Removing the Water from My Flooded Basement (Ugh!)

Removing Water from Flooded Basement

Imagine this.  You wake up in the morning and realize that the water is not getting hot for some reason.  You go down in the basement to check the water heater.  And….Crap! This is what you find in the basement.  Water everywhere! (Storming for 2 or more days in our area) You know it’s not a good sign if your empty clothes basket floats by you. (insert laughter) On top of that, your husband’s out of town. So yeah….you’ll be doing this yourself.  Not that I can’t do this, I don’t want to do this.  No, I can’t call someone to fix this problem because I can’t afford that.  So, it’s time to roll up my sleeve, or shall I say “Roll up my pants” and get to the bottom of this problem.  One question. Why does the water have to look brown?  How did I fix this?

We have a wet/vac machine but that would take entirely too long.

Items Needed: (This is one time where I don’t mind splurging a little.)

  • Utility Pump……Home Depot $83.28
  • Garden Hose Adapter…………..$  3.93
  • Galv Bushing……………………….$  3.17
  • Garden Gose
  • Rain Boots (optional)

Directions:

Removing Water from Flooded Basement

Locate the deepest level of the water in the basement.  I used a ruler to measure.  Place the utility pump in the water.

Removing Water from Flooded Basement

Using a garden hose from the outside, attach to utility pump. Plug in the utility pump.

Removing Water from Flooded Basement

The water will pump out into the yard.

Removing Water from Flooded Basement

We had a couple of running mats in the basement.  I used the wet vac to pull the water out of them.  When I had done most of the mats, I realized that I would have to throw them away.

Removing Water From Flooded Basement

After I cleared a lot of the water out.  I located the sump pump in the basement. This is the culprit of the flooding.  The sump pump we have was not strong enough to pump out all the water from the storm.  Will need to replace the pump on the inside of it.

Removing Water from Flooded Basement

One thing that I had not anticipated was that the hot water heater would not work any more.  Will have to have it replaced.  It got wet on the inside. My girls are learning the fine art of heating water on the stove to take a bath.  When I told them that the hot water heater was not working and that we didn’t have hot water, you should have seen them.  “How are we going to bath?” Duh! What was my response? “You’re going to bathe like we did when I was a little girl.  You’re going to heat the water on top of the stove. (They really need survival skills.)

Removing Water from Flooded Basement

After a couple of days, I finally got half of the basement cleaned out. Threw a lot of stuff away.  I am so happy that we did not have a finished basement.  If we had, that would definitely have been a horrible thing.  The floor was much easier to clean and mop since it was still concrete.  One lesson to learn: Make sure everything is in plastic bins when storing in the basement.

Removing Water from Flooded Basement

Wow! Almost done.  Just gotta finished the side with the washer/dryer and clean up under the staircase area.  This basements looks like I just moved into the house.  Plus, it smells so good!  The hubby mopped it when he got home and moved everything to the corner.

These are the additional parts that I bought to go with the utility pump.

Removing Water from Flooded Basement

You will need the garden hose adapter.

Removing Water from Flooded Basement

You will also need the Galv Bushing.  My packages are empty because the nice gentlemen in Home Depot attached everything for me.  Don’t you just love when you go in Home Depot and the people are so helpful.  Well, another crisis solved….

 

Comments

  1. There was a flooding incident in our town the other day which caused damage to my basement; therefore, I’m currently looking for a water damage restoration service. I’m glad you shared this; next time I’ll make sure to have a sump pump, so the water will be absorbed immediately. I’d also keep in mind to store the items in the basement in plastic bins.

  2. Oh wow…that looks like a terrible job that you had to do! Looks like you handled it well though.

  3. I want to prefer that for all. Grateful!! Best course

  4. Teaching with very clear language, supporting knowledge with good exercises.

  5. Thanks for sharing this valuable trick.

  6. I like that you mentioned that the sump pump was the main culprit for the flooding in your basement. It is unfortunate for your family to get rid of the important things in your basement. We will need an expert in water damage restoration services since we got affected by the flooding as well.

  7. Great information…
    Your article is very helpful. I’ve benefited from the post. This is unique content. Thanks for sharing the valuable blog!!!

  8. This is ‘ugh’ indeed! But you did great.

  9. I am also in the same situation. I was outside for the 15 days and when I came back I checked the house and basement.my whole basement in flooded water and all the stuff damage because of the water. Today I am going to market and buy all the suggested things to remove water from the house. I also need to mold remove because of water storage in the basement mold came in the house. I hope I will remove water easily from the basement.

