2015
About 2 weeks before Christmas (great timing!) we got a ton of rain. Nope, not a pond, it's our neighbor's front yard. Love Iowa weather!
December 2015
Around 2 am I woke up and stepped in a puddle of water. I opened the bathroom door, water everywhere, same with the storage area. The carpeting was soaked. We started pushing water down the drain in the storage area, but it just kept coming back. We had to work quickly and get things up off the floor. We worked on this the whole night and through the next couple days non-stop.
We contacted a couple companies that clean up this kind of thing. #1-Several people had issues with water in their basements and it would be 4 days before they could come out. Anybody see Luther? That town was a mess! #2-We were told it would cost $3-$5,000.00 bucks. And that's just to clean it up, they don't rebuild. So Tony and I decided to do it all ourselves. In the picture above we were already in the process of taking out the carpeting.
It took us 2 days just to find out where the water was coming in at.
December 2015
We noticed that the water was coming up from under this bathroom wall, so I opened it up. Beautiful job, I know!
December 2015
This is a pit in the concrete that is under our tub and it was full of water. Now we knew that the water was coming in from under the house, but didn't know why. We have drain tile around our house that drains water away from the foundation down the hill out back. Water was coming out of that so we assumed it was working, and didn't understand why we had this water like this.
For a temporary solution, we bought this small pump from Ace Hardware. I think it's for a pond or fountain. We bought some tubing, attached it to the pump and ran it to the drain. Before I had this idea I was using a shopvac and pumping out 5 gallons of water at a time and it just kept coming back. I bet I did this 50 times in one day. There was so much water.
December 2015
We contacted a plumber to discuss possible remedies, but he said he wouldn't be able to do anything until the spring because the water table was too high. Fabulous!
We pumped water out like this for months.
December 2015
Before we started on the drywall we put up this plastic to keep dust out of the main floor.
December 2015
We rented a couple fans and a commercial carpet cleaner and tried to save what we could.
By the 3rd day everything had been too wet too long and we had to get it out. We took out all the carpet, padding and pulled up all the tack strips and nails. Those things are the worst!! And we removed all of the wood trim at the bottom of the walls. We had about 1,000 square feet finished down here, so there was a lot of work to do. We cut the carpeting in small sections making it easier for us to roll up and haul out. We used the carpet cleaner to pull out as much water as possible from the carpeting, but that stuff was still so heavy! We put everything in our garage until we could haul it to the landfill. Oh and by that time it was freezing and snowing! So much fun!
December 2015
Our bedroom, what a mess! I cried a lot though all this.
December 2015
Then I started on the drywall. I was exhausted at this point and was working alone. I just wanted to get this wet crap out as fast as I could. The only jigsaw I had was my Dad's. It's a million years old, seriously, there are caveman style drawings on the sides showing how to use it. Anyway, it had a broken blade and since it's so old it's hard to find new blades. So....I started kicking the walls (maybe taking out my frustrations at the same time here), sweeping up wet chunks and hauling it outside.
December 2015
December 2015
December 2015
We bought a new jigsaw with plenty of blades and went to work. We cut all the walls 2 feet up and removed the drywall and insulation. Then we just had to wait for everything to dry out completely. We kept commercial floor fans and a dehumidifier running non-stop for weeks. We also sprayed all the areas that had gotten wet with a bleach/water mixture and Lysol to make sure no mold or mildew would grow on any surface.
December 2015
There were also areas of pink padding from the carpeting that stayed glued to the floor, so we had to scrape all that off with putty knives. More fun!
December 2015
The kids all helped, except Troy, who had been dealing with respiratory stuff since Thanksgiving. I didn't want him down here with this mess. We removed all the drywall screws and saved them to reuse on the new drywall.
December 2015
December 2015
December 2015
I patched all the holes the stupid nails from the tack strips left.
December 2015
We noticed that water was also coming up through cracks in the floor. I bought some sealant and sealed all the cracks.
December 2015
Even though we were still getting water in that pit we were no longer having water come up in the rest of the basement. When you have something like this happen you think about the possibility of it happening again. Even the slightest amount of water can ruin things. That is what I thought about when we started rebuilding.
And 2 days before Christmas I still had shopping to do for the boys!! I was too busy with all this crap. The 23rd and 24th I was doing some serious shopping.
