My First Homeowner's Horror

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I just bought a house. I’ve lived here for two months. I woke up this morning to face my first Homeowner’s Horror. Yikes.

In my kitchen, there’s a really nice, big window that faces the backyard. I got up this morning, and started in to the kitchen to fix breakfast for the kids. I glanced out the window, and to my shock and surprise, noticed that my backyard looked quite a bit different. Instead of looking like a backyard, it looked like a Great Lake. “AIEEEE!” I said to myself. Then I said, “Oh well, it has been raining cats & dogs the last few days.”

Then it hit me–the basement. When there’s water in the backyard, there’s water in the basement.

I opened the basement door, looked down the steps, and sure enough, there’s at least an inch of standing water. My first thought–“Oh man, I’ve got to call the landlord.” My next thought–“F***! I don’t have a landlord! This is my problem!”

Then I saw them–my husband’s amps & speaker cabinets. In the basement. In the water.

I flew to the bedroom, woke up my husband, and informed him of the problem. His first words–“My gear! AIEEE!”

He flew downstairs and got his stuff out. Fortunately, the water did not get high enough to do any mechanical damamge. We were lucky there.

There was a lot of stuff in the basement that is going to get thrown out, though. Mostly clothes that we hadn’t sorted through yet, and most of those were going to get either donated or trashed. Now, though, they’re all going to be trashed. We didn’t lose anything of any real financial value, so I’m not even going to bother calling the insurance company.

The water in the basement has since receded, so now I get to spend the day bagging up old, wet clothes & throwing them out. Joy.

One more area in which we were fortunate–this is just water, and not sewage. If it were sewage, I’d be trashing damn near everything in the basement.

Sigh. Hope everyone else is having a good day!

2

Ooh! That’s a drag! At least the equipment wasn’t damaged.

Since I’d guess you probably don’t want to lose the use of the basement for storage, you might get some wooden pallets (as are used to move stuff around with forklifts) and put everrything on them; that would give you ~4" clearance above the floor.

Good luck!

3

As a short-term solution I might recommend you get a bilge-pump (or the housely equivalent).

I’ve never lived in a house with a basement, but I understand there are things that can be done to prevent flooding. I also understand that none of these things that can be done are inexpensive. You have my sympathy.

~~Baloo

4

My sympathies. The best thing I can say is THANK GOD YOUR HUSBAND’S EQUIPMENT IS OKAY!!! No offense meant, just something a musician can relate to. We’re lucky here, all the land slopes AWAY from the house and we’ve never had a flooding problem.

I certainly hope all his stuff works for the PARTYYYYYY!!!

See ya babe.

Bill and Beth

5

Good to get the first one out of the way right? Wish we could have basements here in the FL panhandle but the high water tables prevent that.

That pallet idea from Beatle sounds like the right idea. At least you’ll get a 4" headstart on any water getting in. Now you can move on to other more advanced homeowner horrors like faulty wiring/plumbing and finding out what your neighbor uses his basement for! Honey, what’s that groaning noise and strange smell coming from next door?!"

At least you didn’t have to put up with my first homeowner horror which was when Hurricane Opal hit the Gulf Coast in '95. I had my house exactly one month. Fortunately I still had a house and roof after Opal, minus two pine trees.

6

that this flooding should have been mentioned by the prior owners. check into it. when you sell a house you are to identify all KNOWN problems (so, if you know that the roof leaks for example you’re supposed to mention it). Often when such a thing is mentioned, the negotiations about price take an interesting turn, as in “we’ll knock off a grand so you can waterproof the basement…” good luck.

7

Yes, we will be attempting to score some pallets ASAP. I’ve also got some shelving that I haven’t put up yet–guess what I’ll be doing this evening?

xploder: Hey, once I saw the basement, my first thought was for the gear, too! Screw my clothing–get the gear outta there! Been married to a musician too long, I guess! And yes, the gear is functional, so it will be working for the party.

Bluepony: Wow. A hurricane. Glad everything was okay! puts my wussy little flood to shame!

8

wring: the prior owners are family. There’s never been anybody but family in this house. I know that sometimes the sewer line needs to be cleaned out, because that has been a problem in the past. Occasionally tree roots get in to the sewer line, and clog them.