  10. It was really insightful.
    Thanks for such a nice content.
    Cheers
    BTW if anyone interested more have a look batterymodeon.com thanks

  11. We should look at the quality of the best tankless water heater. Choosing the right one will save us from any such problems. You did a lot of work.

  12. Thanks for sharing this post. I am very interested in this topic. I would like to share my opinion on this topic. Take that guide away, and kick him out of the home once in a while to get him acclimatized to his atmosphere. Afterward when he has laser eye surgical procedure or strikes to contact lenses, his want for near-sighted footwear will disappear.

  13. Such a great post!! About 6 months ago, I bought an electric tankless water heater. But, 15 days ago I faced some problem. Banging noises were coming from my water heater. What should I do now? Have a nice day!!

  14. hey Sharon, I like your technique, the way you removed water from the basement to the garden is awesome. thanks for sharing your experience.

  15. I like your tip about finding the deepest point of the water in your basement and placing the pump there. I didn’t realize that you could use a standard garden hose to pump the water through. Finding a qualified home restoration expert might be the best way to getting your home back to the way it was. I’m sure in addition to things like removing the water, they’d be able to repair flooring, drywall, and mold issues too.

  16. Your idea of drawing water from the basement to the garden area is fabulous. This technique does not cost much and is really helpful. Thanks for sharing this idea.

  17. Hey 🙂

    Nice Post.

    Thanks for sharing this useful post. This really gonna help people who are into plantation.

  18. To safely remove the water from your basement makes sure the water outside your home has receded. Use a pump or other equipment help to remove the water from your basement. Thanks for sharing.

  19. Hey Sharon,

    This is the best way to remove the water from the flooded basement. Thanks for sharing this!
    I might try it in the future.

    Cheers,
    Oliver

  20. Thanks for sharing your experience with removing water from your basement. I just moved into a house with a history of flooding. So, I want to get all of the information that I can. I like how you used your vacuum to pull the water out of the mats. I’ll use that if my house ever gets flooded!

    Hey Sharon,

    Thank you ever so much for being so open, honest and above all detailed in explaining how you managed removing water from your home’s flooded basedment!

    I live in a flood risk area myself (Wirral) as do most of the people whom I work with on a day to day basis and this is a brilliant workaround to the traditional submersible water pump approach

    Please do let me know when you write more about this (can’t find an option to subscribe!)

  21. Thanks for sharing your experience with removing water from your basement. I just moved into a house with a history of flooding. So, I want to get all of the information that I can. I like how you used your vacuum to pull the water out of the mats. I’ll use that if my house ever gets flooded!

  22. So, so sorry….before we moved here to Brazil, we lived in WA state. The city we lived in flooded our basement with the sewage line….It was just horrible….They had to pay to fix it but I have such empathy for anyone who goes thru a flood..it is awful to clean up…

    • It definitely is…but we made it through. Plus, it gave us or made us clean out everything that we definitely didn’t need that was stored in the basement.

  23. Oh no. Poor you. I would have just moved out and ordered Oh to come back and deal with it. Well done you though.

    • Hi Bintu! That definitely sounds less stressful than actually having to clean up that horrible water everywhere. I let the hubby mop and stack everything back when he came back in town.

  24. Sharon,

    Wow, wow, wow! You certainly took the bull by the horns on this one! Woman power! :-D. Firstly, you did an amazing job just taking care of the flood, but you also get bonus points by turning it into a really helpful post. I’m not really sure that I would have known what to do. You might save a lot of people a lot of frustration with all of this information. Thanks again for sharing, I hope you have a wonderful mother’s day!

    All the best,
    Laura

  25. Oh, no! Glad you were able to take care of the problem.

  26. Great post, this happened to us, fortunately I caught it before the water escaped from the boiler room and into our carpeted finished portion of the basement. As in my post on Saturday, “you never own a house,,,the house owns you!”

    • Hi Antionette. That is so true about the house owning you. I wish I had come down stairs earlier. I probably could’ve adjusted the pump in the sump pump so that the water had gone out. Thank goodness we did not have a finished basement.

  27. Wow! It’s good to know their was a pretty inexpensive fix for your flooded basement. Whenever, we have to our water heater we would like to get a tankless one.

  28. UGH!!! We used to have a sump pump and our basement flooded 3x!!! Sorry you had to deal with that – never fun.

    • Hi Kim. Are you using something besides the sump pump? Finally, finished cleaning everything out and so happy to know that I don’t have to replace the hot water heater. So happy….

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