Hi all
We have a split level house. Under the main floor is a crawlspace and there is also a basement that is half underground. There are stairs outside that lead down to the laundry room and the finished basement. When it is raining really hard, water collects at the bottom of the stairs and the stairwell fills up. When this happens water will leak through the door into my laundry room. There the water goes into the floor drain which empties into the sump pump well and when the sump pump well is full the pump kicks in.
It worries me that there is water leaking into the basement. I feel that the water will eventually rot the door frame and the door to the laundry. I think the problem may be that the water on the patio puddles and when it is a certain height it just flows down the stairwell, faster than the drain at the bottom can handle. I would like to get someone in to look at it, but I'm not quite sure if I need a general contractor, a landscape contractor or a drainage specialist (does that even exist?).
My husband thinks the whole thing is not a big deal. He says that when it rains heavily everyone has problems. We live in the NW suburbs of Chicago and I do think that water problems is a major issue for many homeowner. However, I'm not used to this kind of stuff and it totally stresses me out. Last night another factor came into the equation. We had a power outage that lasted all night. Thankfully the rain stopped, but I was so worried about what could have happened without the sump pumps working due to power failure. Here are my questions:
1. Any idea what kind of company I could contact to look at the drainage problem outside - maybe even a referral?
2. Is it really normal to have water problems and having to worry about the basement every time it rains really hard? Is that part of life in the Midwest?
3. Do you have battery back up for your sump pump? How long does the battery last? Does anyone have a gas generator. Is that a good option for the sump pumps? When you have battery back up, do you have to be there to connect it or is it attached and goes to battery automatically when power is out (I'm worried for when we are not home).
Any comments and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
If you want a professional opinion, just call a plumber. This is exactly what they deal with. We have a sump that has caused us several problems over the years, so now we have a back-up that works on the flow of water in case of a power failure. No need for generators or batteries.
Most sump pumps do have a battery back up that is built in. Our house uses a sump pump and we've never had water in our basement, ever, so I don't think it's part of living in the midwest... My husband does check it every once in a while to be sure the battery is still good. (It's a light that he can see that indicates the battery is still good.)
I agree to ask a pro, but I've also heard that sometimes, the landscaping around your house can be a problem, such as how the earth around your house is sloping, etc. I would ask a plumber first, then see if he recommends a landscape guy.
This must be so stressful for you! I'm sorry that you are going through this, but I'd get a professional opinion about your house. Good luck.
Not everyone in the midwest will have flooding issues. I grew up in Chicago and remember maybe 2 times, the worst flood was actually when the hot water tank broke and poured water out. I now live in the west burbs and luckily the only water we get is heavy rain and the cement floor and stairs get moist (yuck). I know people with sump pumps and they do not have any back up power but worth looking into just because you have one. If the issue with flooding is drainage from outside, you might get your husband to take it more seriously by telling him it could affect the resale value of your home. Flooding from water that is coming up through the sewer or because we got a ton of rain really cannot be controlled unfortunately. But when you can change the slant of the ground so the water goes away from your home, you should do something about it. You have to disclose that the home floods when selling. A buyer might not want to have to deal with it. A landscape contractor might be the person to speak to, not a landscape gardener. They can assess the problem and let you know if it can be fixed and how much it would cost.
We also have a split level house and we had the same problem when we moved into our current house. We ended up clearing out the drain (it collects leaves like crazy in the fall...) and installing a new door. The old one was wood, and was allowing water to come in under it. We put in a door jam on the bottom and used industrial strength glue/caulking to set in in place (on top of the cement) and installed a new outside door that is steel and has a good rubber seal on the bottom. We must have done this over 12 years ago, and I have to say that it's the best doorway in our house. No more water coming in from the other side of the door, even when we have water pooled in the area that is several inches deep.
I wish I could be more specific, but I remember having to special order the door because of the small size, but it was worth it, and not that expensive at all.
M.
We had Parks Plumbing come in, and they installed the battery back-up, which worked wonders. We also had the same issue as you do, with rain leaking into our basement through a door. We had a concrete person come in an raise up the walkway leading to our basement, making sure that the concrete tilted away from the house. That made an unbelievably huge difference when it rained hard, thank goodness. Given the huge amount of rain which we almost always seem to get in the Chicago area, I would start making some calls to fix the problem and give you piece of mind when it's 2 AM and the flash flood warning has just begun.
