In article , mm says...
On 30 Jun 2006 10:50:33 -0700, Banty wrote:
In article , mm says...
On 30 Jun 2006 01:40:14 -0700, wrote:
Of course, in the end, the real question will be how much $$$ the
actual damage amounts to. If it's not significant enough, it may not
be worth fighting.
That's true too. I've never had 2 inches like the OP, but when there
has been water, most of the damage was to the carboard cartons I keep
things in, that I get free at the grocery store or liquor store.
It's an enormous pain for me, but I don't know how much U could get
from an insurance company for that! It never occurred to me to make a
claim, but like I say, I didn't have 2 inches.
Another thing on my list to do is to glue or something a piece of wood
into the doorway between the room with sump and washing machine and
sink and the other room. It will look crummy and I'll have to explain
it to a buyer someday,
No you won't have to explain it to a buyer.
grin.
The buyer will read:
"NOTICE! THIS BASEMENT FLOODS!"
OK. Good to know.
Better to fix the problem.
There have been about 10 problems. Each different. Some can't be
solved. Plus the new mistakes I will make.
Most serious, 1) heavy rains cause the stream to rise, overflows sewer
manhole covers, fills sewer, backs up through laundry sink into the
four lowest houses out of 109. I asked the county to put in
waterproof manhole covers. He said it wouldn't help but he would do 2
of them if I wanted. It didn't help. Maybe I should have had them do
it further upstream, instead of by my house and one just downstream.
But they probably won't do this for me a second time. This caused
floods twice plus the special occasions below, after my partial
solution.
Water proof manhole covers wouldn't work. Water force is tremendous.
This is your worse problem I agree, because it's out of your control to solve,
unless you can get your munincipality to reroute the sewage. For this reason
alone maybe you'll have to resort to measures like placing things on pads and
the solution you mentioned. Is there really no recourse for this? Do you have
a homeowner's or condo association to press on this? What do your neighbors
think?
2) Cold water hose to washing machine burst. Got two steel clad water
hoses. That caused water hammer when using the washing machine so I
got two small air capsules, already set up for attaching. That solved
that problem.
OK.
3) Polyethylene hose to humidifier burst. Water sprayed into file
cabinet, mostly wetting open drawer with tourist brochures (I have a
more important file cabinet upstairs). Non-glossy ones dried out.
Glossy ones stuck together. I've still got lots of places to go, and
only 30 more years to get there. I can replace what tourist stuff I
need. Replaced hose with copper tubing.
Maybe you need to see if you can catch these situations before they happen.
Inspections, proactive upgrades.
4) Hot water hose to kitchen sink burst, because I temporairly used
auto vacuuum hose, and temp lasted months. Won't make that mistake
again. Put 52 gallons of hot water and who knows how much cold water
through floor where it rained down on laundry room, in many places.
Wooden tool "dresser" swelled and open drawer wouldnt't shut. But
after 2 months it shut ok. Many things rusty, but wire wheel will
clean most of them.
You do seem to learn kinda slow about these hose connections....
5) Because of the flooding in item 1, I also keep the basement/laundry
sink plugged all the time, with a 1x2 jammed in above the rubber plug
and below the shelf. Shelf wasn't screwed to the shelf bracket. Lifted
the shelf with all the heavy things on it. One more flood. Screwed
the shelf to the bracket.
I also put in a check valve, but I lifted up the plug once a teeny
tiny bit and water started to come up. The check valve wasn't good
anymore. I try to catch all the lint from the washing machine, but
the machine itself doesn't have a lint filter. It claims to have a
spinning knife or something that chops up the lint, but it doesn't
work well enough for me.
6) Sink plugged up. Once in 21 years, I did my laundry without
unplugging it. I knew that would happen once. If I get Oldtimers
Disease, it may happen again.
7) As I said in another post, heavy rains overwhelmed the sump pump.
Water came out of the sump. I may for 400 dollars get that small
battery operated backup sump pump, which also works when there is
power if the first pump is overwhelmed.
Bigger sump pump. BTDT.
8) Early on, AC condensate would not go out tube to sump, but instead
ran down inside furnace and flooded floor, less than most floods but
ongoing. I cut a hole in the plenum? and looked inside, saw no clogs.
I thought maybe insects in the drain pipe, so I cut the plastic pipe
and used a hose to run water through it. Water came out as fast as it
went in. And problem remained. Pipe came out of AC down an inch, 2
feet hoizontal over to the wall, down 4 feet, along the base of the
wall 8 feet, away froom the wall 3 feet to the sump, and one inch
down. When I had the water heater out, I had room to work, so I
redid the plastic drain pipe a little, so that it came out of the
plenum (is that the word), down 15 inches, and then over to the wall,
and then to the floor etc. That solved the problem. There are 108
other houses here. I keep forgetting, but I want to see the other
houses. I'm sure some or all are like mine was. I wonder if they
have problems. Problem solved, unless insects do clog the pipe. 
You and tubes don't get along
9 Water heater starts to leak. Would have noticed this and found the
problem in time, but floor was already wet because of 8 above. That
little water should have evaporated in 12 hours, but I didn't realize
there was a second leak and a few days later, the whole water heater
emptied on the floor, 50 gallons. Much went into the sump and was
pumped out, but much idn't. I put in new water heater, along with a
pan underneath with a pipe that goes to the sump. Not sure if the
edge of the pan is really high enough but that's what they sell.
When I solved a water problem, I found my washing machine to be leaking. They
call this kind of way problems present themselves as others are solved "peeling
the onion".
10) I've never yet been able to list them all without thinking of one
more later that I've already had......... Well, there are more that I
haven't had. Pipes that break, valves that leak, such as the drain
hole in the valve that controls the outside faucet. Or toilet or
bathtub or sink overflows. (I never had a toilet or sink overflow but
had one bathtub overflow in 23 years, but water didn't make it to the
basement, so that piece of wood on the floor between the two basement
rooms wouldn't help. I dont' count the bathtub anyhow, because that
was entirely my fault. It wasn't some*thing* that "went wrong".)
Can you get a new inspection and see if an expert can point these things out?
Seems there's a lot of age-related (house age
things going wrong.
10a) Other possible problem, basement sink is plugged with
plug-and-stick, and will come off the wall when the water pressure
from overflowing sewer is pushing up on the plug-stick and forcing the
sink down. I'm planning on building a frame underneath the sink.
10c) I'm pretty sure I left one out that has already happened. Each
one is so different that I can't use one to remind me of the others.
Despite all the problems the stream gives, I love my stream and the 20
feet of woods on this side, and the 40 or 50 foot strip of woods on
the other side. The stream turns 90 degrees right at my house. I
never thought there even existed a house in my price range with such a
beautiful piece of land around it. It's normally about 10 inches deep
and 5 feet across. It can rise in 10 hours to 8 feet deep and 20 to 40
feet across, and can run so fast the noise wakes me up. (Someday I
have to enlist a friend and measure the speed.)
I can see how it's in a lower price range
Banty
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