If its not one thing its another...

6 am this morning, wife wakes me up to investigate a sound. Turns out the hot water supply to the hall bath decided it didnt like the plumbing and wanted to leave...600 gallons of water decided the same. 50% of the finished basement is ruined...walls are so so, basement ceiling, trashed, hvac is not wanting to stay running, hardwood upstairs is questionable. The terrible thing is just about 16 moths ago, we had to file a claim for the remnants of hurricane ivan liberating a majority of our roof, and tearing up our fence, so another claim so soon may be grounds for ins dropping us..oh happy day

/rant.

Anyone got 9 or 10 spare dehumidifiers i can borrow?

Ouch. I dont have anything to add other than that.

Joey

dang, that sucks. was anything irreplaceable ruined?

Just an old pc with some school stuff in it, and a photo album. Theres a ton of garbage though, some old boxes of crap we never unpacked and such. Luckily we were smart enough to put the important stuff in big rubbermaid bins with lids, so it looks like that stuff is ok. Probably gonna try to fix all this without the insurance agency. Wish us luck!

I feel your pain. Many years ago, when I still with Mom & Dad, I went downstairs in the middle of the night. The kitchen was carpeted, but when I rounded the corner, I could see a reflection in it. A 50 cent washer let go in the dishwasher. Kitchen, family room and half of the basement were soaked.

Two years ago, we had a storm so bad that our sewer backed up. 4' fountian of E36 M3water coming out of the basement floor drain. 29" deep, and we had most of our belongings in rubbermaid totes, stacked along the walls. They all toppled over. Very little of our stuff was salvagable. It happened to be laundry day, as well, so most of our clothes were down there.

4cylndrfury wrote: . The terrible thing is just about 16 moths ago, we had to file a claim for the remnants of hurricane ivan liberating a majority of our roof, and tearing up our fence, so another claim so soon may be grounds for ins dropping us..oh happy day

it really is a shame that ins co's can take your money for yrs and yrs and then when you need them they can drop you like a hot potato

Man that sucks. For those who are planning new construction: adding an emergency drain in the laundry room floor during construction can pay huge dividends later. Also, there are backflow valves for the sewer (basically a lightweight ball in a chamber) which can prevent the sewer backup disaster.

4cylndrfury wrote: . Probably gonna try to fix all this without the insurance agency. Wish us luck!

berkeley that. call insurance NOW. they'll have a restoration service in there within a few hours to dry things out properly, kill the mold before it grows, etc. this ain't like replacing a fender and bumper cover, and it should not be treated as such.

Luckily we do have a drain in the basement floor. Problem is the ultra plush padding (since the concrete subfloor is so hard) wicked a lot of the water away from the drain.

We are making some headway though. Lot of the carpet is drying ok (thanks to 3 huge squirrel cage blowers from the tool rental) and a new dehumidifier. Wish up luck that no mold tries to move in! Theres still gonna be a lot of drywall work to do :/

belive me angry, id love to get the ins guys here asap, but like i said, i dont wanna get dropped. I think we may just get by though. We just went thru this with my mother in laws house a few months ago, so ive got an idea of what we are up against.

75% of the homes in my neighborhood have really nice fixed up basements. We are one of the few that store stuff in the basement and let kids play down there and have gray concrete walls and floor.

It seems you will be flooded out at some point with a basement and if it happens to me i will be angry because i have a lot of spare Datsun 240Z parts down there along with a nice table saw and workbench.

well the bigazz blowers, attic fan, dehumidifier and a metric butt-ton of luck seem to be prevailing. Ive opened up some walls by removing the baseboards and cutting up a little further to help ventilate the walls between the studs. Carpets are really drying up well. We have the HVAC guy coming today, and based on his recommendation, we will decide whether or not to get ins involved. If its a $10 relay that needs replaced, then we are good...if its a $2k furnace that needs replaced, we are berkeleyed.

For the washing machine there are hoses with a valve at the shut off valve that shuts flow off if the hose or any thing in the washer sudenly ruptures. $30.00 is cheap ins. I like the drain idea. I have the laundry room over my basement shop and storage area. I would be easy to do.

We had the basement flood six or seven times in the first few years of this house until we ultimately fixed the problem. The carpet cleaners were on a first name basis with us, for sure, at $400 a crack. Sounds like you're doing all the right stuff on getting things dry, but our guys used a disinfectant/chemical to help keep mold and mildew down due to the moisture having permeated everything so thoroughly. You might want to investigate with your local carpet seller/etc. and give things a good going-over with a generic spray bottle before putting all the carpeting/panelling back, etc.

Stroker, thats definitely on my to do list - My mother in law had a washing machine hose let go while she was at work, and she had a lot more damage than us. Her insurance guys did a full blown version of what Im doing, and they left a mostly full gallon jug of the mold and mildew inhibitor concentrate behind when they left. I plan to mix up a decent batch and use a garden mister to apply it into the walls through the vents I created, through the HVAC system, between the ceiling and the upper stairs floor in the basement, subfloors and underside of the carpet as we begin the rebuild.

adding an emergency drain in the laundry room floor during construction can pay huge dividends later. Also, there are backflow valves for the sewer (basically a lightweight ball in a chamber) which can prevent the sewer backup disaster.

That isn't code? Wow. I'd dare somebody to pull that here!

No it isn't (or at least not where I live). Strange, huh? You'd think that was just an all around Good Idea.

Jensenman wrote: No it isn't (or at least not where I live). Strange, huh? You'd think that was just an all around Good Idea.

Like (un)common sense?

pete240z wrote: We are one of the few that store stuff in the basement and let kids play down there and have gray concrete walls and floor.

Our basement is for storage and shooting hockey pucks. Although now we've accumulated a TV, couch, and chairs, really nothing too bad would happen aside from losing some vinyl records.

I love nice finished basements, but the closest I'll ever have to a finished basement is a bathroom down there. Unless I buy the house that way already.

I wouldn't add a bathroom down there. My uncle and father in law both have them and every so ofter the neighborhood backs up in there. My uncle has a large ranch house and the last time it backed up he needed two trucks to empty it.

Yeah, ours came finished. My folks basement is unfinished. My dad has been given the green light to build a gunsmithing shop down there. But other than that its just block walls and cement floor.

Having our hvac system looked at right now. May need a new pc board for the furnace. Hopefully its cheaper than our deductible...fingers crossed! Guys literally on the phone with the parts dealer now.

sorry, but this was such a fun movie.

If you haven't already, read your policy before you call, with special attention to damage by water and the definition of "flood." Of course, you have NOT had a "flood" as that term is ordinarily defined in a homeowner's policy and you probably don't have flood insurance unless you pruchased it separately. The ordinary policy covers claims like this but I've heard some interesting stories about how adjusters can spin things.

Not trying to add to your worries, just sayin'. Deepest sympathies.

nutherjrfan wrote: sorry, but this was such a fun movie.

Best part of that one was the turkey that got ejected from the oven and went flying though the window.

This is becoming a money pit. Now the expanding and contracting subfloor is causing the porcelain tiles in the kitchen to pop loose. Still though, we havent spent more than our deductible (considering I am the labor in this mess!)

So looks like we get a passing grade. Had the restoration company whe did the mother in laws house come out to test, and we were dryer than their standard measure in more than 95% of the affected area. The spot that failed was less than 20 points (on a scale of 1k) above their standard for dryness. They also sprayed a mold and mildew inhibitor on every porous surface in the rooms affected. I think we might just be ok...now comes the rebuilding...oh joy!