In the simplest of terms, our basement had water in it last weekend. Simplest terms. The reality is that water was actually sewer back up and was 2+ feet deep. In our house. With our things. While we weren't home. But we're here. We're alive. And here's what we know now. Perhaps you want a refresher on our last adventure with water in our basement:
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A week ago we were in the Twin Cities for a weekend family gathering. We had just taken a nice pontoon ride around the lake (the dogs loved it) and were enjoying a campfire. My mom scrolled through Facebook at 10PM and saw that Des Moines had received a sizeable amount of rain. Sizeable amount here is 7-8 inches, depending on exact locations and source. Not only did we get that much rain, we got all of it in a matter of 30 minutes. I immediately checked my own Facebook, making a beeline for the neighborhood group I belong to. People were reporting anywhere from 2 inches to 4 feet of water in their basements. We were screwed and we knew it. We couldn't leave immediately. It was too dark to travel safely and we had enough to drink while enjoying the lake it wasn't safe to drive either. So we went to bed not knowing what the next day would hold.
Alarms started going off at 4:45AM we were out the door and headed home around 5:15AM. Did some serious Facebook checking, and it didn't look like we had any chance of a dry basement. We had no idea if we could even get to our house because there are some low spots of land that might still have standing water. We had driven to the Twin Cities separately so our solemn rides home on the interstate were relatively silent and left almost too much time for thinking. Cole arrived home first and I dropped our dogs off at his mom's house. We had no idea what condition our house would be in, but having dogs there didn't seem smart.
When I arrived back in our neighborhood, the majority of my street had people out and about. Relatives of neighbors were running around with extra hoses and shop vacs. Neighbors I had never met showed up in my kitchen to offer advice and try to help figure out how to get the water out of the basement. We tried a syphin but our hoses were not cooperating so that method became a lost cause pretty quickly. Our couches were floating in the water, our TV was fried, our bookshelves were warped, and books and DVDs we had worked hard to collect over the years were drifting around the room. We didn't know it yet, but we would need a whole new furnace, AC, water heater, and washer and dryer. (Who knew dryers weren't supposed to have standing water in them?!? It was almost surreal. For a short moment it felt like an out of body experience. We definitely each had a beer before 10AM and it wasn't like we were tailgating. Just trying to decide our plan.
For whatever reason, I remembered we had a submersible pump in our basement. I was pretty confident that is was on a shelf that didn't have water up to it. I waded through 2 feet of very brown, very gross, and very smelly water to find a soaked cardbox with a pump inside as my rainboots filled with liquid. I handed it to my neighbor Abby (who lives in the blue house, who I met 5 minutes before). Abby asked me how the pumped work. I responded quite matter of factly, " I don't know and the directions just floated away." Turns out all you have to do is attach a hose (or 3 to get us out to the street) to the pump, plug in an extension cord and you're good to go. Drained our basement in about 20 minutes. I get absolutely zero compensation for this, but anyone that owns a home should go buy a submersible pump if you don't own one already. It literally saved our lives.
After we had all the water (remember how it was brown and smelly?! Visual provided above!) out of our basement we were left with all of our soaked belongings destroyed and a layer of brown sludge covering everything in our basement. With the help of some family we managed to empty our basement of all our sewer laden goods. I took pictures of every last thing that left our basement for insurance purposes. It all went to the garage for the day until we got the all clear to move it to the curb for the City of Des Moines to pick up for free. My parents came to the rescue with an additional dehumidifier (2 is so much better than 1 here) and helped us wash and bleach the basement to decrease our chances of mold production.
Eventually the energy company came out and cut our gas line to the furnace and water heater for safety reasons. The last week has been hot, and no air conditioning to cool the house and no hot water for showers. Cole's mom was gracious enough to let us stay with her for a few days while we couldn't stay in our own house. We met several plumbers this week to pick a new furnace/AC/water heater and it gets installed this FRIDAY. I'm so excited for air conditioning and hot water again. We're bringing dinner to a friend's house tonight so we can use his hot water and shower. I'm not super fond of ice cold showers but I'm learning to tolerate them. We've been making due with a single room air conditioner so the dogs are comfortable during the day and we can sleep at night.
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5 Tips for Flooded Basements:
1. Make sure your homeowners' insurance has a sewer back up/sump pump failure rider policy. This will not come with the regular policy. It is totally worth the extra money to have it. So many people did not have that rider on their policy and had to pay for all their damage replacements out of pocket. We lucked out and had a pretty decent coverage plan, which meant we had little to worry about as we got our lives back together. Take pictures of anything destroyed. Once you throw it away it is impossible to prove that it was damaged in a disaster. Don't be afraid to take too many pictures. The insurance people will deal with it.
2. Own a submersible pump like I said above. https://www.menards.com/main/plumbing/pumps-well-tanks/sump-pumps/barracuda-reg-1-4-hp-thermoplastic-submersible-utility-pump/91250/p-1444428713624-c-1489153238832.htm?tid=-7986648483485010039&ipos=9
I'm not kidding around about this pump. Just go buy one and I'll stop pestering you.
3. Meet your neighbors before your basement floods. They will save your butt big time. It is nice to know their names before you ask them to trudge through sewer water for you.
4. Thank the people who carry your sh!t soaked personal goods out of your basement. (There was actual wet toilet paper in our basement.) God bless our own families for putting up with the crappy tasks (puns fully intended there) we assigned them and helping us out big time. We owe you. Maybe next month we can throw a big party or something ;)
5. It's all just stuff. We lost almost nothing that can't be replaced.
A flooded basement is the fastest way to feel 60 when you're 25. Everything can be replaced and we're quite comfortable with indoor temps around 78 degrees. We still have 4 walls on our house, we have our pets, we have our jobs, and we have our family and friends. We're doing alright.
The reality is we weren't that bad off. There has been an inordinate amount of laughter this week as we reflect on our housing mishaps and experiences. We are planning to make a photo album to commemorate this fun. You might think that 2+ feet of sewage water in your basement would be pretty bad but it wasn't compared to a lot of people. We didn't have 7 feet of water like some people we know. Our cars didn't stall and become so water damaged we have to replace them. Our neighbors were getting married in week and 7 months pregnant when their freshly finished basement was flooded with as much water as our own. Our wedding is next month and I have hardly thought of it in the last week because I have been so focused on basement things. I'm sure it will all work out.
My final piece of advice is: if you're couch is floating, you're probably in trouble but you'll make it out just fine.