It’s been a looooong time since this neighborhood has gotten flooded like this, though. The last time we got this much rain in such a short period of time was just about a month ago, and it was not a problem. I’ve lived in this neighborhood for ten years, and I’ve not seen anything like this, in my old house or this one, ever. I’d bet money that my uncle (from whom I bought the house) never had this problem either.

9

That sucks Purse! I have lived in TOO many houses with leaky basements. The worst was the house before this one with my girlfriend at the time. We rented and when we were FIRST looking the house over we asked the landlord “DOES THE BASEMENT LEAK?!” We got a FIRM NO back. One heavy rain later and the basement was flooded. From one crack water was streaming out with so much force that it came up and into the air in a low arch.

We hadn’t been moved in very long and we had oak furniture down there that wouldnt fit in the living room, water damage to the legs. Lots of clothes and blankets, BOXES of stuff not put away yet and a trunk filled with the GF momentos and precious things… old unreplaceable pictures and albums from decades ago… keepsakes. Just about everything sweet I ever got her was in there too “for safe keeping”. It all got mildewed and ruined.

The cleanups no fun either. I don’t envy you.

Now I live in Vegas with no basement! hehe

10

Poor Persephone! What a hassle. Ain’t home ownership fun?

There might be a fix that won’t cost all that much. Call RotoRooter to grind the tree roots, etc. out of the drain. They’re actually quite reasonable in price and stand 100% behind their work.

My cellar doesn’t flood, mainly because it has 3’ stone walls, a brick floor and no drain connecting to the storm sewer. When those storm drains back up because they can’t handle the burden of heavy rains, it’s a major pain.

If it’s any consolation, my sewer line backed up this winter. Yep, sewage gushing out the drain pipe to the washer. So much fun cleaning that one up. I thought I had to have a new sewer line dug for $3000.

RotoRooter routed out the drain and it worked fine. When it started backing up again a month later, they came back and re-did it–at no charge–and got a few more tree roots they missed. (I have huge maple trees around the house; gorgeous but them suckers have roots!)

Anyway, the pallet and shelving thing should handle future emergencies, but betcha dollars to doughnuts having the line routed out would help a lot.

Good luck!

Veb

11

Hmmm! Think that’s bad?
I woke up a couple of months ago…because it was RAINING over my BED!
I had to get up at five am just to move my stuff around and go sleep in my parent’s room (my mom was up and dad was at work!
We have to have brand new gutters put in…it took us forever to find someone, because of the way our gutters are built…sigh.
They better be done by winteR!

12

Veb: This wasn’t actually sewage backing up, thank heavens. If it had been, there’s a great company here called City Sewer that clears that stuff up. This neighborhood has lots of trees, and roots in the sewer lines are a chronic problem, not just for me but for the whole neighborhood. Their prices are quite reasonable, and they guarantee their work as well.

What happened here was a city-wide problem. We got so freaking much rain that the drains couldn’t handle it. The pipes that run under the city overflowed. I called City of Flint sewer, and they did come by this afternoon. Nothing they needed to do, since by then the water in my basement had drained out. But I watched the guy for a while, as he literally worked his way through my neighborhood, knocking on doors & checking with damn near everyone here. I called a friend of mine, who lives about 5 blocks away, and asked her how her basement was. “Wet,” was her reply.

I’ve spent the afternoon going through my stuff, and I’ve been able to salvage more than I thought. Yay! The sewer guy told me, though, that if I wanted to, I could file a claim with the City Clerk’s office. I’m not going to, though. I didn’t lose anything of any real value. Mostly clothes that I just hadn’t gotten around to sorting yet. Most of the stuff I lost was stuff I actually wasn’t going to keep anyway. Besides, I work for the City of Flint. We’re in such a dire financial crisis right now, I’m not going to bother them for a couple hundred bucks worth of stuff I was palling on getting rid of in the first place. They actually did me a favor here. Now that the stuff is wet & mouldering, I have to get off my lazy butt & get rid of it, instead of procrastinating! :smiley:

13

When I was living in Newport Beach, I rented a place that was on the ground floor of a two-story unit. During an earthquake one day before my birthday, the water heater in the apartment upstairs disengaged, flooding my place below. I got the call at work to come home immediately (the lanlord wouldn’t tell me why) and when I got there, there was standing water everywhere. The worst part was that I kept all of my record albums (you remember those big, black vinyl things?) stacked neatly in a vertical position on the floor of my bedroom, next to the stereo. Needless to say, they all got stuck together.
…my landlord said I shouldn’t have stored them on the floor. I said, if you’da told me you were going to flood my place, I WOULDN’T have.
All he offered me was a different unit after. grrrrr.

