when we got about 12" in 24 hours and a bunch of the dams broke upstream of us. Luckily ours was the one that held; if that went people downstream would have died. Folks don't really appreciate what water can do till they see it first hand. Luck with your cleanup and keep the pumps running.

Ron

[WILCO]

This happened last summer for the first time in the 20 years I lived here, I figured it wouldn't happen again, so I didn't dig out a sump hole....

Wilco "Truth of Life" rule #4: Anything happens to you once, count on it happening again. Anytime, anywhere.

Hang tough Jon.

[fastfire]

Bad news,Not good, need another pump.
Good news, Land of 10,001 lakes, Plant fish in it:bigsmyl2:

[freebullet]

When it rains it pours. Sorry you have to deal with that.

A good portion of my income is from extracting water. I never get tired of it.

Is the area finished?

[Bad Water Bill]

As I sit here waiting for the man to find where my main drain is plugged I truly feel your pain.

Over 4" all over the carpeted basement floor.

A 40+ year collection of STUFF all over the place.:groner:

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

inbetween manning the pump, I took a few photos.

The Rain Garden AKA: the low spot inbetween the Lots.
http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu127/JonB_in_Glencoe/Yardraingardenreduced_zps733807dd.jpg (http://s640.photobucket.com/user/JonB_in_Glencoe/media/Yardraingardenreduced_zps733807dd.jpg.html)

As you can see, My food cellar (with no sump hole), isn't finished with sheetrock...it's just an old timey 10" by 10" food cellar under the kitchen floor...enter via a 'hatch' in the floor and a steep ladder type stairway.

right now, the water is seeping in through the cracks in the wall...about as fast as a faucet set at slow stream.
http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu127/JonB_in_Glencoe/foodcellarwallnpumpreduced_zps3c32e0d4.jpg (http://s640.photobucket.com/user/JonB_in_Glencoe/media/foodcellarwallnpumpreduced_zps3c32e0d4.jpg.html)


The water heater and the dehumifier are on blocks, but still got wet, dang.
http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu127/JonB_in_Glencoe/foodcellarwaterheaterreduced_zpsd04aa905.jpg (http://s640.photobucket.com/user/JonB_in_Glencoe/media/foodcellarwaterheaterreduced_zpsd04aa905.jpg.html)

http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu127/JonB_in_Glencoe/foodcellarJamreduced_zps6cd895c9.jpg (http://s640.photobucket.com/user/JonB_in_Glencoe/media/foodcellarJamreduced_zps6cd895c9.jpg.html)

[Hickok]

Jon, Bad Water Bill, I know what you are going through. Been there several times myself. Last time we had 5 inches of rain in one night was the Flood of 1985 here in WV. It was really bad statewide, so I know you must have got a torrent of water since midnight.

Hope the storm cell misses you, and be careful of electricity and the water!

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

...
NOW, 4.5" in the rain gauge since midnight, another storm cell just starting to hit Glencoe and Looks pretty big
...


Hope the storm cell misses you, and be careful of electricity and the water!

Nope, the last one didn't miss Glencoe. That cell gave us 90 minutes of more rain, which equals 3 more inches in the rain gauge. Total of 7.5" since midnight. The rain has stopped now, but the radar says we are on the edge of the cell, thunder and lightning to the east of me.

BUT, things are under control if the rain is over ? still a chance of rain throughout the day, but hopefully that'll be east of me. I figure in 6 to 8 hours, the water should stop seeping into the food cellar, and I can use a shop vac to get the last 4" of water out and then start cleaning the Jars and throwing out the paper and cardboard items that got wet down there.

[TenTea]

Sorry for your trouble, men.
It's been awful wet in these parts too.
Grandpa always said he'd rather have a fire than flood and I never understood until witnessing the aftermath of massive river flooding and all that mud!
Rainwater, of course, is a different story but still no fun atall.
Keep the faith!

[dsbock]

We were hit pretty hard by Irene in August 2011. This is the view of my workshop as the water level rose. About 1' of water inside the shop.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/dsbock/Workshop-1300_zps88b19312.jpg

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/dsbock/Workshop-1330_zps20b96cef.jpg

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/dsbock/Workshop-1430_zps36613da9.jpg

Over 5' of water in the basement. Lost everything down there. Furnace, Water heater, Culligan system, and the oil tank let go and dumped 300+ gallons of heating fuel into the mix.

