Who else is getting flooded?

[MilitaryArms]

I've lived in this house since 2004 and it's never flooded before. This morning I woke up to my basement with about 1" of standing water in it. I have a sump hole in my below ground basement that is below the water table, so now it's backing up bringing water into my basement... no sump pump. Argh.

Out back we have a retention pond that was touted by the developer as being "flood proof". Well... as found out today that's not really the case. Check out these pics from a few minutes ago.

The pond is about 2ft above normal and it did this over night. If it continues to rain like it has for the last day or so, it will probably make it to my house and several others in our sub-division.

The beauty of it? We don't have flood insurance so any damage will be out of pocket.

There goes the gun fund if it does flood down there!

 

[Bubbajms]

My old house flooded all the time - we learned quickly that we needed a good sump pump..

Here in Delphi, though, we were pretty lucky with the floods this January. Many of my neighbors weren't so lucky, and they were the ones you saw on TV being rescued by boat..

 

[Tommy2Tone]

the pond behind my house would flood like that when we get a lot of rain. it would raise more than 2 feet. More like 5 or more. fortunately no houses are that close. hope all turns out well.

 

[Bill of Rights]

I've lived in this house since 2004 and it's never flooded before. This morning I woke up to my basement with about 1" of standing water in it. I have a sump hole in my below ground basement that is below the water table, so now it's backing up bringing water into my basement... no sump pump. Argh.
...
The beauty of it? We don't have flood insurance so any damage will be out of pocket.

There goes the gun fund if it does flood down there!

Looks like a really nice place.

I think if it was me, I'd be getting a sump pump and calling an insurance agent today to get insured.

It wouldn't cover the damage you have now, but it would possibly cover anything further. Incidentally, the idiot who built my house put all the HVAC ductwork below the slab foundation and each year, I end up having to take several hundred gallons of water out of it, perhaps 36 gallons at a time, with a 12 gallon shop vac. Knock on wood, I've never had a flood, but it's hard on my AC compressor to try to push air through that when it gets full. I tell you this because shop-vacs are your FRIEND when dealing with water. If you can figure out how to make the bloody thing pump the water out a basement window,that will let you at least clean up a little down there.

Good luck and

Blessings,
B

 

[Bubbajms]

Barring that, I've seen people use a boating bilge pump to move water.. and a pond pump with a 5hp engine will do TONS..

 

[Scutter01]

I tell you this because shop-vacs are your FRIEND when dealing with water. If you can figure out how to make the bloody thing pump the water out a basement window,that will let you at least clean up a little down there.

Why don't you just pick up a small electric pump?

 

[MilitaryArms]

In that last pic you can see a little tiny wooden stake in the ground (to the left on the water line). I put that stake there to measure how fast the water was rising this morning.

It's receded about a foot already, so I think for now, I'm out of the woods.

We did call our insurance agent and to add flood protection to our home owners would almost double our premium! That, coupled with the deductible I'm going to take my chances. In talking to my neighbor down the road that's lived on this pond for about 10 years, it's never happened before. So... the gamble begins.

 

[Bubbajms]

Once the water drops, I'd do a survey of the drainage system for the pond if I were you..

Our pond (or lake, if you will) was having some issues. We have a dedicated overflow but it wasn't working well, and then we found out that some debris has blocked the flow from the pond to the overflow, and once that was cleared, the flooding was done in about half an hour..

Who maintains this pond?? If it's property of the subdivision, maybe you should say something at the next homeowner's committee meeting..

 

[Bill of Rights]

Why don't you just pick up a small electric pump?

Thought about that. It would need a sump opening, and the outlet would need to go out the window next to the vent that fills up, and down the yard a long way so it didn't just come right back in. As it is now, I use the shopvac to put the water down one of the bathtub drains.

Eventually, yes, I'm going to have to do what you suggest, because 12 gallons of water is not at all light nor easy to move. The builder was a moron to build it this way, but the responsibility is mine for not thinking it through a little better when we bought the house. I trusted the inspectors to point things like that out but it's my name on the bottom line of the mortgage. Live and learn.

