I'm Back! (You were gone?)... Adventures in the joys of home owning. :-(

[Crystal Clarity]

Ayup, had a bad couple of days. Basement flooded for one thing. :-(


While much of the country was suffering through a cold spell, we had a freakishly warm one for Maine this time of year. And it rained. ALOT. Over an inch and 1/2 of rain in less then 2 days. Add to that the melted accumulated snow and we are talking lots of water here. Pretty much all of which ended up in my basement.

Apparently what happened was that the old clay drainage pipe leading from our house had somehow broken off and then wedged pieces of itself into the rest of the pipe creating a blockage. REALLY bad timing for that. :eyes:

I realized there had to be some kind of issue when I heard my cat 'scream', make a splashing noise down there, and run back up the steps soaking wet. The basement is where I keep several litter boxes for her... (long boring story behind that)

So anyway, I go down to investigate and at first it barely registered. It was kind of a wtf-I-can-not-believe-my-own-eyes kind of moment. Our basement sometimes floods a little during the spring thaw, but this was nothing like that. I wish I had taken pics because you would not believe the amount of water!

14 friggin inches of standing water thru-out the entire basement! It even covered the bottom step and was nearing the second. It kind of reminded me of that scene from the movie 'Titanic' where the lead character goes down the steps and sees things floating around everywhere. OK it wasn't THAT bad but still... Oh. My. God.

My first thought was that I needed to 'rescue' one of the litter boxes because my cat is 18 years old and when she's gotta go, she's gotta go. And it was too rainy and wet for her to do it outside. So I put on some water shoes, (for some reason I didn't think to put my knee-high mud boots on) hike up my nightgown, and go for it. YUCK!!! It was cold, icky and up way past my ankles, halfway to my knees.

The closest litter box is about 10 feet away floating around near the washing machine. I quickly scoop that up, deposit it in the upstairs bathroom and then go back down to survey the damage.

Unfeaking-real! About 3 cord of last year's wood (the good, once dry stuff) is soaking wet on all bottom layers of the stacks. A pile of laundry along w/several pillows that I had intended to wash were all under water. An old lantern once filled w/kerosene is lapping up against the corner wall. And it stinks of kerosene. Stuff is floating around everywhere including the other two litter boxes. A giant bag of kitty litter (the expensive kind -grr) is a ruined gob of gook and the gas hot water heater pilot light is out... Yes the water got that high.

Thankfully the electric fuse box is up high enough to have not gotten wet, or my ill planned litter box rescue excursion could have been a HUGE shocking mistake. :dunce:...:scared:

So anyway, I've spent the past 2 days cleaning up the mess and w/only a few exceptions have been away from DU the whole time. To make matters worse, the power goes out for a couple of hours (nothing unusual for around here) so it just adds to the issue of trying to dry everything out cause it killed the fans I had placed all around. The water went down very quickly after my SO found and took care of the blockage but everything still had to be dried out. The old woodstove down there has been put back to use and is helping. I had forgotten how well that thing cranks out the heat! Our new one upstairs isn't nearly as good.

There's still alot more to do but I'm giving myself a break for now. Eye-Yi-Yih! :yoiks:

BTW, I wonder if this is going to create a mold issue. Does anyone know? Oh, and sorry for the long, boring 'airing out' of grievances...(stuiped pun intended) Hey, it IS Festivus time! :shrug:

[snooper2]

1. Is the basement finished?

Has it been framed out and drywalled?

If so, the bottom couple feet of drywall are going to have to come out all the way around at minimum. Is there insulation behind it? vapor barrier?

I'm not following where the drainage pipe is located...sounds like bigger issues than that. It's not normal for basements to "flood" just because of a spring thaw.




Sounds like you need Holmes on Homes

[Crystal Clarity]

2. What's Holmes on Homes?

:shrug: Never mind. I'll look it up. :dunce: <--- Moi

No thankfully it's a completely unfinished basement. Cement floor, cement foundation. But I'm sure I'll have to throw out a bunch of junk that I kept down there. Maybe even some of the wood?

As far as the drainage issue, I think I'm ok in that department (for now) as long as the clay pipe doesn't break apart in other areas. This is (not old, old) but an older home, with an equally old drainage/plumbing system so at some point we're going to have to dig up the old clay pipe and replace it w/a new one. PVC I guess? Hopefully not for awhile though.

But I know that this incident is due to the blockage. We've been here for 13 years and we sometimes have very mild spring basement flooding, but nothing like this... The guy who built this place back in the 40's was (ironically) a mason yet choose to build it on the side of a hill that happens to have a bog on top. Water and melting snow seeps down into the basement along the sides of the foundation. But the mason-guy set up a gully system with several drains in various places along the sides to help w/spring runoff. That normally takes care of it pretty well.

