The Flood
Posted 06-24-2009 at 06:46 AM by The_Jazz
If I've seemed a bit distracted the last few days, it's because I have been.
I played golf out in the suburbs last Friday about 3 miles north of I-88 (Arrowhead South for those who are curious). Within 5 minutes of getting out of my car, the tornado sirens sounded (but were turned off pretty quickly). By the time our start time rolled around, they were running 30 minutes behind because of lightening delays. When our turn finally came up, we were on the tee box ready to hit when there was another delay for 45 minutes. We finally teed off but came back in after the 3rd hole and called it a day because of the storms. We never really got much rain, but just to the north the line of storms was ominous and scary.
As I was driving home, my wife called to tell me that we had water in the basement. The drain by the back stairs had some leaves in it I knew and that door opens on to tile, so I wasn't too worried.
When I got home, I discovered that water was bubbling up through a small crack in the tile and that I couldn't completely dry it since it was coming in so fast (about a pint a minute). I did the best I could, threw a towel over the crack and signed into work. As I sat in my home office I noticed that the roller pad my chair sits on was more opaque than the day before. I picked it up and discovered it was wet. A little more searching revealed that the carpet was slightly damp and that the back bedroom had completely soaked carpeting.
And that carpet was also sandy.
At this writing there is an employee of the small contractor that built our house tearing apart the wall. It appears that water came up through the foundation. The house sits on an old sand quarry, so water should be in almost freefall going down the wall.
It now appears that there is a gap between the floor of the basement and the foundation wall, about 1/2" that water pushed up through. It also looks like it got to about 12-14" above the floor behind the wall.
Wow. And I'm pretty sure that since I don't buy flood insurance (I live on top of a hill 1/4 mile from the nearest body of water), this isn't a covered claim.
I played golf out in the suburbs last Friday about 3 miles north of I-88 (Arrowhead South for those who are curious). Within 5 minutes of getting out of my car, the tornado sirens sounded (but were turned off pretty quickly). By the time our start time rolled around, they were running 30 minutes behind because of lightening delays. When our turn finally came up, we were on the tee box ready to hit when there was another delay for 45 minutes. We finally teed off but came back in after the 3rd hole and called it a day because of the storms. We never really got much rain, but just to the north the line of storms was ominous and scary.
As I was driving home, my wife called to tell me that we had water in the basement. The drain by the back stairs had some leaves in it I knew and that door opens on to tile, so I wasn't too worried.
When I got home, I discovered that water was bubbling up through a small crack in the tile and that I couldn't completely dry it since it was coming in so fast (about a pint a minute). I did the best I could, threw a towel over the crack and signed into work. As I sat in my home office I noticed that the roller pad my chair sits on was more opaque than the day before. I picked it up and discovered it was wet. A little more searching revealed that the carpet was slightly damp and that the back bedroom had completely soaked carpeting.
And that carpet was also sandy.
At this writing there is an employee of the small contractor that built our house tearing apart the wall. It appears that water came up through the foundation. The house sits on an old sand quarry, so water should be in almost freefall going down the wall.
It now appears that there is a gap between the floor of the basement and the foundation wall, about 1/2" that water pushed up through. It also looks like it got to about 12-14" above the floor behind the wall.
Wow. And I'm pretty sure that since I don't buy flood insurance (I live on top of a hill 1/4 mile from the nearest body of water), this isn't a covered claim.
Total Comments 4
Comments
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Now that's a mess. Yuck.
Good luck dealing with the aftermath.Posted 06-24-2009 at 06:57 AM by genuinegirly
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I know this is completely random... but is it true that golf is rough on your ankles?Posted 06-24-2009 at 09:07 AM by Plan9
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I have one ankle that's pretty much shot, and it doesn't give me trouble unless I walk a course. My back and shoulders have a tougher time of it, especially if I haven't stretched recently.Posted 06-24-2009 at 09:15 AM by The_Jazz
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That sucks, Jazz. Hope you get it all cleaned up!Posted 06-24-2009 at 09:16 AM by snowy 
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