Not a good day. I hope your luck is better than ours.

David

[bangerjim]

I grew up in Iowa with water in the basement everytime it rained a lot! Not fun. My dad jackhammered grooves in the floor to channel the water to the main floor drain. At lease we had a city sewer system!

Here in AZ we are lucky to get 7" of rain........A YEAR!. No basement. Normally dry as a bone everywhere in the desert.

Good luck to all you guys with flooding in your basements!

bangerjim

[tomme boy]

Do you have rain gutters on the roof? If you do, put some plastic tile on the outlet to drain it farther out in the yard. It helps.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Do you have rain gutters on the roof? If you do, put some plastic tile on the outlet to drain it farther out in the yard. It helps.

Yep, Gutters, I have the down spouts routed pretty good...But it doesn't help much when I don't get the Maple spinner jam unclogged before a big storm :oops:

[dragon813gt]

I feel your pain. I have a stone foundation that is 114 years old. I have to flip a coin everytime it rains heavily. Everything is raised off the floor which is concrete. But the water comes in at a few spots and then runs like a stream to the sump pump. Previous owners decided to stucco the stone so it's crumbling all over the place as well. Gutters on the entire roof have helped. But like I said I flip a coin and then pull up the area rugs and laundry baskets.

[bangerjim]

Yep, Gutters, I have the down spouts routed pretty good...But it doesn't help much when I don't get the Maple spinner jam unclogged before a big storm :oops:

You may have what we found out in later years with my parent's house................dead tree roots, BIG ones, acting like pipes under the ground....channeling all that ground water right to the foundation. My Dad cut down a big elm tree about 25 feet from the house after it died of Dutch Elm disease and the thing had HUGE roots extending to the house. Perfect water collection system!

banger

[Frank46]

Not to make light of your flooding problems. My neighbor across the street had a 6000 gallon above ground pool in their yard. Nice clear sunny day. It let go and since they had a finished basement that's where the bulk of the water went. Picked up a sump pump I keep for pumping out my pool and some hose and went over to help. Took quite some time to pump out and bucket brigade helped. My house that I had on Long Island used to leak during heavy rain. Dug along the foundation in the driveway and grouted the whole thing. Then put in a dry well with 8' deep hole lined with plastic culvert pipe and filled with gravel then found a concrete cover to keep the dirt out and back filled. Just me and my little shovel. The dry well had a hose from the casement window in the basement to the drywell. Still had one spot that still leaked. Dug it out on the inside and used hydraulic cement. Never leaked again. My house here in Louisiana is on a slab and except for real bad rain nothing gets inside except for the garage. I did have one bricked up basement window behind the hot water heater. Used a hilti gun with concrete spade to knock out all the old bricks and mortar. Sealed the inside with plywood using the concrete screws then formed the old opening with plywood again with the concrete screws and used a special mix of high strength concrete with an adhesive and went to town. Used an old sander as a vibrator to settle the mix. Worked pretty good. Filled the form up to the top continued with the sander. My buddy who allowed me to use the hilti gun came by to see how I was doing and almost got a face full of bricks. When done there were no seams then tarred the whole thing and then backfilled. Again with the shovel. That one never leaked again. heck the footing for the new chimney was 30 bags of pre mix again all by myself and about a hundred or so feet of rebar. That sucker wasn't going anywhere. I had to redo the pad for the oil burner and I won't go into how much premix and rebar I used but one thing is that if your wife and mother come home to help forget about it. Made a chute from one window and shoveled in the mix into the forms. Cement mixer that's what I was. Anyway house was in way better shape than when we moved in it. When your basement floods a trash pump is what you need rather than a sump pump. 20K gallons an hour at least. Use a long discharge hose away from the house. That's what we did when a buddy's house flooded. Didn't have a sump so we dug one and stuck the suction hose in it with the foot valve had the basement emptied in about two hours. Mopped up and spread kitty litter or oil dry clay and you never knew what happened. Sorry to rant today. I'll go to bed soon. Frank

[John Boy]

Jon - I really feel sad for you and the damage. Our home was in the eye of Super Storm Sandy. We had 36" of salt water mixed with mud & sand in the basement. FEMA does not insure personal property in a basement ... we lost 10's of thousands of dollars of personal property. My complete reloading room is in the basement. All my long arms went to a gunsmith and 9 remain to be repaired. The list is long for other casting & reloading equipment I lost or had to repair, including 105 bullet molds

I recommend anyone living in a flood plain area, susceptible to flooding ... $2000 free NRA firearms insurance and $1000 free insurance from Ducks Unlimited - plus a kicker to cover all your firearms, scopes, vernier sights & even slings.

