Water in the basement

[Tree]

I am in the Boston area and for the 2nd time in 2 weeks we have gotten water in the basement after never getting water in the 15 years we have lived here. It is the wettest March on record here.

After the first time we got water, we had to rip out the wall to wall carpeting and do plan on replacing it because it is our family room.

We had a quote from a Basement waterproofing company-Basement technologies which would put some drain/trench around the outside of the house and they would warranty that we would never get water again. All to the cost of $7200. I know that there have to be less expensive options out there especially since hubby is unemployed right now and we are living on my income plus unemployment.

Thoughts

 

[starwood]

We painted the walls with waterproof paint and had a sump pump put in 25 years ago when we moved in. We are at the top of a hill and it didn't look like the basement got water but one particularly wet April DH was away and I came home from work and the poor cat's litter box was floating int he basement. The pump only goes on very rarely (like today because of 4 inches of rain over the past 3 days).

 

[ncbyrne]

We live in a river town in north Jersey and we're getting that same rain. A sump pump should take care of your problem. Ours has been running almost constantly the past week or so with all this wet weather, and our basement is nice and dry.

 

[dizneechic]

OMG this rain is ridiculous! We're staying dry so far but live right at the Sudbury River where it's flooding, thankfully we're up a little hill. My mom on the other hand is flooding.

We always use the waterproof paint on our basement walls (2nd house we've done it in) and never had a water issue BUT it's not something I would count on preventing it. It does help though. In our 1st house our backyard used to get a lake every time it rained and would could press our hands on the basement walls and leave wet hand prints from the moisture - although we never had wetness (puddles anywhere, just really damp) - but the paint stopped that problem.

I think Basement Technologies is one of the primer companies, meaning you can probably find more cost effective alternatives. However the idea of having the warantee is nice, especially if it's transferable to the next owner of the house. On my towns listserve someone did ask for a waterproofing contractor and this person was recommended a few times:
Mike Diraimo
Concrete Masonry Solutions
concretemasonrysolutionsinc@yahoo.com
If you want the phone number send along a PM and I can give that to you as well.

Good luck drying out!

 

[3boymthr]

Question for you - do you have standing water in your yard? If yes, the problem may not be your walls but your windows. We didn't get water this time around but have in the past - when there is standing water in our yard. The water came in not thru the walls or the floor but around the edges of the windows. We watched the water pour down the walls last time it happened. If this is the case painting the walls won't help but a french drain may help. They're expensive to put in but creating one is something that you can do yourself - especially if your DH is at all handy and has a little extra time. There are instructions on the internet for making one. We're going to put one in ourselves. You'll need a shovel, a strong back, some pipe (special kind), gravel. For us, the most expensive part is the gravel.

 

[mjkacmom]

As I sit in my damp basement, feet on wet carpet, any advice for me? We get water about once every 2 - 3 years, and twice in the past 2 weeks. It comes in under the baseboards, so waterproof paint won't help.

 

[j's m]

I'm sitting here DISing because I hate the thought of going back into the wet basement to vac up the water again. I spent 10 days doing this, it was dry for 2 days and then the rain started again.

When we built our house 22 years ago, we put in a french drain system and sump pump. It worked until this month, when all the melting snow and constant rain came in. It appears that in one section of the basement, the french drain has failed/clogged.

My DH picked a local waterproofing company out of the yellow pages, checked out past clients and we are going to replace our system. Cost: around $ 7600 but others were much higher.

The worst part, when I originally went into the basement to check if all was ok, (it wasn't) I saw too much water near the hot water heater and it was HOT. Yeah, we had to replace that right away, $ 1000. Did I say I hate my basement? At least it's not finished, just DH's tools and storage.

Good luck to everyone else that's fighting this mess.

 

[dex08]

Our home recently took in over 6 inches of water and DH called our insurance company and they said it's not covered, however they did say that since our state (NJ) was declared as a major disaster area for the storm that caused the damage that we may be eligible for FEMA assistance.

I never would have thought about FEMA but that's what it's for and it's all about getting your home back to a safe living environment. Right now our basement is mildewy and moldy because of the storm.

We are awaiting information from our insurance company and from FEMA now. You may want to look into this or wait to see if your area is declared a disaster area too before you consider the repairs and how to pay for them.

UPDATE: OKAY. Our insurance company was nice to let us know about this but I just checked the FEMA website and it says no individual assistance available for the storm when we sustained damage, only assistance is for the counties. So much for that. I guess we'll be paying for a sump pump installation and treatment for the mold/mildew ourselves.

 

[lalijack]

OP, we bought my 80 year old house about 7 years ago, knowing full well that the basement gets small puddles here and there each spring. We have a sump pump, but it happens anyway. Luckily, we didn't get more than our usual puddles this year, despite all these torrential downpours and the swelling brook 100 feet from our side yard, which caused our street to be shut down for over a week.

My DH had Basement Technologies come out and give us an estimate last year. It was about $1K more expensive than what they quoted you (I'm thinking our foundation might be slightly larger than yours? ) If you find a less expensive solution, I want in! For us, it's an inconvenience to have the puddles down there, and for DH to wet vac each spring. But that's a pretty big chunk of change to lay down to eliminate that inconvenience!

I'm interested to see what people suggest.

