Will 3 inches of water go away by itself in a basement?

[FlightlessDuck]

Thankfully, Irene only caused a few tree limbs to fall around my house, and about 3 inches of water in the basement, which, luckily, is unfinished. Cement floor. Water isn't touching the water heater or fuse box. Also, we have a drain.

(there was some major flooding elsewhere in the area, and we were without power for 15 hours...but that's not related to the question).

We looked into a sump pump, but that apparently still leaves 1 inch of water, so that seems rather pointless.

Do you think 3 inches will just dry up by itself? Should we rent a pump or start bailing?

We used to get flooding in my parents house, and it usually just went away after awhile, but I'd thought I get some DISser input.

 

[Christine]

The idea is to get the water out of the house as fast as possible. The longer it sits and stagnates, the more you're setting yourself up for bacteria and mold. I guess, eventually, it would dissapate. I'd be going out to buy a wet vac.

 

[SaraJayne]

Get it out ASAP. At this point, bailing it out by hand (ugh) or using a wet/dry vac would be your best options.

 

[cornflake]

That's a LOT of water.

Even if your basement is just 10 ft x 10 ft, that's like 25 sq. ft. of water, which is something between 150-200 gallons of water... I think, heh.

If it's 20x20, then that'd be like 750 gallons. I.. .think.

 

[PandaPirate]

No, you definitely need to get as much out of there as possible

 

[Dan Murphy]

Wet dry vac, mop or squeegee, followed by fan and open windows and/or doors.

 

[clh2]

Getting out 2 of the 3" with a sump pump would be very helpful! I would also be doing what I could to get the additional 1" out with a wet vac. And then...I would probably have a blower going to - becasue once the actual water is gone - you really want to make sure EVERYTHING is dry there.

 

[ilovemk76]

Thankfully, Irene only caused a few tree limbs to fall around my house, and about 3 inches of water in the basement, which, luckily, is unfinished. Cement floor. Water isn't touching the water heater or fuse box. Also, we have a drain.

(there was some major flooding elsewhere in the area, and we were without power for 15 hours...but that's not related to the question).

We looked into a sump pump, but that apparently still leaves 1 inch of water, so that seems rather pointless.

Do you think 3 inches will just dry up by itself? Should we rent a pump or start bailing?

We used to get flooding in my parents house, and it usually just went away after awhile, but I'd thought I get some DISser input.

That water will last for a long time and create mold. You need to get rid of the water. A sump pump and a shop vac are the best way. Get a shop vac that pumps water out.

A dehumidifier in the basement will help to get the last of the water.

 

[Imzadi]

Ditto on it will create a lot of mold, which will be harder to get rid of than the water.

Go to Sears or Home Depot and get wet/dry vac. If the stores are all out, bail as much as you can, then use a snow shovel & push broom to push it into the shovel, to get the rest. And finally a mop.

 

[beaucoup]

Buying a shop vac at Home Depot is a lot cheaper than dealing with mold in your house.

Joys of homeownership. Dealing with things you don't always want to have to deal with.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Buy a vac is not possible at the mo', since the only road out of our development is closed.

But I will take everyone's ideas under advisement once the flood water recedes.

 

[golfgal]

Once you can get out, get a sump pump and extra tubing so you can run that out the window and into the street or wherever your town allows. Then you can hook your shop vac up to that tubing-probably will need some duct tape or other ways to attach that since they will be different sizes and keep vacuuming. Hauling gallons and gallons of water upstairs in a shop vac is not fun. You should be able to get it all out this way. Then get LARGE fans and set them up around the basement.

If your basement is finished, cut off the drywall a few inches higher then the water was so the walls air out and you don't get mold growing behind the drywall too.

 

[Rabscuttle]

3 inches is far more than what you want to tackle with a shop vac. Get a submersible pump from Home Depot. It will suck up the water down to about a half inch and then start sweeping the water towards it. Do not leave it sitting. Get the floor almost dry and then run your dehumidifier with fans.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Get a shop vac with a garden hose outlet. You just screw in your garden hose and run it outside somewhere in the yard, then run the shop vac until the water is gone.

(I might have woken up one morning with 3 inches of water covering my 4000 square foot house from a water heater. And yes, of course my DH was traveling and no one else was living with us at the time. . .at least I wasn't working and could spend my entire day wet vaccing so the carpets didn't ruin!)

 

[bdcp]

I would get a sump pump installed (with battery backup in case of power failure) in the floor of the basement so this didn't happen again.

It's what we have and have never had a basement flood.

My parents basement flooded twice when I was a kid and my dad had a sump pump installed and it never happened again.

 

[lizabu]

Get a shop vac with a garden hose outlet. You just screw in your garden hose and run it outside somewhere in the yard, then run the shop vac until the water is gone.

(I might have woken up one morning with 3 inches of water covering my 4000 square foot house from a water heater. And yes, of course my DH was traveling and no one else was living with us at the time. . .at least I wasn't working and could spend my entire day wet vaccing so the carpets didn't ruin!)

I think this is brilliant. Many times you can rent these things at home depot. If the water sits it will stink and your whole house will smell plus like everyone else said mold etc

 

[Kellydelly]

3 inches is far more than what you want to tackle with a shop vac. Get a submersible pump from Home Depot. It will suck up the water down to about a half inch and then start sweeping the water towards it. Do not leave it sitting. Get the floor almost dry and then run your dehumidifier with fans.

This is great advice! We have one of those same pumps and used it when our basement flooded a couple inches. I wouldn't leave the water sitting, bad idea. I don't get why everyone is telling you to go get a sump pump, they are not portable as far as I know .

 

[JoiseyMom]

Our entire basement was ankle deep because of a power failure...we were pumping and then bailing. Then we borrowed a generator...and water gone. Now I am waiting to hear back from the insurance company, cause we need the dry wall cut and the carpet dryed etc...

We spent hours emptying the stuff not ruined so it woudlnt mold. We still have LOTS to do, then we will throw out all the stuff that was ruined. I did want to clean up my basement anyway....

 

[golfgal]

Our entire basement was ankle deep because of a power failure...we were pumping and then bailing. Then we borrowed a generator...and water gone. Now I am waiting to hear back from the insurance company, cause we need the dry wall cut and the carpet dryed etc...

We spent hours emptying the stuff not ruined so it woudlnt mold. We still have LOTS to do, then we will throw out all the stuff that was ruined. I did want to clean up my basement anyway....

Just to prepare you, most likely you have NO coverage for this...flooding isn't covered under homeowners policies and FEMA flood policies do not provide coverage for 'stuff' in a basement, only attached fixtures like drywall, your furnace, etc.

 

[wishesuponastar]

Thankfully, Irene only caused a few tree limbs to fall around my house, and about 3 inches of water in the basement, which, luckily, is unfinished. Cement floor. Water isn't touching the water heater or fuse box. Also, we have a drain.

(there was some major flooding elsewhere in the area, and we were without power for 15 hours...but that's not related to the question).

We looked into a sump pump, but that apparently still leaves 1 inch of water, so that seems rather pointless.

Do you think 3 inches will just dry up by itself? Should we rent a pump or start bailing?

We used to get flooding in my parents house, and it usually just went away after awhile, but I'd thought I get some DISser input.

We have a sump pump and it stops the water from coming onto our basement floor totally unless there is a power outage. We are going to get a sump pump battery back up so it will work for about another 7 hours if the power goes out especially if we are not home at the time of flooding. And we are going to get a generator to keep the sump pump working too. I'm so sorry you have water damage and hope you get the water out right away.