So I have basement problems. Water coming into my basement problems.

I’ve known about this since 2008, when I first had water coming in through the windows, and then the floor drain stopped draining and it all backed up. I spent two days, pulling up glued carpet squares and cleaning and mopping floors (and putting my couch and washer/dryer up on cinder blocks). That summer, my church came over and dug a drain to help with some of the drainage and I bought new window well covers and caulked the windows and that seemed to take care of it for a while. Until the next big storm a year later, when it flooded again. My little portable sump pump tried its best to keep up with it and it wasn’t quite as bad. I had real hopes when in April, I got notification that I couldn’t use my plumping for two days because they were revising and rewiring the sewer system: I hoped that that would mean the end of backup problems.

But I started noticing more “leakage”, especially in the bathroom, and with less intense rainstorms. I was somewhat worried that my foundation floor had cracks and I wasn’t sure where the water was coming from. So, my dad and I pulled up the tile; the foundation floor looks fine, it’s leaking from the foundation “joints” where the walls and the floor meet. A big problem, one that to completely fix will require complete excavation of the foundation and the drain tiles. But I brainstormed with knowledgeable friends and came up with a few more reasonable suggestions to help alleviate some of the symptoms. And after I fixed some of the downspouts, things seemed better for a rain storm or two.

It rained hard a couple of weeks ago; and I had quite a bit of water collection. I moved up my plans to convince friends that they wanted to spend their afternoons shoving clay-based dirt to form a better gradient around the perimeter.

And then it rained again last night.

Some of you might have seen some of the pictures, especially this one:

I came home, after a 40 minute commute home, avoiding the flooded roads to find this:



I think it was about 8 inches deep at the location of the drain. I can’t know for certain, because I couldn’t check: the water was deep enough to submerge some electrical equipment that made stepping into the puddle somewhat dangerous. (I think my video cassette rewinder has seen its last day). It took about an hour for it to drain, leaving me with a mud/probable sewage covered floor.

Luckily, my church is still fantastic and I was able to call my home teacher who came over with a friend and we mopped and mopped and got it cleaned. It continued to rain off and on last night and I still had my leakage problems, but those feel almost manageable at this point.

I researched how to fix the problems all day today (thankfully a quiet day, as I didn’t want to deal with anything). It’s probably telling that all of the articles that discussed sanitary water backup in basements mentioned Milwaukee and its terrible sewer drain system. It’s unfortunately, however, a problem that I might not be able to fix; most solutions were to bother the officials until they redid the sewer system. Grrr. I could improve things and make flooding much less likely if I install a sump pump, which may not be too horribly expensive. I’m still exploring options and talking to people. I’ve got some numbers for a basement consultant and I’m going to talk to my real estate agent about people she might recommend; and how much of it I should try to get fixed before I try to sell it.

I’m lucky, there were 7 houses up north were the basements washed completely out and collapsed. And I was supposed to be on call last night, but switched at the last minute. Hooray for small graces.

I have pretty much made up my mind, that even after I finish training and am finally settled, that it’s going to be a long time before I buy a house again.

Oh, and it’s supposed to rain again tonight.

(more pics of the flood and Milwaukee can be found here)