Wet basement , uggggg

[Nomad]

Just some thoughts and experiences. My current house when we moved in had a wet basement at times in the spring , I regraded and moved downspouts, that took care of 90% of it . I use a Liberty pump ( locally made and great pumps ) I also use a Liberty back pump that runs off a water line ( Venturi effect ) once during a spring three day power outage it handled all the water with ease .

On the job I’ve responded to hundreds of water problems, most from ground water, but busted washing machine lines etc are a real possibility too .

I will,never again have carpet in my basement ,I removed ours and put in a vinyl flooring , I will never ever have things in cardboard boxes anywhere near the floor , plastic totes, and shelving off the floor for me .

[luberhill]

1 hour ago, Nomad said:

Just some thoughts and experiences. My current house when we moved in had a wet basement at times in the spring , I regraded and moved downspouts, that took care of 90% of it . I use a Liberty pump ( locally made and great pumps ) I also use a Liberty back pump that runs off a water line ( Venturi effect ) once during a spring three day power outage it handled all the water with ease .

On the job I’ve responded to hundreds of water problems, most from ground water, but busted washing machine lines etc are a real possibility too .

I will,never again have carpet in my basement ,I removed ours and put in a vinyl flooring , I will never ever have things in cardboard boxes anywhere near the floor , plastic totes, and shelving off the floor for me .

Id almost just epoxy paint and have a couple decorative throw rugs .

I’d also rather not have a basement

 

Edited February 20, 2022 by luberhill

[luberhill]

1 hour ago, Nomad said:

Just some thoughts and experiences. My current house when we moved in had a wet basement at times in the spring , I regraded and moved downspouts, that took care of 90% of it . I use a Liberty pump ( locally made and great pumps ) I also use a Liberty back pump that runs off a water line ( Venturi effect ) once during a spring three day power outage it handled all the water with ease .

On the job I’ve responded to hundreds of water problems, most from ground water, but busted washing machine lines etc are a real possibility too .

I will,never again have carpet in my basement ,I removed ours and put in a vinyl flooring , I will never ever have things in cardboard boxes anywhere near the floor , plastic totes, and shelving off the floor for me .

We don’t have a crock or sump pump and I’m hesitant to break the slab and put one in !

One reason is we are planning to move into a townhouse where all maintenance is done then we are free to travel / motorhome ? Whatever 

second reason , then it may introduce more water ..

Right now its rare and when it does happen it’s a shop vac or a couple towels but is an annoyance anyway 

[2012_taco]

My house never had a sump pump/crock. The town added a new ordinance that requires all houses to have a sump/crock prior to sale. And the existing floor drain (that ties into the sanitary sewer) must be removed and capped off. I did the work last summer so it would be done in case of future sale. The sump is working great but with this rain and snow melt I got water coming in through the concrete patch where the floor drain was! I'm going to have to bust out the concrete patch and cut the pipe I installed to put in a tee with a drain, then pitch the concrete patch to slope towards the new drain. This will allow the water to flow to the crock. Hopefully it works and doesn't create a new area for water to come up.

[Nomad]

Fun fact. Many years ago we had a bad spring rain spell, there was one area in my first due where the basements all were prone to water seepage . We ran 60 water problems over our three night trick .

Before going to work I asked Mrs Nomad to keep an eye on our sump pump, told her If it stops rap the top of the motor with a ball peen hammer I left out, after that she’d have to call a neighbor .

I came home in the morning to maybe two inches in our basement , walked over rapped the motor and on it came … Then in our family room which was added on, and they never did the flashing correct along the brick chimney  , so I had an indoor waterfall on the bricks in the family room  . I went on the roof and tied a tarp off around it to prevent water from hitting the flashing .
 

Then spent the day pulling up carpet downstairs , shop vacuuming, running dehumidifier and fans till it was time to go back to work and go for calls of a few gallons in an unfinished basement .

[moog5050]

On 2/20/2022 at 12:16 PM, Nomad said:

Fun fact. Many years ago we had a bad spring rain spell, there was one area in my first due where the basements all were prone to water seepage . We ran 60 water problems over our three night trick .

Before going to work I asked Mrs Nomad to keep an eye on our sump pump, told her If it stops rap the top of the motor with a ball peen hammer I left out, after that she’d have to call a neighbor .

I came home in the morning to maybe two inches in our basement , walked over rapped the motor and on it came … Then in our family room which was added on, and they never did the flashing correct along the brick chimney  , so I had an indoor waterfall on the bricks in the family room  . I went on the roof and tied a tarp off around it to prevent water from hitting the flashing .
 

Then spent the day pulling up carpet downstairs , shop vacuuming, running dehumidifier and fans till it was time to go back to work and go for calls of a few gallons in an unfinished basement .

Why do folks with flooding call the FD?  What are the duties of the FD for flooding of a basement?  Would never occur to me but I have only had minor flooding in the first house I built (some good private plumbing work took care of that for good).

[Kmartinson]

7 minutes ago, moog5050 said:

Why do folks with flooding call the FD?  What are the duties of the FD for flooding of a basement?  Would never occur to me but I have only had minor flooding in the first house I built (some good private plumbing work took care of that for good).

Safety concerns like electrical and gas appliances that could be compromised. Otherwise probably not necessary 

[Nomad]

27 minutes ago, moog5050 said:

Why do folks with flooding call the FD?  What are the duties of the FD for flooding of a basement?  Would never occur to me but I have only had minor flooding in the first house I built (some good private plumbing work took care of that for good).

