Walkout Basement Baptism

[jinman]

Jim - we had 18" of water in our house in Angleton.

Wasn't that flood water Mike? This was fresh cold water out of my well. It wasn't contaminated in any way. It was probably cleaner than the carpet itself.

 

[JB4310]

I'm also sorry about your flooded basement.

Being a waterproofing contractor I've seen it all, you mentioned stepping off the bottom step, A guy I worked for said he had water up to his top step!

I can tell you most people who have the one time flood as you have don't have to replace the carpet, they can dry it with fans and dehumidifiers. They will lift it to blow the fans under it, with no pad it would dry in pretty short order and would have no damage.

In your case you will probably want the drywall replaced up to 12" or so and need the wood trim replaced if it's stained, so the rug would have to be removed to facilitate that work. If insurance covers everything, great, you go that route. But I've seen more times than not where homes have had that much water and they don't even call insurance company, just dry it out and life goes on.

Mold or mildew need a cellulose base material to grow, wood frame and the paper on the drywall are areas of concern. Most likely with a one time occurrence like that you wouldn't have to worry but in certain environments especially down south, dangerous molds can grow.
There is a spray on material that could be applied inside the walls as opposed to cutting out the drywall to replace it.

I'm curious how the insurance company will handle your case, most likely they will cover everything, home owners adjusters are usually pretty liberal, often they are paid based on a percentage of the claim, talk about conflict of interest.

Good Luck, JB

 

[CompactTractorFan]

Well, the weather finally got me. Last night I went to check our walkout basement rec room before going to bed. The lights were off when I stepped off the last step in the stairwell and my foot was suddenly immersed in 3" of water. AARGH!
The walkout has 3 walls that are concrete up to 36" with the front wall and stairwell being the only framed and sheetrocked walls. There's a 4" cedar molding around the framed walls and the carpet is a commercial carpet with no padding. It's just glued to the concrete floor. A hot water stub-out I had installed for a wet bar froze in the wall and burst. The flow was so fast it couldn't run out the door and that's why water was 3" deep. I opened the door from outside and water poured out like you see in cartoons. :shocked:

We dewatered the floor down to the wet carpet and we will use a wet-dry vac this morning to get as much water out as possible. Of course it's the weekend and bad roads to boot, so there is not telling when we can get professional help. Unlike the photo I posted, the room is full of furniture with theater seats, a bar, pool table big screen TV and many other goodies that have wet feet. The TV and electronics were plugged into a power strip that was plugged into a ground fault plug. The ground fault popped when the strip got water into it and shut everything down. I think we are good electrically/electronically, but this is still going to be a huge mess.

I've been in the house now about 10 years with nothing major, so I guess it was my turn. It doesn't make it any easier though when it happens. At least it was on the lower level and the room that will see the least damage. Still, I was looking forward to a Super Bowl party with my daughter and grandkids tomorrow. That ain't gonna happen. :thumbdown:

Jim, I'm sorry to hear what happened. I can relate. We had the same problem a couple years ago, but it was sewage on new years eve. We ended ripping up most of the carpet and buying a big air mover to help dry everything...

 

[chopped]

.

All the furniture is up on blocks and the carpet is only slightly damp to the touch. I was truly impressed with how professional this crew of two guys was and how they worked well together. I'm glad to keep my business local. When/if Servpro ever calls me back, I'll tell them to cancel the order.

Tell them you just couldnt hold your finger over the leak anymore:thumbsup:

 

[ultrarunner]

I took Mom overseas to visit her sister...

We were gone a week when my brother called to say he was at the house checking the mail and saw water coming out the front door and garage.

Rubber gasket/washers on the two bolts holding the toilet tank to the stool were leaking badly... The evening before we left, the major water line to 300+ homes in her area ruptured... the water hammer from the work on the line caused everything to shake violently... so much so that she called me to say something was wrong with the water... then she called back and said the neighbors had the same problem.

Anyway, the upstairs bathroom water leak went on for 7 days till being discovered is my guess.

My brother called her insurance and they refused to do anything unless she was physically there even when my brother told insurance she was unavailable.

A retired neighbor and my brother pulled all the wet carpet and put it on the deck and tossed the pad... this was summer during a heat wave with extreme high temps. Neighbor came every morning at 6 am and turned on many fans and let them run till 10 pm every night... he didn't want anything on when he couldn't keep an eye on them.

Everything dried out nicely... I'm sure the heat wave helped. Still had damaged hardwood where it buckled and stained garage ceiling sheet rock below the upstairs.

She called her insurance as soon as she got home and by that time it seemed more trouble than it was worth... her deductible is $2500 and water damage claims seem to follow a property in California... so she decided to let it go.

Normally she turns the water off if she will be away... because of the heat wave she left the water on so the neighbor could keep her garden watered.

Within 24 hours of coming home, I separated the inside water from outside water with the addition of a ball valve, installed new guts in 3 toilets and replaced all the toilet angle stop valves with 1/4 turn ones... discovered the 50 year old ones leaked when turned to off.

