Life Suckage (Flooded Basement)

Thorin · July 22, 2012, 03:59:39 PM

So I went away camping for nine days and came back last night. Turns out it rained pretty much every day here while we were gone, and apparently sometimes it came down real heavy. Unfortunately somehow water entered our basement and we came back to a horrible musty smell and sopping wet carpet in the basement and light-coloured mould on some of the stuff we had in our basement.

So for about four hours today we've been schlepping soggy things out of the basement (holy crap there was a lot stored down there, and there's still more!), and tomorrow a company's coming in to inspect the water damage to figure out if it'll be covered by our homeowner's insurance. I hope so, although even if it is, our deductible is five grand so we won't save any money on the repairs until after it hits that limit.

Now, they'll have to rip out all the carpet and the lino and probably the drywall and redo it, so I'm guessing seven to ten grand for that work. There's a possibility that the two-by-fours in the walls will need to be replaced, too, which would probably add three to five grand to the price. Also, there's a bunch of ruined sports equipment and furniture and clothes and toys to add to the cost, although we can get by without replacing any of that save the sports equipment (and we might be able to just wash it a couple of times to get the mould out).

If you've been to my house you know that we have a lot if stuff and that it's all over the place. So before we could move things out of the basement, we had to clean up the main floor so that we'd have a safe path to the garage. Then we had to clean out the garage to have a place to store all the stuff at least until the clean-up company has a look at it. That led to breaking a shelf unit in the garage so that it couldn't stand anymore, which led to sorting through all the thirty year old stuff in the shelf unit (it came with the house) to see if there was anything worth keeping before dragging it out to the driveway.

Oh yeah, we're gonna need to get one of those garbage bins brought to our house to get rid of all the stuff on our driveway. Maybe twice.

CowGirl said the silver lining is that the basement is gonna get emptied out (it really was full, full, full of stuff). If the basement's getting re-done, I'm going to ask for a quote to build another bedroom down there so our kids can stop sharing bedrooms. That'd be another (very expensive) silver lining.

Lazybones · July 22, 2012, 04:29:18 PM

I have been through several basement floods, it is not a fun cleanup.. Also I hear you on the clutter / cleanup...

Tom · July 22, 2012, 04:54:27 PM

I'd hope it wasn't flooded long enough to cause the studs to need replacement. That's a pretty extreme repair. Even with sever mould usually you can just scrub/pressure-wash them down with mould abatement stuff, and they are fine. Only if its like really bad black mould, or they have rotted would you have to replace the framing.

Really sucks about the flooding

Mr. Analog · July 22, 2012, 04:54:43 PM

I was reading a NY Times article just the other day that said something like every new child in a family adds 33% more stuff or something (wish I could find it)

But yeah, that really sucks, especially coming back from vacation :C

Thorin · July 22, 2012, 05:10:02 PM

Quote from: Mr. Analog on July 22, 2012, 04:54:43 PM
I was reading a NY Times article just the other day that said something like every new child in a family adds 33% more stuff or something (wish I could find it)

That's probably on average. My family probably causes that average to go up

Well, maybe not. We're pretty good at hanging on to stuff and reusing it for the next child. The problem, of course, is hanging on to the stuff. For instance, we have no kids young enough to care about them anymore but still had four or five Teletubbies stuffies downstairs. Same with girls clothes for five year olds (our youngest is six and a boy).

Quote from: Tom on July 22, 2012, 04:54:27 PM
I'd hope it wasn't flooded long enough to cause the studs to need replacement. That's a pretty extreme repair. Even with sever mould usually you can just scrub/pressure-wash them down with mould abatement stuff, and they are fine. Only if its like really bad black mould, or they have rotted would you have to replace the framing.

No black mould that I could see, but then I haven't taken the walls down. We were gone for nine days, so the water may have been there for up to that time. White / light-grey mould was seen on sports bags, though, and I'm sure the carpet underlay is moulding up by now, too. I wonder what they'll say about the furniture, as the bottom (not just the legs) was wet but it doesn't have obvious waterlines on it.