 

[monorailsilver]

UPDATE: OKAY. Our insurance company was nice to let us know about this but I just checked the FEMA website and it says no individual assistance available for the storm when we sustained damage, only assistance is for the counties. So much for that. I guess we'll be paying for a sump pump installation and treatment for the mold/mildew ourselves.

Doesn't that just stink?!?

We had water 2 weeks ago & ripped out our carpet, heck we just got a new sectional on that Friday & that Saturday night the water started flowing in.

Then we were finally dry & hoping our tile that we just ordered would be in soon & gush...more rain.

And no help for us folks up here which is totally not fair. I am not trying to get a new house, food, clothes, a car but I just need a little help since my husband needs to pull out half of the walls since they are wet, we have to put in new flooring, we have to get a sump pump. That all costs money.

I took a ton of pictures as a just in case. Pictures of my basement & pictures of my moat surrounding my house, pictures of the river that was running over the road 2 houses away from me & by river I mean knee deep (yes I have a picture of a fireman in it). I took them as a just in case.

 

[Tree]

Thanks for the replies so far....

My Dad who is retired construction worker said that the best bet would be to do sump pumps in two corners of the basement but where we had water coming in through this time-it may mean 4 of them.

I do want to put carpet down again and start living down there but honestly this water is the basement thing is going to make me go nuts. This time luckily we don't have really anything of value down there except for the couches but they didn't get wet really either time.

No flood insurance here....and I heard the same with FEMA

 

[3boymthr]

President Obama just declared Massachusetts and RI as disaster areas so there will be some aide available. But it was only declared for 7 counties in MA so it may not apply for you depending upon where you live.

http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/massachusetts/obama-declares-fed-disaster-area-in-ma

and see paragraph 6:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100331/ap_on_bi_ge/us_severe_weather

http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=50709

 

[bigmama67]

Northern NJ here. We bought our house last summer. It's somewhere between 70 and 90 years old. It has a finished basement with two sump pumps. There's been water pooling in the corner of the study away from the sump pump so we have to sweep it in. Our bookcases are down there but the books are fine; it's only(!) about 1/2 inch of water. Unfortunately, we also had some cardboard boxes of stuff down there we hadn't unpacked, and one of the litter boxes in the study. Problems came up during the Nor'Easter and again this week.

The other sump pump is in the laundry room and empties into the (shallow) laundry sink, so it splashes out sometimes. That's one problem, but again, there's a good 1/2-3/4 of an inch of water in the room and we have to sweep it toward the sump pump! My husband said the sides of this sump pump well are blocked off, so it probably doesn't absorb the way it should. And you guessed it, our second litter box is in that room!

So, at the moment, we have litter box mess, mushy boxes of stuff I need to go through (and I'm home recuperating from the flu this week), and two kids who can't hang out in the basement! The main room hasn't been wet but there are boxes of junk everywhere and my toddler would be all over them, plus the floor is in serious need of a cleaning. We both work full time and we are going on vacation in ten days so we need to get this in order! ARGH!

We have a waterproofing company coming on Friday for an estimate. We have $ in the bank but this will take more than half of it, if we go that route. I just left a message with our real estate attorney to see if we have any recourse, because we found it hard to believe the previous owners never had this problem, but since I see people here saying this is a first, maybe they actually didn't.

Ah, the joys of home ownership...

 

[dgthree]

Northern NJ here. We bought our house last summer. It's somewhere between 70 and 90 years old. It has a finished basement with two sump pumps. There's been water pooling in the corner of the study away from the sump pump so we have to sweep it in. Our bookcases are down there but the books are fine; it's only(!) about 1/2 inch of water. Unfortunately, we also had some cardboard boxes of stuff down there we hadn't unpacked, and one of the litter boxes in the study. Problems came up during the Nor'Easter and again this week.

The other sump pump is in the laundry room and empties into the (shallow) laundry sink, so it splashes out sometimes. That's one problem, but again, there's a good 1/2-3/4 of an inch of water in the room and we have to sweep it toward the sump pump!

LOL - btdt with sweeping water towards the pump. Growing up in Haworth, we had a basement that had cracks in middle of the floor from where water sprung up and bubbled in. We also had a sump pump & pump well, but the floor was uneven, and the sump was actually up grade from where the majority of the water came in.

Also, I hate to say this, but watch out for bookcases - if they're made of MDF or fiberboard, they are sponges, and will wick up water from the floor.

After the first rainy spring, we put a LOT of our stuff on pallets that my dad got from the warehouse at his office. Getting things 3-4" off the floor really did help.

Good luck!

 

[It's A Small World]

We did the trench years ago with an auto sump pump. It cost us roughly the same. I'll tell you what...I was not thrilled about forking out that kind of dough at the time, but it's been a life saver. Our basement is now finished and used as the kid's playroom. The piece of mind of never having to worry about water again is WONDERFUL. We are thrilled that we bit the bullet and had it done.

 

[Evi]

I'm also in Boston and don't think the quote you got for a french trench is bad though I would shop around. Also you may consider a french trench with an external waterpump this is what I maybe looking into they look a little like an air-conditioner unit outside. I think for now were going with hydraulic cement, waterproofing barrier paint and an external french trench. This is the first time we have ever had water so if that doesn't' work then I'll add the outside pump. we also have a finished basement and I don't want any internal drainage.