Everyone that I know says that, everyone in the hood calls ….

We are literally the landlords ,medical providers , babysitters to the city . A high number of landlords do all they can to avoid taking calls from tenants, let alone fix anything properly.

Im not talking “ flooded “ could be a couple gallons of water on a basement floor  . Many times it’s a leak from above , bath,toilet overflowing ,and they landlord doesn’t answer . So we break in , shut it off perhaps move some items under the leak if the caller is a cute girl .

Samntha called me from Buffalo once , “ I hear water running in my walls , and there’s a big “ bubble “on my ceiling .” Lol seen that a hundred times, move your electronics, knock on door upstairs, call landlord , if no answer call the FD. Don’t pop the bubble ….

Bottom line water can do as much damage as a fire , and my customers aren’t really do it yourselfers .

[phade]

I will forever have PTSD from flooding.

With safety in consideration, I'd rather my place burn to the ground than have a flooding issue that can't be fixed. Been there done that, give me the match please. Pretty bad when the FD says they'll look the other way. 

 

 

[Otto]

On 2/19/2022 at 10:00 PM, Robhuntandfish said:

Lol. Anytime!

Actually I'm getting rid of the guest room. House had two tiny tiny bedrooms. Combining them into one decent seized room. Still have room for guests in the huntandfish room if need be.

Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk
 

Your shed would be adequate for most of us! 

[luberhill]

5 hours ago, phade said:

I will forever have PTSD from flooding.

With safety in consideration, I'd rather my place burn to the ground than have a flooding issue that can't be fixed. Been there done that, give me the match please. Pretty bad when the FD says they'll look the other way. 

 

 

So if you have been there , what did u do ?

[Kmartinson]

56 minutes ago, luberhill said:

So if you have been there , what did u do ?

Your most likely not going to solve this problem from the inside unfortunately. 

[luberhill]

14 minutes ago, Kmartinson said:

Your most likely not going to solve this problem from the inside unfortunately. 

I’m not sure I have a problem, mine was minor seepage that I picked up with a towel, and one time in the last 36 years around a floor drain that I used a shop vac 

[phade]

12 hours ago, luberhill said:

So if you have been there , what did u do ?

Mailed the keys to the bank; strategic default and bank agreed not to come after me after a ton of back and forth that took a year to arrange.

Bought a second house before all of it and paid a year on both before I began the process. Best overall decision ever. Consulted with attorneys and accountants and it was consistently the advice to do. 

House has proceeded to flood, as has the neighbor. Each house has already turned once to new owners resultingly. Same issues. 

Cause is that the area is on rockbed but drainage from ag fields about 1/2 to 1 mile away were tiled and pointed our direction. Hard to prove in court, but it timed exactly right.

Was in the house four years with no water, and then went five years with 8 floods of 4 feet or more of water inside lower split level. Washing machine bounced against ceiling. 

Perhaps in the house that keeps giving - the house was on 2 acres single lot. Some idiot made a mistake when it titled afterwards and 0.9 acres were re-titled to new homebuyer and 1.1 acres were left to me, which included the home's back yard, septic leech field and the shed, and playground area. So right now, I'm paying $3-400 of taxes on it. Working to try to get it into new owner's hands - I own the darn lot outright by someone's pure stupidity. And it's been many years since we moved.

Edited February 22, 2022 by phade

[Five Seasons]

sounds like you do need a sump pump. I'd also suggest a submersible pump. Save you a lot of time lugging the shop vac up and down. Just run a hose up and far away from the house. They're under $100 at lowes/hd.

[Nomad]

21 minutes ago, Belo said:

sounds like you do need a sump pump. I'd also suggest a submersible pump. Save you a lot of time lugging the shop vac up and down. Just run a hose up and far away from the house. They're under $100 at lowes/hd.

I have a sump pump, with a back up sump pump , even though most of my issues have subsided. Right now there’s a submersible pump, with hose near it along with an extension cord to run off my Honda generator ( outside ) if need be . I’m a back up to a back up type guy .

Our daughter checked it Sunday after melt off , just a trickle going into it .she’ll be back Wed. 

[fasteddie]

The snow melt and the continuous rain isn't helping matters ! 

Belo - I bought a Wayne 1/3 hp cast iron submersible sump pump . It was $140 but I got the military discount which dropped the price and saved me $14 ..

The submersible pumps work a lot better than the standups .

[Five Seasons]

2 hours ago, Nomad said:

I have a sump pump, with a back up sump pump , even though most of my issues have subsided. Right now there’s a submersible pump, with hose near it along with an extension cord to run off my Honda generator ( outside ) if need be . I’m a back up to a back up type guy .

Our daughter checked it Sunday after melt off , just a trickle going into it .she’ll be back Wed. 

same man. the older I get, the more prepared I am, because the less tolerant of bullshit I am haha

[Five Seasons]

1 hour ago, fasteddie said:

The snow melt and the continuous rain isn't helping matters ! 

Belo - I bought a Wayne 1/3 hp cast iron submersible sump pump . It was $140 but I got the military discount which dropped the price and saved me $14 ..

The submersible pumps work a lot better than the standups .

yeah i'm not sure what one i had, but I used it in mississippi for a huge puddle that would form in part of the yard. My house bordered a large drainage culvert and that thing would just crank the puddle dry and all I needed was the hose and an outlet/extension cord (be careful here of course). It had an automatic shutoff too so I didn't have to babysit it. Highly recommend. 

When you think about it, they're the same thing as a sump pump, just portable haha.