Blessings,
B

 

[JcJ]

Eventually, yes, I'm going to have to do what you suggest, because 12 gallons of water is not at all light nor easy to move.

Sooner of later the ducts are going to rust out, I would also be very concerned about air quality/mold/illness..

I'm picturing water proofing the ducts so the water wont be able to enter. Maybe like a bladder or polymer coating.. of course I don't know what I'm talking about but I never let that stop me..


(thread hijack power)


For all those with active sump pumps, don't forget emergency back up power.. when it rains, it freaking pours..

Don't need no indoor Ceement pawned jes cause the electrons quit runnin,,

 

[Bill of Rights]

Sooner of later the ducts are going to rust out, I would also be very concerned about air quality/mold/illness..

I'm picturing water proofing the ducts so the water wont be able to enter. Maybe like a bladder or polymer coating.. of course I don't know what I'm talking about but I never let that stop me..

Fortunately, they're plastic ducts, fastened together with a few metal screws. Getting down there to waterproof them is the tough part-I'd have to jackhammer out my living room floor.

If anyone has suggestions that would help with this, please PM. We now return you to full-auto's thread, already in progress.

Blessings,
B

 

[MilitaryArms]

Fortunately, they're plastic ducts, fastened together with a few metal screws. Getting down there to waterproof them is the tough part-I'd have to jackhammer out my living room floor.

If anyone has suggestions that would help with this, please PM. We now return you to full-auto's thread, already in progress.

Blessings,
B

No problem man, if someone can offer up a suggesting that helps you in here... anything flood related is on topic to me.

 

[Revelations]

I have the same problem going on over here.

Ive lived in my house for about 10 years now and my flooding problem just started last winter. The only thing new in the last year was a new house built up the street from my house. I figure thats the cause of it although Im not exactly sure how.


Flooding starts on this side of the yard.

Then ends up on this side of the yard next to the house.

Access to the crawl space on the opposite side of the house.(water crosses my backyard like a small river sometimes).

My crawl space floods all the time now when we have heavy rain. Im in the process of digging a larger entry into the crawl space and running new ducts for winter.

I have the sump pump running now and it will get the water out in about a hours or so.

 

[haldir]

We got 2.5 inches over night and had some standing water this morning but no real problems. We are supposed to get 6 inches or more according to the boob tube tomorrow. That could cause some problems with the ground now saturated.

 

[Bubbajms]

Revelations, you should check with the county and see if they have info on the drainage tiles and stuff. There was a flood in my neighbor's yard, and they traced it down the road and found that a new driveway was put in, and the concrete smashed the tile so the water never made it to the ditch. Once they fixed that, no more flood!!

 

[Revelations]

Revelations, you should check with the county and see if they have info on the drainage tiles and stuff. There was a flood in my neighbor's yard, and they traced it down the road and found that a new driveway was put in, and the concrete smashed the tile so the water never made it to the ditch. Once they fixed that, no more flood!!

Yeah I got calls into my Insurance company as well as the local water/sewage company to check things out. Hopefully something can be figured out.

 

[Scutter01]

Thought about that. It would need a sump opening, and the outlet would need to go out the window next to the vent that fills up, and down the yard a long way so it didn't just come right back in. As it is now, I use the shopvac to put the water down one of the bathtub drains.

Eventually, yes, I'm going to have to do what you suggest, because 12 gallons of water is not at all light nor easy to move. The builder was a moron to build it this way, but the responsibility is mine for not thinking it through a little better when we bought the house. I trusted the inspectors to point things like that out but it's my name on the bottom line of the mortgage. Live and learn.

Blessings,
B

Not necessarily. There's no reason you couldn't just attach a garden hose to it and run it up the stairs during those times you need to "bail out the bilge". The goal is to replace the need to hump a bunch of shopvacs full of water up the stairs, not create a complete automated sump system.

(Oh, and 12 gallons of water is 96 pounds)