Tom · July 22, 2012, 05:14:06 PM

Quote from: Thorin on July 22, 2012, 05:10:02 PM
Quote from: Mr. Analog on July 22, 2012, 04:54:43 PM
I was reading a NY Times article just the other day that said something like every new child in a family adds 33% more stuff or something (wish I could find it)

That's probably on average. My family probably causes that average to go up

Well, maybe not. We're pretty good at hanging on to stuff and reusing it for the next child. The problem, of course, is hanging on to the stuff. For instance, we have no kids young enough to care about them anymore but still had four or five Teletubbies stuffies downstairs. Same with girls clothes for five year olds (our youngest is six and a boy).

Quote from: Tom on July 22, 2012, 04:54:27 PM
I'd hope it wasn't flooded long enough to cause the studs to need replacement. That's a pretty extreme repair. Even with sever mould usually you can just scrub/pressure-wash them down with mould abatement stuff, and they are fine. Only if its like really bad black mould, or they have rotted would you have to replace the framing.

No black mould that I could see, but then I haven't taken the walls down. We were gone for nine days, so the water may have been there for up to that time. White / light-grey mould was seen on sports bags, though, and I'm sure the carpet underlay is moulding up by now, too. I wonder what they'll say about the furniture, as the bottom (not just the legs) was wet but it doesn't have obvious waterlines on it.

Funny story, black mould isn't always black in colour. Its like a regular mould but poisonous. It usually doesn't kick in though till things get /really/ bad. Like weeks/months/years of wetness.

Thorin · July 22, 2012, 05:42:33 PM

I can't find that NYT article either. I've been looking, but internet sleuthing's not working today.

Lazybones · July 22, 2012, 06:00:12 PM

To find out if you have dangerous mold a specialist comes in, takes samples and if they are positive you are immediately evicted from the premises, followed by a very costly specialized cleanup.

Like many things previously under reported, this is now an OVER reported panic item.. However any mold is hard to get rid of none the less.

What type of flooding was this? Sewer? Over land through a basement window? ground water seepage? HOW the basement flooded will determine the insurance coverage, I have watched my policy get amended in this area many times in the last 10 years.

It is unlikely the studs will need replacing, as for the drywall and instillation it may only be cut back to the dry point and replaced from there down.

Thorin · July 22, 2012, 06:20:27 PM

We have no idea where the water came from. Doesn't look or smell like sewage, but I really don't know.

Lazybones · July 22, 2012, 07:16:31 PM

Quote from: Thorin on July 22, 2012, 06:20:27 PM
We have no idea where the water came from. Doesn't look or smell like sewage, but I really don't know.

Well the insurance adjuster will likely make a point to determine this and thus coverage. Also for future prevention this is important to know...

Do you have a sump pump? Most of Edmonton / St. Albert is built on reclaimed swamp land and they are usually needed. If it fails it is more than enough to allow significant backup in the basement.

Thorin · July 22, 2012, 07:56:47 PM

No sump pump but we have weeping tile put in a long time ago (1992, maybe?). If there's seepage, then it means the weeping tile failed. We'll see tomorrow what the verdict is.

Lazybones · July 22, 2012, 08:47:47 PM

Quote from: Thorin on July 22, 2012, 07:56:47 PM
No sump pump but we have weeping tile put in a long time ago (1992, maybe?). If there's seepage, then it means the weeping tile failed. We'll see tomorrow what the verdict is.

Weeping tile would be to take away surface water penetrating the ground from above near the wall... It also tends need proper over land drainage and grading away from the home to work.

A sump pump is for seepage from below... where the basement is below the water table in most cases. Weeping tile alone can't help you if you are below the water table.

Darren Dirt · July 22, 2012, 09:41:32 PM

Quote from: Thorin on July 22, 2012, 05:10:02 PM
The problem, of course, is hanging on to the stuff. For instance, we have no kids young enough to care about them anymore but still had four or five Teletubbies stuffies downstairs. Same with girls clothes for five year olds (our youngest is six and a boy).

Value Village and Goodwill gonna *love* you guys when you get around to bagging it all up...

Thorin · July 22, 2012, 10:37:32 PM

If it's sewage-damaged, it's going in the garbage, not to some unsuspecting sop who won't know it's gonna get all mouldy in a month. If it's not sewage-damaged and this was just rainwater, then it's going in the washer and we'll find family to pass clothes to and probably a Goodwill donation box to put it in. Although some of the stuff is broken and / or clearly worn and really should just be junked.

Tom · July 22, 2012, 11:13:53 PM

At least this was a good excuse to go through all of it.