HELP please!! Basement flooding (groundwater seepage) -- need advice!

[sunshine girl]

Hi all --- my parents' basement is seeping and pooling water in as a result of high groundwater. In the 40 years they've had this house, this is a first.

I know they need an expert to come in and do some major repairs but in the meantime, what can we do? Is there any equipment we can rent to help "bilge" the seeping/pooling water while we wait for an expert to come and try to help?

This will require extensive repairs that will take a while to complete but we need a solution to help us manage the problem in the meantime.

I am here trying to help but I am exhausted and my hands are raw from squeezing sponges for hours and hours, and moving boxes, and it is a losing battle. We're clearing all the important stuff out, but still... it's awful! I hate to see my parents hurt themselves continuing to fight this just with sponges and towels... it is not completely flooded but water is pooling in areas.

ANY suggestions, recommendations, anything would help. We are in the southeastern Michigan (Detroit metro) area, if that matters.

Thank you all -- I need to get back to work so can't check this often but will check back in later. I appreciate ANY help and suggestions...

 

[Magic Mom]

What about a heavy duty wet/dry shop vac? Then after the clean up look into a sump pump.

 

[sunshine girl]

Can you rent a heavy duty shop vac? We have a shop vac but I don't know if it's wet/dry.

I'll look into this online. Thanks!!

 

[Gigi22]

Do your parents have house insurance?
1. Call your parent's home insurance company and tell them the basement is flooded, and you need a referral a.s.a.p. to a local company that they deal with for flood recovery/water damage restoration. Tell them there is a possibility of structural damage to the house and that you need assistance.
2. At a minimum ask insurance co. to supply heavy duty wet/dry shop vacs.
3. Check yellow pages for Water Damage Restoration. Get a company with 24 hr. service.

 

[Micca]

There should be some business in the area that specializes in the problem. Really about all you can do is get the most valuable stuff out of the way of the water and let the pros do the rest. Some of the major carpet cleaning companies in your areas may specialize in flood damage or could recommend someone. Good luck, that's a horrible mess and very stressful.

 

[Gigi22]

Sorry OP, just re-read your post.
Do you have mops or squeegees? It isn't terribly efficient, but you can mop water up, wring mop into bucket, fill bucket up and carry the bucket outside or to a functioning drain and dump contents. If you have a functioning basement floor drain, you can squeegee water towards the drain.
Do your parents have a friend in the neighbourhood who could lend them a wet/dry shop vac?

 

[Gigi22]

Apologies--double post.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Sorry OP, just re-read your post.
Do you have mops or squeegees? It isn't terribly efficient, but you can mop water up, wring mop into bucket, fill bucket up and carry the bucket outside or to a functioning drain and dump contents. If you have a functioning basement floor drain, you can squeegee water towards the drain.
Do your parents have a friend in the neighbourhood who could lend them a wet/dry shop vac?

Agree. OP needs to get some better water removal gear.

I don't know if I would rent something to bilge the water. I can't say but it does not sound like the water is deep enough. Not sure....

Sounds awful. I hope you get it figured out.

 

[3doodlebugsmom]

What you need is a bottom draw sump pump with a hose to run it out of your basement. Regular sump pumps need a min. of 3 inches ( if not more) of water before they will pump. Of course you can use wet and dry vacs- but then you need to be able to empty them.

For the first time in 20 years of living in our house, we had groundwater/seepage coming into our basement following the March floods in RI. We spent 72 hours non stop with at least one of us in the basement vaccumming up water. The water continued for 13 days! although we started seeing dry spots on about day 9.
And we found out the difference between flood and groundwater or seepage. Even if you have flood insurance, groundwater/seepage is NOT covered under your homeowners insurance. Flooding happens when water comes in through your windows/doors.

 

[golfgal]

Do your parents have house insurance?
1. Call your parent's home insurance company and tell them the basement is flooded, and you need a referral a.s.a.p. to a local company that they deal with for flood recovery/water damage restoration. Tell them there is a possibility of structural damage to the house and that you need assistance.
2. At a minimum ask insurance co. to supply heavy duty wet/dry shop vacs.
3. Check yellow pages for Water Damage Restoration. Get a company with 24 hr. service.

While they will probably be able to give you a referral they won't "supply" you with anything because flooding is not covered under a homeowner's policy.

I agree about the sump pump. Go buy one, FAST, before they are all gone. Hook it up to a hose (you can buy them too) and run the hose out the basement window and into the street.

You can try a restoration company but they will be expensive and they can't really be there 24 hours/day.

 

[barkley]

just a suggestion for after you've taken care of the immediate issues-

anything that's been store in the basement that's porus and could absorb mositure needs to be dried out completly before it's re-stored. just because an individual box or it's contents don't show water damage does not mean it has not absorbed moisture and will be absent mold in the future.

i say this b/c just today i was going through some boxes of items from a family member. these items were previously in their home which had some water damage issues several years ago. i clearly remember that the items were in boxes that appeared to have never come into contact with the water, and when the person moved they were re-located to a very dry storage locker.

well, apparantly the books and cloth items (blankets, afgans, nicer quality stuffed animals) absorbed moisture during their exposure. while the outside of the boxes showed no mold, and even the upper levels looked fine-when i started pulling items out there was that telltale scent, and upon opening books, unfolding blankets and inspecting stuffed animals it was visably apparant.

p.s.-the national company "servpro" specializes in water damage restoration. i believe they are available by phone 24/7.

p.p.s.-even if your insurance company does not cover this-some have agreements with local or national companies to offer significant discounts for services to their policy holders, so it's worthwhile to at least give your individual insurer a call to see if a program of this type is available to you.