In this case, the gully was rendered useless by the drain blockage. As soon as my SO cleared out the blockage, the massive amount of water gushed out very quickly. Now I'm just dealing w/the aftermath. But thanks for taking the time to read my long boring tale of woe snooper2. You rock!!!

*****************

Speaking of which, though it's probably too late to edit, if anyone else has bothered to read this, let me just say, I have a renewed sense of respect for the poor people who went through the hell of Katrina or other hurricanes/disasters that caused flooding to their homes.

My little problem w/the basement is NOTHING compared to that, and in retrospect I think posting this might have been a little insensitive. For that, I apologize. My issue is just a pain-in-the-a** kind of thing and cannot even BEGIN to compare with people who lost entire homes. I hope no one here had to go through that, but if so, you have my respect and sympathy!

Just thought that ought to be said...

[Kali]

4. yuck and brrrr

mold probably won't be an issue if you get it all dried out - especially if you know how to deal with it as per your spring thaw issues, wood should be fine - either rearrange so the wet stuff is out (on top?) where it can dry or just put it outside until you get some dry weather and use it next year OR just use it up right away - wet wood burns fine if you have some dry along side or under it - I burn green mesquite with old rotten stuff if that is all I have.

In addition you can clean surfaces with DILUTE bleach - that should kill most that would be of a concern.

the kerosene stench will eventually go away (like after a couple years LOL - ugh I have astory about a vehicle with that spilled in it)

My big freak-out would not have been the fuse/breaker but rather the appliances! YIKES! wet electrical machinery can be very dangerous. walking in that water with laundry washer/dryer plugged in was not a good idea.

keep your fans running and you should be fine - are there any windows or doors you can open for more air exchange?

[Crystal Clarity]

6. Oh yeah, you're right!

I hadn't even thought about the plugged in washer and dryer. D'oh! That could have been very bad. Oh my! :scared: What a dummy I can be sometimes!

Thanks for the bleach idea. It's definitely worth a try. I've read some awful things about mold issues. I'm fortunate in the sense that there are not many surfaces I'd need to clean, except maybe some shelving that I used for storing stuff... most of it crap that I should have gotten rid of awhile ago anyway. I'm assuming the cement surfaces themselves will be ok.

Getting to the wet wood on the bottom layers are going to be a pain though. But yeah, I'll try to use that stuff w/the dry wood.

The fans and the woodstove going non-stop seems to be working quite well and we've got a couple of windows open down there for fresh air. The kerosene still stinks but not as bad... Speaking of which, eew, I couldn't imagine how awful it must have been to have spilled kerosene in your vehicle. That smell gives me a headache!

Thanks Kali! Why am I not surprised that you would have helpful advice when it comes to disasters and calamities of all types? :shrug:... :rofl:

[K8-EEE]

3. oh WOW!!!

My husband is from Buffalo and every year around this time we hear similar stories involving strange things I never heard of growing up here in L.A. - Sump Pump? dehumidifiers... every type of blower,, automatic car starter, scrapers, storm doors wow!

AT LEAST YOU DON'T HAVE EARTHQUAKES....

[Crystal Clarity]

7. Yuppers

Living in New England can be an interesting experience to put it mildly...lol! But yeah, I guess I'd rather have weird issues like this then earthquakes. The possibility of that would freak me out bigtime, but I can certainly understand the appeal of L.A. Would LOVE to have your weather!

[MiddleFingerMom]

5. I hate to add to your woes -- but you may be in GRAVE danger...

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[Crystal Clarity]

8. LOL!

Poor Basement Cat! But suppose that arrangement would be better then living in my basement! :hi:

[elleng]

9. No need to apologize for 'airing' grievances; what else are friends for?

Congrats on your ability to handle all that crap!

:yourock:

[Crystal Clarity]

10. Aww thanks!

That was so sweet! It means alot to me :hug:

[applegrove]

11. We had inches of water in our cottage 38 years ago. The water all drained and we had no mold problem

Even the shag carpet dried out by spring and was fine. We also had some flooding in the house I grew up in. No mold their either. Good luck!

[kimi]

12. I am impressed!!

Sounds like you got right on top of the situation and handled it quickly and thoroughly (although the potential for plugged-in appliances maybe injuring you or worse is certainly a "Yikes!" moment). I think my first inclination would be to close the door and cry for the next few days!

Hope it all dries out properly and you don't have any mold issues arise. I say congratulations are in order!