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Life's little ups and downs....the downside tonight

Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 11:54 pm
by Wicked Stick
Got home after a long day of work, and went down cellar in the hopes of getting an hour or so worth of building done... BUT,

As I stepped down from the stairs and onto the floor, I discoverd about 1.5" worth of water over the entire cellar floor. :o :bang:

Needless to say, it appears the drain line to the sump pump apparently isn't burried deep enough in the ground out in the back yard and the outside temperatures being in the teens lately had finally frozen the sucker. Once the water built up on the floor, it tripped a breaker to the de-humidifier which was plugged into an extension cord lying on the cellar floor. :bang:

So I spent the next 3 hours by-passing the clogged drain pipe, cleaning out the sump pumps (a lot of iron build up) and pump out the water.
Once the water level was down, I had to pick up everything (luckily no airplane parts got wet), dry it off, and vacumn dry the rest of the floor.

So, needless to say, I did get to spend a few hours in the shop, but it wasn't quite the way I had planned. This summer I guess I should dig up the old drain pipe and bury it deeper than what the original owner did. :cry: For now, it's too damn cold to worry about it and I dont' really care that I'm pumping the water out on top of the lawn in back yard.. Heck, maybe I'll have enough ice for a skating rink back there now.

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 1:04 am
by 1:1_Scale
That sucks! I hope you don't have carpeting in your workplace right now :o

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 7:09 am
by JohnR
Sorry to hear that Dave. Glad to hear no airplane parts suffered though.

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 1:47 pm
by LooseNut
That too bad Dave, sorry to hear that. :(

Last year my heat pipes froze where they dropped through the floor, ran through the un-heated garage, and popped back up. That took a while to fix. :oops:

I think this winter stuff is just a bad idea. ... um, except for the skiing part :P

... well I guess it could have been worse ...
(luckily no airplane parts got wet)
:)

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 3:34 pm
by C-FPVT
I had much the same thing happen. I just live up the coast from you a bit. My footing drain got plugged with maple seeds and all the water during a thunder storm came in through the basement door. It makes you wonder why that sort of stuff has to happen to nice guys like us :bang: :x

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 4:22 pm
by captain_john
Dave, wow... that is a bummer!

That whole sump pump thing is just a nuisance! Combine it with these cold temps and it is a NIGHTMARE!

Glad to hear the plane is okay!

:) CJ

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 5:46 pm
by dons
Glad to hear no major RV parts damage, but it is still a real pain. I used to live where the basement got water every single time we got a heavy rain and strong wind from the south-west (big crack in the foundation right at the footings and every attempt to repair it failed). Cleaning up water in the basement is no fun at all.

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 6:07 pm
by Wicked Stick
Thanks for all the reply's. I did have to pick up a couple of small 2' X 4' reminant rugs and let them drip dry. I also had to pick up and wash all the rubber floor "puzzle" pieces on the shop side. Then I got the shop vac out and sucked up the rest.

I have two heaters and a dehumidifier running all day today and it's considerably better down there now... Last night it felt like a rain forest atmosphere.

My biggest worry is getting Mold build up.

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 10:30 pm
by jim_geo
Dave not to take anything away from your problem in your basement I thought you'd get a kick out of what happened here last year about this time. After not hearing the sump pump go on for a few days I went to put something away in our basement. OOP's Almost a foot of water had seeped into our basement during some unusually intense storms. At least we didn't have to pump it out in the rain.

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Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 11:26 pm
by svanarts
Don't take this wrong but all of a sudden, my bad week doesn't seem all that bad. Sorry to hear about your "water retention" problem. :)