....it floods
....in our basement
....with sewage!
We knew that basement flooding can be a problem. We knew that it had been a problem in this house before we got here. We spent many hours and a lot of sweat "grading" the slope around our house so that this would be less of a problem. We have had some good rains since we've moved, and were feeling quite smug about the fact that our basement had yet to flood.
Let's go back to last Sunday night/early Monday morning. Brett had just gone to bed, I hadn't gone to bed much earlier when we were awoken by a huge "thud-thud-thud". We got out of bed, did the usual "bedroom scan" of the kids' rooms, were satisfied that it was a mystery sound that may never be found and went back to bed. Never mind the fact that it was thundering and lightening and pouring rain. "Thud-thud-thud" went the mystery noise again. Brett went for a solo exploration this time and somewhere in the back of his mind he was told "go check out the basement". He did, yelled for me, and this is what we saw:
That bathroom mat floated out of the toilet "stall".
Our whole basement was being flooded with city sewer water right before our eyes and there wasn't a thing we could do about it. Well, there was one thing we could do. I jumped from furniture to furniture trying to salvage anything I could. Brett took a tour of the basement with the aid of our computer chair and wheeled himself from room to room saving all that he could and taking pictures for documentation purposes.
We discovered that the mystery sound was the toilet lid going up and slamming shut while the "water" (I use that term lightly) gushed (as in geyser) out of it. Lovely!
The basement is technically "clean". We are in the midst of dealing with our insurance company ('nough said) and getting quotes from different "experts".
3 comments:
Oh...dear...God! How horrific! I cannot imagine how you are coping with this. With many graces, I'm sure! I'm glad it's behind you now. Those pictures are something else. Is something being done to ensure this can never happen again? What makes it happen?
Sign me,
Basement ignorant
hmmmm....time for a new sump pump...or is it that simple? Pictures like these make me almost glad we could not find a house with a basement. Although there are days I wish we had a little extra space for all our "stuff" (ok the kids stuff) I would rather NOT have to deal with something like this.
Moments like this, I bet you wish you could just call the landlord and say "Your problem, you deal with it." This will hopefully just be another one of those "joys of home ownership" that you guys willl laugh about in years to come.
Despite everything, I am glad to hear you guys are doing well!! Stay warm.
I wanted to see a picture of Brett rolling around on your computer chair. :-) I love the humor that you're able to tap into in times of crisis. Pass some of that my way will ya?
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