How Do You Handle a Basement Flood After a Girl Scout Overnight?

[Jean DeVries]

After staying awake all night at an overnight at the mall with my Girl Scout troop, I was looking forward to coming home to sleep.

But alas, it was not to be.

At 6:00 this morning, I went to check the basement of our newish house (which has had undetermined water damage int he past). Per Becky D in another thread, it rained cats and dogs here last night, and I wanted to make sure there wasn't an animal shelter being set up in my basement.

Well.....

Let's just say it wasn't quite an animal shelter....but it was getting there.

Yep. Water (and mud) everywhere.

Given that the water line on the egress window was about 3/4 up the window (as evidenced by the fact that all of the remaining bird nest that we had sucked out of the vent that was right above it a few weeks ago was stuck to the screen), I'd say that our egress window can't handle dog and cat-like weather. And, neither can the window.

So....as soon as the water-sucky-thingie-guys finish three more houses, they'll be over here (apparently other people's houses can't . Of course, it may be dry by then. It seems to be drying pretty rapidly.

Now all I have to do is get all the crap that's down there out so they can water sucky thingie the water & mud out, and blow the wood dry. And there's a lot of crap. Mostly my sister's

I also learned a valuable lesson. When your brother is storing his stuff in your basement bedroom because he's trying to sell his house, don't call him at 6:00 in the morning to ask if all of the stuff on the floor (that you can't see because it's a big room and he has a lot of stuff in there) is in tubs. He freaks, thinks people are dead, and just about has a coronary on the spot.

Like I would have needed that today on top of everything else.....

Anywhoo, sizeable donations of microfiber towels are being accepted. Heck, what better way to sell those puppies than to say, "Hey, my basement flooded once and I soaked up all the water with these little babies!"

Oh well. Such is life.

Back to hauling stuff out of the basement.....

(I may also add that my sister's stuffed animals from when she was a kid were in a trash bag in the basement, and are now all lined up on the back deck in the sun trying to dry out. It looks like a bad 80's reunion somewhere, and they're all laying out to tan.....) I'll download the pic later for your amusement.

 

[legacypc46]

(I may also add that my sister's stuffed animals from when she was a kid were in a trash bag in the basement, and are now all lined up on the back deck in the sun trying to dry out. It looks like a bad 80's reunion somewhere, and they're all laying out to tan.....) I'll download the pic later for your amusement.

Oh, I needed a chuckle pretty bad this morning. Thanks for giving me one...in spades. Sorry about your basement though.

 

[vwpamperedchef]

Oh no--how awful! Sending you lots of sunshine----to soak up that mess!

 

[chefann]

Ugh! So sorry that you're dealing with this. Yuck.We had some water issues in the basement when I was a kid, and my folks soon learned to store everything up on 2x4s - just high enough to raise it above the floor in case there was seepage. As for the stuffed animals, I'm picturing a full contingent of Care Bears, along with their homegirl, Rainbow Brite, soaking up some UV.

 

[janetupnorth]

We're dealing with the same thing on the other side of the big pond with my mom's house. Good luck!

 

[janetupnorth]

Ugh! So sorry that you're dealing with this. Yuck.

We had some water issues in the basement when I was a kid, and my folks soon learned to store everything up on 2x4s - just high enough to raise it above the floor in case there was seepage.

As for the stuffed animals, I'm picturing a full contingent of Care Bears, along with their homegirl, Rainbow Brite, soaking up some UV.

Don't forget Strawberry Shortcake, My Pretty Pony and Cabbage Patch Kids (or am I getting too old for Jean's sister...)

 

[chefann]

Yeah, they'd definitely be part of the party. Along with Monchichi.

 

[kspry]

Jean, how awful! Having lived in a house that had issues with water in the cellar, I feel your pain. It sounds similar - during a heavy rain, one window well would fill up with water and make its way into the basement.

We did get it fixed, and it wasn't that difficult! So there is hope. When it rains, 90% of the water around a house comes off the roof. Makes sense, right? That big roof surface is a flat surface and the water has no where to go but down the gutters which are probably too close to the house.

We installed http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=french+drain - basically, you just extend the downspouts further away from the house, underground in a shallow trench, to a dry well filled with gravel so the water can percolate down into the ground somewhere else besides your basement.

You can DIY if you have strong backs for digging in your family. Or hire it out, of course. I know there are lots of moving expenses when you get into a new home, but getting this done sooner than later will be worth it - you won't cringe every time you see rain clouds, and be able to really use your basement without that moldy smell wafting through the house while it dries out and you're wasting all that time with a wet vac.

