Basement Water

[tp4tissue]

Tp4 water fighter, Narrowly avoided disaster.

Heavy water from Ida

For ~30 minutes,  ingress exceeded sump pump capacity.  It was still pumping, but the table was coming out the other end sets off flood alarm.

It's a good thing Tp4 kept buying those $50 Home depot/Lowes shopvacs on sale.

Filled up all six vacs. They're 12 gallons each. This would've easily cost more than $300 worth of water damage. holy crap these are heavy to carry upstairs.

100% Sure neighbors were screwed.

Sirens came to multiple houses across the cul-de-sac.

Does anyone know if there's a more automated system for this scenario ?

Tp4 understands he could get a bigger sump-pump, but that may not be the answer if bigger pumps won't fit in the hole.

For example, Tp could rig up a second pump piped slightly above the sump pump, but do they make a pump with a trigger / logic system that can be submerged along-side the original sump?

Tp4 could rig an arduino to do this, but they're not massively reliable and there's water involved.

[Faceman76]

Guessing you're in the Northeast, too?

It's still coming down hard here, roads are flooded and had several hurricane alerts to my phone.

Good times.

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[Leslieann]

The best fix is to keep it away from the house to begin with,

Slope the ground away from your house.
Make sure rain gutters empty several feet from the house, an inspector may say something but builders don't seem to care. TONS of houses dump the rain gutters right at your foundation.

Get out during a rainstorm and verify this is working, paying attention to run off from your neighbors. We had to dig a trench through our yard to direct water runoff and it worked great until the new neighbors bumped a rain gutter drain pipe and was flooding the corridor between the two houses. It was a swamp when we found it.

[fanpeople]

Break out the tarps and sandbags TP.... its sandbagging time.

[tp4tissue]

Break out the tarps and sandbags TP.... its sandbagging time.

Straya xperiences ?

Also the price of sand lately iz ludicros

Guessing you're in the Northeast, too?

It's still coming down hard here, roads are flooded and had several hurricane alerts to my phone.

On edge, all last nite..

[fanpeople]

Straya xperiences ?

Also the price of sand lately iz ludicros

Yeah but our bags and sand are free from the local SES cuz they don't want to come out and sandbag themselves.

[fohat.digs]

Fighting nature is a losing proposition. Weather and gravity are more powerful than any human endeavor.

People have been moving water uphill for millennia, but it is never easy. There are ways to create 2-stage sumps and pumping systems, but they are neither cheap nor simple. Professional advice would be well worth the fee because every situation is different and maybe tricky, although a basement-waterproofing company would charge a fortune to do the complete job.

Buying sand in bags is hopeless, get a truck to dump a ton or 2 for the price of a few dozen bags.

[tp4tissue]

The best fix is to keep it away from the house to begin with,

Slope the ground away from your house.
Make sure rain gutters empty several feet from the house, an inspector may say something but builders don't seem to care. TONS of houses dump the rain gutters right at your foundation.

Get out during a rainstorm and verify this is working, paying attention to run off from your neighbors. We had to dig a trench through our yard to direct water runoff and it worked great until the new neighbors bumped a rain gutter drain pipe and was flooding the corridor between the two houses. It was a swamp when we found it.

People have been moving water uphill for millennia, but it is never easy. There are ways to create 2-stage sumps and pumping systems, but they are neither cheap nor simple.

/whatever the cost though,  seeeeems.... cheaper than basement flooding.

[Faceman76]

Dry wells for gutters and consider re-grating around your foundation.

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[tp4tissue]

t00k a walk round the neighborhood,

Several houses had pump trucks parked in front of them.   Sump pump failures.

Check ur pumps guys... And have a backup pump ..   

[Leslieann]

/whatever the cost though,  seeeeems.... cheaper than basement flooding.

Some time with a shovel and gravity is free and despite the numerous times I've tested it gravity's never once failed.

Check ur pumps guys... And have a backup pump .. 

The sump pump is supposed to be your backup/last hope, gravity and proper runoff is supposed to be your primary system, it can't keep your basement dry, only pump out excess. Expecting your pump to keep your basement dry is a good way to get infested with mold.

[Darthbaggins]

Yup, you need to check your natural drainage since the pump, as you found out, can't fully keep up.  I know we had a house that was a challenge to fix the drainage issues due to the angle of the driveway causing massive rainwater right through the garage, and the drain at the bottom of the driveway was poorly designed from the previous owner (they installed the drain at an uphill angle).  We ended up having a French Drain installed and redoing the drainage from the driveway - as it ended up ending any issues we had in the basement/garage areas.

[Darthbaggins]

Holy Necro man. . . this happened almost 2yrs ago - I would think it would have been dealt with in that time span or else TP now has a swamp/pond in their basement.