 

[sunshine girl]

THANK YOU everyone, this has been helpful. We have been able to control the water, through massive effort and persistence, but it's not pretty. And it keeps coming up. We do have a drain in the basement and lots of buckets, so we keep on transferring buckets of water to the drain. We have been able to keep it to a small pond in the low corner for a while now, with a few other rivers coming from cracks at wall-to-floor seams.

We are now going to work on the downspouts and find some way to try and waterproof cracks for short-term relief and to help us if/when it rains again. My hands are totally raw and every part of me aches!

On top of all this, I had been up yesterday morning because I did a 10k race... so I had been on my feet running at 7 am and then learned about this mess, so was on my feet until like 2AM yesterday. Total exhaustion!!

We got out everything important and/or moved it to high ground. Whew.

There has been a LOT of rain this spring, and there have been changes in city downspout regulations that we think have contriubuted to this mess. Anyway, that's beside the point! Can't do anthing about that.

Thankfully it's not raining today... !

Thanks for listening and offering suggestions!! I really appreciate it.

 

[Darcy03231]

Keep in mind that now that water has found its way in, its much easier for it do it again. We found this out during the Mother's Day floods in NE in 2006.

We ended up having to put in an interior french drain system.

 

[agnes!]

While you're waiting for ServPro (or whomever)...

*Get at least one de-humidifier and hook up a hose to its drain so the water will drain outside (maybe through a window?). Put the de-humidifier (or multiples if you can) in the areas of the basement that don't have apparent water damage. As another poster mentioned, just because there is no apparent water damage doesn't mean that the items or boxes are actually dry. Cardboard & other materials (fabric, books, etc.) can absorb moisture from the environment around it without getting soggy-wet.

*If the rain has stopped, open ALL windows and doors (preferably screened so you don't have to deal with the influx of mosquitoes indoors that I am sure is on the way because of all the rain). Set up fans to direct the air toward any available openings.

*Second the vote for a bottom-draw sump-pump, maybe even multiples. It's cheaper to buy the darn things than it is to replace all the stored stuff.

*Buy or rent that wet-dry vac. Maybe your parents could even borrow one from a neighbor?

*Hook up flexible plastic drain-tubes to all the downspouts to direct any future rain away from the house.

agnes!

 

[dawson5]

is the ground just real wet or is there standing water outside?

We had an issue last year, our window well filled up with water. It seems it had pulled away from the exterior wall. Couldn't fix it while it was downpouring. Hubby went to Lowe's or Menards and bought an immersible sump pump along with a long tube. We spent the morning keeping water out of the window well and the yard. This stopped the water from coming into the basement and allowing us time to clean up and let it dry. (This happened during the weekend of my youngest son's birthday. We were going to set up tents and let them camp outside, back up plan was the basement. Then ended up in the garage. )

Also, you're saying something about the gutters and the way they drain. Is it possible that they might be clogged? Can you get some of the plastic tubes and reroute them straight out?

 

[Magic Mom]

What you need is a bottom draw sump pump with a hose to run it out of your basement. Regular sump pumps need a min. of 3 inches ( if not more) of water before they will pump. Of course you can use wet and dry vacs- but then you need to be able to empty them.

For the first time in 20 years of living in our house, we had groundwater/seepage coming into our basement following the March floods in RI. We spent 72 hours non stop with at least one of us in the basement vaccumming up water. The water continued for 13 days! although we started seeing dry spots on about day 9.
And we found out the difference between flood and groundwater or seepage. Even if you have flood insurance, groundwater/seepage is NOT covered under your homeowners insurance. Flooding happens when water comes in through your windows/doors.

What's the difference between a bottom draw sump pump and a regular one? We have a built in sump. It's in the floor of the basement and kicks on when ever the water level in the basin gets to a certain point. I heart my sump pump.

 

[agnes!]

It doesn't sound like there are inches and inches of water in the OP's parents' basement, a bottom-draw pump will operate with a very small amount of water and suck the water from close to the hard-surface. The regular kind of sump-pumps have their openings 3" or so above the hard surface and by the time 3" has accumulated, the stuff in that basement might be (soggy) toast. Also I think the regular pumps can burn out if you leave them on and try to use them in a 'pooling' situation.

agnes!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

It doesn't sound like there are inches and inches of water in the OP's parents' basement, a bottom-draw pump will operate with a very small amount of water and suck the water from close to the hard-surface. The regular kind of sump-pumps have their openings 3" or so above the hard surface and by the time 3" has accumulated, the stuff in that basement might be (soggy) toast. Also I think the regular pumps can burn out if you leave them on and try to use them in a 'pooling' situation.

agnes!

I don't know what kind of sump pump you have but that does not describe our sump pumps.

They are below surface and you can alter the level you want it to go off.

We have had ground seepage and put in drain tile with a sump pump on our first house.

Hopefully OP has gotten some better equipment to help her parents out with their issue in the interim.

 

[Pumbaa_]

the OP needs a portable one for now vs your built in pump

good luck to you! really stinks when it gets under the foundation

 

[Laura24]

You may want to look into french drainage system around the perimeter of the foundation. It's perforated pvc pipe that catches the water and moves it away from the foundation. I believe it is buried and the stone placed on top to help with the drainage. I know there is more involved with pitch and where it ends up, but it's a thought that any contractor should be able to fill you in on. Good luck.