Northeast Rain!

Nizmo

Nizmo

New member
So all the rain this weekend from the after effects of the tropical storm has drenched the area. Went next door to grandmothers house and for the first time ever the sump pump and pit was completely under water. Luckily it still worked! My house is on the same water table and guess what...

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Yup, and as you see I have no sump-pump. This is the first time in 3 years we`ve ever seen moisture, let alone water in there. So a guy is coming over to install a pump, because the rain isn`t gonna stop. We are fortunate though, got a call from the elderly neighbor across the street to check her basement. Didn`t look bad, just wet when I started going down. Got to the last step and uh oh. She has 8" of water in her basement.

Anybody else seeing any flooding or the such?
 
Yea. Its getting depressing. Steady rain all day yesterday and today. Several schools closed today due to flooding. Calling for rain this weekend too. August was all rain here. Good thing I got another coat of 10min. paint sealant on last week. During my vacation it was HOT. 90 every day. Then the bottom fell out Sat. If this was snow, it would be measured in feet!
 
We had massive amounts of rain come through my area from the hurricane too. It started pouring Friday evening and didn`t let up until Saturday evening. Even after the main showers departed the area, it continued to mist and drizzle until late morning Sunday.

I`m fortunate to have a yard which is sloped away from the house in every direction. To take advantage of the slope, I extended all of my down spouts about 8~9` out from my house. Our sump pits only see moisture once every few years, but with this storm I ended up with a few inches of water in one pit. Not enough to have the pump kick on, and not enough to flood the basement.

I`m pretty sure several of my neighbors flooded. Their yards are totally flat and their landscaping projects with berms and trees have completly disrupted the neighborhood draining plan. I could see small lakes forming in many of their back yards.

Something I found particularly frustrating was watching my lawn almost grow while I looked at it. The cool weather and tons have rain have it growning almost like kudzu!
 
I’m lucky in that I live at the crest of a hill in my neighborhood, so no interior flooding. The area in general does have a lot of people dealing with basement floods. Driving by is getting tricky with all the significant puddles (lack of a better word) on the roadways. Nothing catastrophic, but definitely worth being cautious around.
 
acuRAS82 said:
I’m lucky in that I live at the crest of a hill in my neighborhood, so no interior flooding. The area in general does have a lot of people dealing with basement floods. Driving by is getting tricky with all the significant puddles (lack of a better word) on the roadways. Nothing catastrophic, but definitely worth being cautious around.
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Luckly with all the rain we have been having help with the fire from gas line explosion down the road from me.
 
So.......how many pumps do you have as spares.
After Sandy, between the auto-genset, I have 5 spares and 200 Feet of 2" trash hose on standby !

One Sump (Liberty)
One 3" output electric semi-trash pump (Tsrumi)
Two low level 1/4" pumps (Tsrumi)

And a Honda Gas Trash Pump.

I have yet to use any of them, but it`s a whole lot better than carrying two 5 gallon buckets in each hand into the wee hrs of the morning full of water ! Aside from the auto genset, I also have two portables and 15 Scepter Fuel Cans....

I went a little bit overboard during post-prep
I did not want to put myself into the position I was in during Sandy
And the list above, I actually compiled after Irene but never followed through
 
We had a massive rain here a few weeks ago & it got water in my basement. I have a walk down easement basement door - there is a drain in the concrete in front of the door.

I was sitting there watching it. The drain became overwhelmed and water actually came under the door. The basement isn`t finished and has a floor drain & sump pump. So not a major deal - just kinda gross and the sump pump worked fine.

My pump is 1/3 horsepower. Thinking of upgrading to 3/4 horsepower.

Since then, I did a bunch of stuff to "seal" the door. I don`t expect to stop water this way - maybe decrease it a bit.

But water in your house can ruin your life. Check your sump pumps peeps while Lowe`s still has them in stock. If you don`t know how - you just have to fill the sump with water and make sure it`s switching on & being pumped out. Make sure gutters are connected and drains are clear.
 
Swanicyouth said:
But water in your house can ruin your life. Check your sump pumps peeps while Lowe`s still has them in stock. If you don`t know how - you just have to fill the sump with water and make sure it`s switching on & being pumped out. Make sure gutters are connected and drains are clear.
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Great advice. My pumps only come on once every 2~3 years and I forget about them.

I also found extending the down-spouts as far from my house as possible helped a great deal as well.
 
Ya know what....it seems like right after Labor day, there is always a good rainy day-days to remind us Hurricane Season is in tow....and or that`s what I was thinking when I looked out the window
 
Looks like a couple of you were are way better prepared than I was! I`ve lived here for almost 3 years and never had water rise like this. Both my house and grandmothers is pretty much identical, built by the same builder. Our basement is fully sealed with Dri-lock, but grandmothers not. You can tell the difference as there is a good bit of moisture down there. But with as much rain as we`ve had the water table is waay high.

We have a pump installed now; the likeliness of it being used again is low, but it`s there incase we need it now. I was lucky the one at grandmothers still worked, who knows the last time it was actually used. I had to bang on the pipe to get it to pump, but it seems to work now. Lowe`s was completely sold out of pumps, as the local plumbing supply. Nobody has water heaters left as well, so we are fortunate enough to not be under water, like my neighbor across the street. The water was getting into her water heater and furnace.
 
When they built my house, it`s 15 - 18 inches higher than the engineer said we had to build it. The end result was that we had to truck in 44 tri-axle loads of fill, but I have a dry basement.
 
No basement at my home as water table is 8` down. A couple other homes on my street have them and they wish they didnt. My neighbor has 2 sump pits and they run every 45 seconds. It`s nuts now with all the rain
 
It`s interesting on observation on water table....

2 Years Ago, I was removing the ~beer cups~ I had in the garden for slugs - I totally about them and decided to do them right before it started raining hard.
It was interesting to see where the water table was just by looking at the water table in the hole. Was not expecting to see the water table that far up...
 
acuRAS82 said:
Really??? In Mass?
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The towns here have put up permanent signs for water ban that never come down even in winter and no mater what the lake water levels are. They claim its the ground water levels that are always low? Could be true but fells like the boy who cried wolf.
 
Swanicyouth said:
We had a massive rain here a few weeks ago & it got water in my basement. I have a walk down easement basement door - there is a drain in the concrete in front of the door.

I was sitting there watching it. The drain became overwhelmed and water actually came under the door. The basement isn`t finished and has a floor drain & sump pump. So not a major deal - just kinda gross and the sump pump worked fine.
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Wow, in a brand new house/development...makes you wonder how much they really think about this stuff when they plan it out.
 
Yuck Swanic. Save some raindy day funds, literally and get a plumber to install a checkvalve/backwater vavle. It won`t be cheap but the expense IMO is worth it.
You DO need to some maintenance on the valve every now and then....
 
mobiledynamics said:
Yuck Swanic. Save some raindy day funds, literally and get a plumber to install a checkvalve/backwater vavle. It won`t be cheap but the expense IMO is worth it.
You DO need to some maintenance on the valve every now and then....
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Is this the one way valve in the sump pump out line? I already have one of those. If not?
 
Depending on your DWV Sewer line, it`s the one way valve going out to the street....unless you`re off a septic.
Depends on the layout, but the valve is installed right past your main trap. They need to break up the floor/dig, etc

But once installed, at least you won`t get backflow like you describe in the other post....or even worst, sewar backflow.
$h1t happens in the literall sense. I would not wait till it occurs. Preventive vs. Reactive I suppose.
 
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