December 2015
December 2015
December 2015
December 2015
After two weeks of cleaning up the basement (Troy was still dealing with some respiratory issues and then we had a stomach bug going around) we decided to take a break and hit the beaches of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Alabama. We boarded Max in a fancy place called Ledges Farm Dog Camp. He needed a nice vacation too.
This was very much needed!
January 2016
By the end of January things were pretty dried out. Most of the work would have to wait, but I wanted to at least get some flooring down. I started with moving everything to one side of the room.
January 2016
I swept, vacuumed, and scrubbed the floor, then vacuumed again after the floor was dry. Then I applied a primer/sealer (made for masonry by zinseer) on the floor. Painting a floor is the easiest painting job ever.
I let it dry and.....
January 2016
I picked up these vinyl peel and stick planks at lowes. It's about 98 cents a square foot and super easy to install. And it's vinyl so it's waterproof! Our floor is uneven in places, but these went down really well. I did have some areas that popped back up but I just put a dab of superglue on the plank and stuck it back down.
January 2016
Each plank has and arrow on the back so you know which way to place it.
January 2016
To cut pieces all you do is score it with a blade and bend it at the score and it breaks easily. Once I had one side done I did the same for the other side.
January 2016
It seemed like the worst was over and we were starting to get things back to normal. And then our sweet little dog, Max, got hit by a car and we had to have him put down. Our spirits were already down, now our hearts were broken. And our life was starting to sound like a country song.
2016 wasn't going real well.
January 2016
As we continued to work on the basement we noticed a tiny crack in the wall. We didn't notice water coming in at that area, but wanted to seal every possible entry point. I bought this stuff. Love it!
January 2016
February & March 2016
Troy was still sick in February, even after using all the regular treatments and working with his pulmonologist we couldn't get him better. We had an appointment in Iowa City, but were also expecting a bad snow storm. Just our luck! So, Tony took him the night before and stayed the night there. And we did get that nasty storm. School was cancelled, snow was blowing everywhere, remember? Anyway, they gave him some new meds and finally by the end of February he was better.
While Tony was on his trip in Japan I started to put drywall back on the interior walls only. I was looking for an easy way to figure out where to cut the outlet holes. I found this way on a woodworking website and it has worked really well. No measuring or anything like that. I took an outlet cover, placed an outlet box on the back and traced around it. Then I placed a screw on each corner like so.
February & March 2016
February & March 2016
Then you simply place your piece of drywall up against the wall and press it into the outlet. Doing this creates indentations and now you have your template. Connect the dots with a drywall knife and wah-lah!
February & March 2016
I went with the green stuff, mold and mildew resistant. I also placed this about an inch off the floor. I chose carpet squares from HomeDepot for our bedroom. These are so awesome, peel and stick, padding included. Once they are down they look like one solid piece. I'll get a better picture once this is all done. It looks much better than this.
February & March 2016
Two steps forward, one step back. One night I found a sink running in a bathroom upstairs and water everywhere. The vanity was full of water, the drawers, the inside, water all over the floor. And it ran down into the basement onto the new drywall I had just replaced and on some of the carpet squares in our room. I had to take off the drywall, mop up the floors, pull up some carpet squares, get out the fans, dry everything out...................again. Not a single kid fessed up either. No snitches in this group.
March 2016
I painted all the walls with drylock. This is a waterproof/mildew resistant type paint for masonry. Expensive, I think I paid 30-35 bucks for a gallon, but it's good stuff.
March 2016
We finally got this pit pretty dry around February, but when all the snow melted and it rained in March it filled right back up. We started pumping water out again.
We contacted a plumber, this time we called Hall Plumbing to see about getting a sump pump. The plumber asked if we had drain tile around our house, which we do. He said if you have that, you don't need a sump pump (which is what we thought since we've never needed one before) and that something must be wrong with the tile. He said call a Jet company. He recommended JET Drain Service. (jetdrainiowa.com 515-231-9963)
April 2016
We called JET and talked with Jesse. He said it would either be tree roots or the tile was damaged. So he came out with his gear and in minutes knew what the problem was. He said about 12 feet from the end of the pipe the pipe had collapsed. He said we could either dig down ourselves and replace it or his crew could do it. He also said that the contractor that put this in used the wrong type of pipe, which is why it collapsed. Fantastic!
This all could have been avoided if the job was done correctly the first time! I was so mad at this point I grabbed a damn shovel and started working. The next day I continued to dig and found where it was collapsed.
April 2016
This was 12 feet long and at the deepest about 4 ft deep.