Over the next week I put in 14 angle stop supply valves in several of the neighboring homes because they all had the original ones like Mom and would not shut off 100% and also leaked.

The Hospital Infection Control person said Mom was fortunate it was city water that leaked because it is heavily treated and the heat spell also helped... I say we were fortunate to have a 86 year old neighbor that jumped in to take care of things... no comment on Insurance....

 

[Western]

Great to hear you got some help over Jim, At least you got some service and it sounds like the local boys did you a good job.

I would agree with the others on getting rid of the carpet, but without a pad sponging water( what I was thinking), it will likely turn out fine. (heck of a time for a deep cleaning though). Once you get the moisture off the surface below the carpet you may be in good shape.

How long did they recommend keeping everything off the carpet? and will it stretch? Just curious really, I have seen carpets that have been deep cleaned that stretched and wrinkled, but probably a lower grade compared to what you have in your rec room.

Hope your "racking" em up again in a couple of weeks

 

[k0ua]

Oh, man I am so sorry to hear about this. I have some experience, 2 winters ago it got to -8, and we had accidently left a garden hose on so the outside spigot did not drain out. and when we turned on the water in the spring. the wall was full of water pretty quick. I noticed it pretty quick so not too much damage. And last year a compression fitting let go under the sink, during the day, and thankfully the wife noticed it after about 10 gallons, and got to the shut off. what a mess. Good luck

James K0UA

 

[Bird]

water damage claims seem to follow a property in California

Or a person. We had a water damage claim on a mobile home before we moved back to town; relatively minor. The adjuster wrote me a check on the spot for less than a thousand dollars. When we moved back to town, temporarily in an apartment, I bought renter's insurance with Allstate. A year later I bought a mobile home and Allstate, as well as several other insurance companies, refused to insure it because I'd had a water damage claim in the past 3 years.

 

[Bird]

Stories like these are the reason I like to turn off the breaker for the water heater, then turn off the water at the meter when we go out of town overnight.

The biggest "leak" I ever had was in 1969 or 1970. I was working nights, sleeping in the daytime, when one day my wife came running into the bedroom screaming for me to come quick. The entire top of the cold water faucet in the kitchen had come off and water was shooting straight up to the ceiling. I ran out in my pajamas and turned off the water at the meter. The only "repair" necessary was to screw the top of the faucet back on, and then mop up all the water in the floor and on the cabinet.

I've never seen the top of a faucet come unscrewed any other time, and it wasn't leaking a bit before that happened. My wife was keeping her 3 nephews that day; ages 8 to 12 and I always said they had to have done it but I don't know how.:laughing: Anytime those 3 boys weren't tearing something up, they were fighting each other; most destructive kids I ever knew. But they all 3 grew up to be fine young men with good families.:laughing: And yes, I've told them I still wonder how they did that, and they deny any knowledge of it.:laughing:

 

[Western]

Or a person. We had a water damage claim on a mobile home before we moved back to town; relatively minor. The adjuster wrote me a check on the spot for less than a thousand dollars. When we moved back to town, temporarily in an apartment, I bought renter's insurance with Allstate. A year later I bought a mobile home and Allstate, as well as several other insurance companies, refused to insure it because I'd had a water damage claim in the past 3 years.

Bird, that's nuts! makes you wonder what insurance is for sometimes. Like your being "penalized" for using "their" service.

I don't mind they keep info to help prospective buyers like using carfax or anything else that discloses prior damage, like you'd find during a home inspection or buying an auto, then at least you can determine somewhat if repairs where done and complete, but to ostracize some one who made a legit claim, to me is reason to shop somewhere else anyway.

Maybe they know their insurance coverage really doesn't cover like new replacement.

 

[ultrarunner]

Bird, that's nuts! makes you wonder what insurance is for sometimes. Like your being "penalized" for using "their" service.

I don't mind they keep info to help prospective buyers like using carfax or anything else that discloses prior damage, like you'd find during a home inspection or buying an auto, then at least you can determine somewhat if repairs where done and complete, but to ostracize some one who made a legit claim, to me is reason to shop somewhere else anyway.

Maybe they know their insurance coverage really doesn't cover like new replacement.

Not to get too far off topic...

One of my brothers is a Real Estate Broker for 25 years now. He has had great difficulty at times closing Escrows due to past water damage claims... Many companies here will simply choose not to insure...

 

[dcyrilc]

I can relate to what Bird went through. After we had our big wind storm back in '06 which brought the tree down through my mom's house, her insurance company dropped her as soon as the repairs were complete and no one else will touch her. As a result, she still has no home owners insurance today.

 

[Bird]

to ostracize some one who made a legit claim, to me is reason to shop somewhere else anyway

Yep, insurance is a weird business. Naturally, we had insurance on our home and vehicles down in Navarro County. I had no complaints with the insurance company, but their rates were higher in Dallas County, and I guess that's understandable. So I checked around and Allstate offered lower rates in Dallas County on the vehicles than we had been paying the other company in Navarro County, so I insured the vehicles with Allstate. But when Allstate then refused to insure the mobile home because of the prior water damage claim, I also changed our car insurance to AAA at a better rate than we'd had with Allstate. Now I've never had a claim on either the car insurance or the homeowner's insurance with AAA, so I don't know how good they'd be if I did, but I do occasionally check with other companies and I've never found one that would beat AAA premiums.