 

[kspry]

Oh, and I know you've just moved, but I bet every realtor in the area knows that house has water problems - when you go to sell, it's definitley a good thing to be able to say that the undetermined water damage problem is fixed.

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

Jean, I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but a major squall line is going over my house right now. As I look at the radar, guess where it's headed?It will get to you in as long as it takes to cross the lake, dump on Becky, and flood hwy 21 on its way to your house.

 

[ChefBeckyD]

Jean, I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but a major squall line is going over my house right now. As I look at the radar, guess where it's headed?

It will get to you in as long as it takes to cross the lake, dump on Becky, and flood hwy 21 on its way to your house.

Yep - there is more coming!

And Jean - I heard from several people at church this morning the same sad story about the egress windows not being able to handle all of the rain! I think it came too much, too fast!

Would you believe even Rosewood was flooded! There were reports of cars stuck (stalled out!) at Rosewood and 28th because of flooding - and that's on high ground!

Sorry about your mess - hope your sisters friends can dry out before the next line of storms!

 

[Jean DeVries]

UpdateOk, remember in all of this, I haven't slept in 34 hours.

So, before I called the water guys, I got my brother's wet/dry vac. I'm a dork and didn't know it had a squeegie attachment. In fact, I spent a lot of time saying, "I wish I had a squeegee." So I was just trying to suck it up with the round hose attachment. It was going to take me forever. I wanted to sleep. So I called the water guys. I'm kinda like my dad...I don't wanna actually do the work to solve the problem, I wanna throw money at it until it's fixed.

Well, then my mom & dad showed up. My dad, being older, and therefore wiser, knew there was a squeegee there. So, from then until about an houra go, we were moving things in the basement, repacking things from wet boxes, and my dad turned into the self proclaimed squeegee master.

So, basement dry. Belongings mostly dry and upstairs for the time being. The water guys came over and delivered three industrial fans and a humidifier.

During the course of all this, we discovered two things. First, whoever built our egress windows was a dumba$$. Secondly, our lawn is really uneven, and doesn't slope from the foundation out like it should. So on the side of the house closest to the window, it slopes down drastically right before it gets to the corner. This is not on purpose...it's erosion, and the fact that we live on a clay field. Right around the corner and down the slope is the first railroad tie that makes up the perimeter of our egress window. Well, that was eroded into a giant hole. Which then continued underground until it came out, in what we presume, is Class 4 rapids style between two of the railraod ties that form the egress wall. (Yes, railroad ties....). Railroad ties that have a rather giant gap between them, thus not only letting in more water, but more eroded clay crap that keeps filling the egress and making the depth smaller. So, the cominbation of the rain coming in the egress like normal, and the rain eroding through the little underground cave created by, well, previous rain water, put more water into the windows than it could handle.

And I know I wasn't alone. The water guys that came had 13 calls to go to today, and that was pretty much the story no matter where I called.

So...my sister and I are off to buy sandbags. Some to put in the eroded hole, some to put in front of the window, and some to put along the wall that leads to the other rooms in our basement. We don't really care if it happens again for now, we've protected anything that needs to be protected. We would just rather clean it up in one room rather than 4....

When we bought the house from the bank, no one had any idea what caused the water damage in the basement. The carpet had been ripped up, and the drywall around the back outside walls was taken off halfway up the wall. So we knew something happened, and happened from the outside.

Now we know what.

I'm tired.

I'm going to bed.

After sandbags....

(BTW, KG's squall made it here. It's raining. Not as bad as last night, but it's raining. The good news is we got all the kids off the deck on time. Still coming with that picture.)

 

[pamperedbecky]

Oh wow, Jean!! Sorry to hear about all that.

When it came through the Chicagoland area today, I was outside doing a booth at Riverfest in St. Charles. yep, that was fun. We did have a tent/canopy thing that luckily stayed staked in the ground while we were off taking shelter with all our products. However, after 3 waves of storms, we finally decided it scared potential customers away and we packed up. Of course, it looks much better now, but I know many vendors packed up and left.

This weather was nasty! Between yesterday and today it's been horrible and I feel for those of you with water in your basement!! That happened many times in the house I grew up in. It was a good way to weed out extra "junk" in the basement!!

 

[Kitchen Diva]

Yikes!I just looked at the radar and Michigan is getting dumped on! Sorry about that guys!

Jean I'm glad you were able to get things absorbed and your 80's plush band in the house before the next cycle of storms came on through...

We got the humidity today... it feels like you just stepped out of a steam room just walking around the house and there is NO breeze what so ever. But since my basement is pretty dry I won't complain.

I've got two microfiber towels I haven't burnt on my stove yet- let me know if you wanna borrow them.