[MaryB]

5.5 inches of rain where I am in SW Minnesota the last 24 hours. No water in my basement but a small leak by a chimney that I will have to get sealed up. Farm fields are small lakes, postman said half his route he had to detour to get to houses because some gravel roads washed out. Had tornado warnings on and off from 7pm to midnight as storm cells went over. Rain just kept reforming behind the cells all night long, finally quit around 8am.

[facetious]

May be that is why my friend up in Anoka hasn't sent me a e mail in the last couple weeks. I heard thy were getting a lot of rain too.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Thanks for all the comments and tips.
I do realize this isn't a very bad deal...mostly a nuisance and missing a day of work at the jobsite for this hot project.

[CastingFool]

FWIW, They do make a paint that will seal small cracks in foundations. It's called UGL Drylock. I used in my basement and it seems to work.

[Hickory]

I've been wanting rain for two weeks, the last 5 days were supposed to rain but not a drop.
North and south of me (10-15 miles) were getting inches of rain.
Good new, lighting and thunder, right now, west of me, I hope I get (a little).

[blackthorn]

Yep, Gutters, I have the down spouts routed pretty good...But it doesn't help much when I don't get the Maple spinner jam unclogged before a big storm :oops:

Yesterday Gail and I went to Home Depot for an item she wanted. As we were walking through the parking lot we saw a lady loading some black foam triangles (sort of) into her car. They were about 4+ feet long. Curious, we asked her what they were and she said they were to put into your rain gutters. Apparently they let water through but any solids stay on top of the foam and get washed(?) off onto the ground. She claimed they work very well and you never have to clean gutters again. We will try some when we have a few bucks to spare.

[DR Owl Creek]

JonB,

It has been a lot like that here in Ohio too. We kind'a joke about it being monsoon season. The rain comes down like out of a fire hose. We don't have more than a few days in a row without rain.

My daughter lives in southern California, and its just the opposite there. They haven't had any rain in ages.

Dave

[dakotashooter2]

FWIW, They do make a paint that will seal small cracks in foundations. It's called UGL Drylock. I used in my basement and it seems to work.

The problem with such paints is that they are applied to the inside of the wall. When the ground gets saturated there is a hyralic pressure effect which pushes at the paint from the outside forcing it away from the crack rather than into it. If it happens enough time the paint will peel away.

While the black gutter sponges sound like a good idea in practice they are not that great. They work great during gentle rains where water is slowly fed into the gutters but when a hard downpour comes and you need maximum gutter capacity a majority of the water will bounce right over the top. The sponges just can't absorb and transport the water fast enough.

Always put more downspouts on a gutter than you think you need. What many people fail to realize is that gutters really are not needed for the average rain. The amount of water that would run off the roof and down along the foundation is minimal and generally doesn't cause a problem. It's the big downpours or extended rains where that water needs to get directed away from the house.

My MIL had seepage problems for years. When she got her roof redone I told the contractor to double up some of the downspouts at roof valleys and other key spots. He resisted but I insisted. Since that was done the seepage problem disappeared. My ex on the other hand didn't push it with the gutter guys even after I suggested it and she still has problems with seepage during heavy rains.

Another option is an outside sump system. Particularly if the water seems to come from a specific area.

And always... always use an appropriately sized hose for your pump. Using a garden hose on a sump pump is like peeing in the ocean. I've seen people run 3-1/3 hp pumps hooked to garden hoses trying to move water as fast as they can. 1- 1/3 hp pump hooked to a 1 1/4" hose would have easily done the same job and in less time.

My great Aunt lives on the Rainy River on the MN/Canada border. The house is 75' off a fast dropping bank and about 35' above normal river level. For the first time in 52 years the water is creeping up on her yard.