 

[ultrarunner]

I can relate to what Bird went through. After we had our big wind storm back in '06 which brought the tree down through my mom's house, her insurance company dropped her as soon as the repairs were complete and no one else will touch her. As a result, she still has no home owners insurance today.

Had the same in Olympia... same size tree... lucky it missed the house and only took out a nearly empty out-building.

At first the insurance company was slow... they said they had to inspect before anything could be started... the guy that actually did come out a week later was from another State and was real sharp... he cut a check on the spot and apologized for the delay... he also said the debris removal limits were waived and the claim would not count against me because it was a declared a disaster.

30 days of rain followed by 80 mile an hour gusts... bad combination... glad no one was killed around here.

 

[ultrarunner]

Yep, insurance is a weird business. Naturally, we had insurance on our home and vehicles down in Navarro County. I had no complaints with the insurance company, but their rates were higher in Dallas County, and I guess that's understandable. So I checked around and Allstate offered lower rates in Dallas County on the vehicles than we had been paying the other company in Navarro County, so I insured the vehicles with Allstate. But when Allstate then refused to insure the mobile home because of the prior water damage claim, I also changed our car insurance to AAA at a better rate than we'd had with Allstate. Now I've never had a claim on either the car insurance or the homeowner's insurance with AAA, so I don't know how good they'd be if I did, but I do occasionally check with other companies and I've never found one that would beat AAA premiums.

I think AAA is good if you can get it... pretty particular here.

During the Tahoe fire storm a few years back, AAA called to offer any assistance during the fire if we needed to evacuate, private fire service or securing the property... the fire took out hundreds of homes but never go closer than a few miles from the cabin.

Never had a company be pro-active like that.

 

[Alan L.]

You don't want a professional. They have already screwed up by putting plumbing in an outside wall. Do it yourself so it will be done right.

Actually I think its pretty common to have pipes on an outside wall in this area. Especially when you have faucets on the outside wall.

Jim, was this one of those frost free faucets with a long stem where the water is several inches from the faucet itself?

Hope the damage is minimal, maybe this low winter humidity will help with the drying process.

 

[jinman]

Jim, was this one of those frost free faucets with a long stem where the water is several inches from the faucet itself?

No, I don't have those, but you can bet I'll be looking into getting them or doing something to make sure this doesn't ever happen again.

 

[Bird]

Jim, was this one of those frost free faucets with a long stem where the water is several inches from the faucet itself?

I have that kind, one in front and one in back sticking right out through the bricks. So far, no problem, but I don't trust them. I do have the styrofoam covers over them. But there is no way to cut off the water to those except to go to the meter and turn all the water off. I sure liked the system at our old house better, where the faucets were in the flower beds, front and rear, in something like small meter boxes, with a water shutoff valve and a stop and waste valve for each one.

 

[Obed]

Thanks everyone. I quit waiting on Servpro and called a local company. They were here in just over 1 hour and dewatering the carpet. I was really impressed with how well their machine worked. We still have to do some checking of the walls, but the glued down carpet is almost completely dry. They left drying fans running to do the final drying. The carpet seems to be no more wet than after a good cleaning. We will see how it goes on odor. If it doesn't seem to be okay, we'll get the carpet replaced.

All the furniture is up on blocks and the carpet is only slightly damp to the touch. I was truly impressed with how professional this crew of two guys was and how they worked well together. I'm glad to keep my business local. When/if Servpro ever calls me back, I'll tell them to cancel the order.

My capped pipe is holding fine and we have both hot and cold water as normal. From this, I think I learned that I'd like to have some additional cutoffs so I can isolate zones in my house. I have three main zones. Right now I can only turn off hot water and the main supply at the outlet of my pressure tank. I need more cutoffs. That's a project in my future.:thumbsup:

Jinman,
Sorry to hear about the flood. Our first house got flooded by hurricane Hugo 2 months after we bought it so I can sympathize.

Having plenty of cutoffs is a good thing. In the house we just built, we can turn the water off for either bathroom. That way, if a shower starts leaking, it's an inconvenience, not an emergency.

One project on my list is adding cutoffs for each of our outdoor spigots and a way to drain the pipes supplying the spigots. That's when I'll get to learn how to solder copper piping. Having to rely on plumbers during emergencies is just no fun.

 

[k0ua]

No, I don't have those, but you can bet I'll be looking into getting them or doing something to make sure this doesn't ever happen again.

Jim, just be sure to not leave a garden hose hooked, up to a frost free faucet, when it gets really cold, that is what happened to me. I have become a hose fanatic, now when winter comes. ( "honey did you disconnect the hose after you used it" "yes dear")

James