I seriously think with all the "fun" things going on in our lives and how we are able to handle them with humor that we should go on a comedy tour!

 

[Jean DeVries]

So whilst I was sleeping my 12 hours yesterday, my sister went and got 70 pound bags of dirt. I suspect we'll dig the egress a bit deeper, and then dump dirt in what is certain to be a cave-like hole behind the railroad ties in the egress. For now, they're being used like sandbags.

My brother was looking around the house for something he could stuff in the cracks between the railroad ties in the hopes it would at least slow down the rate at which the water flowed into the egress from underground.

My sister and both suggested super absorbent tampons.

Then we laughed hysterically at the thought of the look on the face of the contractor who came to fix the stupid thing....he'd be all like "What the hell???" and then he'd have to pull on the string to get them out. That might be worth the no doubt, thousands of dollars we'll have to pay to get it fixed.

More raining coming tonight...Yippee skippy.

 

[chefann]

OMG! You need to check out #48 on this list of top commercial parodies: The 50 Greatest Commercial Parodies of All Time - Nerve.com

 

[katie0128]

If my DH wasn't so behind on all of the projects here at our house (let alone the other side jobs at other people's houses that he has started), I'd get him on a plane to your place. When we bought this house, it came with the standard midwest "basement leaks very slightly during very heavy, sustained rains." Of course that translates into "anytime there is dew on the ground, expect a few inches of water in the basement." Of course, when looking at the house, neither DH nor me nor the home inspector (dummy) noticed that the drain in the basement floor is actually the HIGHEST point in the basement floor... so it doesn't work very well!

Point to the story is that DH decided to install a french drain on the outside of the house. He is very good with tools, but the mini-backhoe and cement saw had me a bit worried. Not to mention the 16 tons of gravel that was dumped into our driveway. And then what was supposed to be a four to five day project ended up turning into a three week project, BUT we have not had a single drop of water in the basement since!!!

You might want to check into having a waterproofing company come out and give you an estimate to install some type of french drain either inside or outside (or both) of the foundation. it will be expensive, but if you are a "throw money at it to get it fixed" type of person, this is a great way to actually get it fixed!

 

[chefmeg]

'bout peed my pants after reading about super absorbent tampons and the entire 80's stuffed characters on the deck....glad to hear all is dry Jean and I can't wait to see the pic!

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

OMG! You need to check out #48 on this list of top commercial parodies: The 50 Greatest Commercial Parodies of All Time - Nerve.com

Now THAT'S funny!

 

[ChefBeckyD]

Now THAT'S funny!

:cry: :cry: I wanna see it! :cry: :cry: When I try to play it, a message comes up that says the requested video can not be played in my region...what's that about?

 

[chefann]

Hmm... I'm in the same region as you, Becky, and I could watch the videos.The specific one I referenced is a parody commercial from In Living Color, about designer tampons. At the end of the commercial one woman appears in a dress that has lots of suspicious white "fringe" that's made of row upon row of clean tampons.

 

[Jean DeVries]

:cry: :cry: I wanna see it! :cry: :cry: When I try to play it, a message comes up that says the requested video can not be played in my region...what's that about?

I think they mean that it can't be played in the buckle of the Bible belt...aka Jenison

 

[Jean DeVries]

OK, I have no idea how to put a pic in.

Help.

 

[JAE]

Okay, I'm back on CS. Sorry for your trouble Jean. We had a little flood in our little basement window well. We had a nice stream of water coming down our basement wall. Of course, the small puddle covering a quarter of the basement floor covered the part where we had all the non-Rubbermaid boxes. This happened Saturday night while we were trying to watch National Treasure on NBC (weather reports kept interrupting our fun, though). My son enjoyed going out in the thunderstorm to get the water out of the well and then pull all the leaves out of the well. My dh did not enjoy moving boxes (I did help move boxes and bring towels) and then sweeping the water to the drain in the, thankfully, unfinished basement. We turned the dehumidifier on, and today I finally cleaned out the damp boxes.

It's about time we clean out the three year old basement, anyway. Garage sale happening at the end of the month. This was a good start. And, the basement hasn't had such a clean floor since move in day. We didn't have any more leaking with all the overnight rain and then big rain on Sunday and today.

 

[chefann]

OK, I have no idea how to put a pic in.

Help.

There's a thread that explains it.

In a nutshell, you need to upload the pic to a photo-sharing site, like Photobucket (you can get a free account), then link to it, using the little "mountains" button above the post box.

 

[Jean DeVries]

Ah. Thanks. I knew there was a thread, I just couldn't find it.

I'll do that when I get home tonight.