14

poopah: Yes, I do indeed remember the “big black vinyl things.” I’m 33 years old, and married to a 39 year old musician. We have much vinyl here, and a turntable to play them on. My husband has lost records to flooding before, in the same way you did–busted water heater. So he takes great pains to keep the records UP. We didn’t lose any of those. :smiley:

15

Perseph, no one prior to you knew the basement was prone to flooding? That’s weird. You need to install a sump pump ASAP. We got one in our basement, and don’t get any flooding. I bet we would without the sump, though.

And, Dang it, I’m too far away from Flint to make it to the Fest at your digs. I’ll have to content myself to being close to you on the People Pages. :wink:

16

DAVE: That’s just a guess, that my uncle didn’t know. As I said, I’ve lived in this neighborhood for 10 years (in three different houses within five blocks of each other) and I’ve never seen it in any of them. Prior to my uncle living here, my great-grandma lived here. She’s still living, but she’s 97 years old now, and she may have simply forgotten. I didn’t think to ask, either. I asked about roots in the sewer lines, though.

How much do sump pumps cost, and who would I call to get one installed? A plumber? Neither I nor my husband are even remotely qualified to install anything like that.

17

Persephone My mom’s basement used to flood like clockwork. It wasn’t feet of water, but it was enough to make a mess of everything. So useful brother #3 built a 4 inch high subfloor over half the basement. This allowed her to have carpeting, furniture and a couple of sofas down there. The rest of the place is tiled floor so it’s not a problem.

It wasn’t expensive, and it worked wonders!

18

Perseph…

Welcome to the world of home ownership. Look at the upside, since it’s your house, when your basement floods you can stand there and yell AW FK !!, AW FK !! as loud as you want to and nobody’s gonna call the landlord or the cops.

A sump pump is the answer. Our house has one now and it runs a lot to drain off the foundation water. A battery backup is important, too, because most of the time the power goes out DURING a storm, just when the sump pump is needed. Mine drains into the sanitary sewer ( a big no-no)so the county charges me extra on the sewer bill. It was like that when we bought the place. Check your homeowners insurance, mine doesn’t cover water damage from a failed sump pump. I think you can get a basement water alarm that beeps when water comes in so you can take action and it would cost a lot less than a sump pump and drains but it’s worthless during vacations. If it never happened before it might be a once every 20 year kind of thing. You’d still have to disclose it when you sell the house.

It will get better. Glad to hear Mr. P didn’t lose any gear.

19

Pereph,

I had the same thing happen once, about 11 years ago. One flood does not mean prone to flooding.There was nothing wrong with my pipes, etc. It just rained so hard, so fast that the city sewers couldn’t handle it . There a was 3 inche deep lake over my backyard, and everyone else’s.Not much water wasn’t going down the sewer grates in the street,and whatever did get down, ended up coming out in our basements.Happened over 11 years ago, never again ( of course, I’ve never seen it rain that hard again.) A pump wouldn’t have helped at all while it was raining,because there wasn’t anywhere to pump the water that didn’t lead back to the sewer.After the storm, a submersible pump that I use to finish draining the pool would have been helpful to clean up.

I still keep things off the floor,though. Just in case there’s another freak storm.

20

Yes, get a sump pump. And the battery back-up.
And pallets.
And get some of those big 30 or 40 gallon plastic storage bins from K-Mart or Target. Hit a sale and they’re something like $5 or $6 bucks apiece. Get the Rubbermaid brand and the lids will snap shut tightly. We have all our stuff in those, stacked up on 2 pallets each. Of course, since we did that, no more flooding, but better safe than sorry. We also installed a french drain around in inside perimeter of the basement. Fortunately, I am married to Bob Vila, (not really, but close :slight_smile: ) so we did it ourselves.

And yes, be glad it was just water. My mother’s basement flooded once, 25 or so years ago, raw sewage backed up from the toilet and sink during a hurricane…talk about smelly. It was the county’s fault somehow and they paid for the damages and to disinfect the whole basement. Gross!