Out for a few more days

[gattaca]

Amir, depending on what you learn on the infiltration, you may need something like this installed around the exterior to relieve the hydrostatic pressures on the walls and act as a drainage plane against those walls. The older "french drains" solutions may not ideal or up to the tasks and most certainly do not counter the hydrostatic pressures. Some drainage solutions also go inside on the interior vertical planes.

Given the infiltration rate you've shared, any retrofit solution should be sized properly by an engineer.

Disclosure: I have no affiliation with AWD. I have used and recommended their products in the past.

https://www.awd-usa.com/drainage-applications/residential-basements

+++ thoughts your way!

 

[ToriCatcher]

Got the first nonstop rain and after 24 hours basement fully flooded again. Started to rip out walls. No clue yet but it is nice to see the river by the foundation. Now need to figure out the ingres point while making sure house doesn't float away! Won't be around much until I get to bottom of this....

Oh no

 

[respice finem]

I don't like to sound pessimistic, but at some point it might be considerable to move to a less "prone" location.
Or ist the whole area similar? All this, apart from the stress, costs a fortune, and may not last too long...

 

[simbloke]

Got the first nonstop rain and after 24 hours basement fully flooded again. Started to rip out walls. No clue yet but it is nice to see the river by the foundation. Now need to figure out the ingres point while making sure house doesn't float away! Won't be around much until I get to bottom of this....

Really sorry to hear this is still ongoing. Hope your wife is getting better. Best wishes to you both.

 

[Pdxwayne]

Got the first nonstop rain and after 24 hours basement fully flooded again. Started to rip out walls. No clue yet but it is nice to see the river by the foundation. Now need to figure out the ingres point while making sure house doesn't float away! Won't be around much until I get to bottom of this....

I thought about you when my local news said several inches of rain expected this week for Portland metro area and showing the rain pattern for PNW....Hope you can get to the bottom of this and fix it once and for all!

 

[tmtomh]

Yes, very sorry to hear - so frustrating. I hope the new work you are doing leads to a permanent solution. Best of luck!

 

[ayane]

Got the first nonstop rain and after 24 hours basement fully flooded again. Started to rip out walls. No clue yet but it is nice to see the river by the foundation. Now need to figure out the ingres point while making sure house doesn't float away! Won't be around much until I get to bottom of this....

Oh dear, not again!

Please be safe, and I hope you find a solution!

 

[voodooless]

That water stuff is as petulant as a pack of audiophiles... It seeps through the tiniest cracks and gorges on your hard-earned money

Take care, be safe!

 

[DonH56]

Good grief that is horrible! Hope you can find and fix the root cause quickly.

 

[antennaguru]

Sorry to hear this, and especially knowing that you're on your own without professionals to help! The only thing I can say is the sump pit with the floating slab basement cured this for us in one of our previous houses that had an active underground spring - in the Spring season. I sincerely wish you success in correcting your basement water problem.

 

[rman9]

Hello you all. You probably noticed I have been away from the forum a few days. Last Thursday the finished lower floor of our house which is below grade developed a leak. This quickly became a massive flood, overwhelming our efforts to keep it at bay. To make matters worse, near midnight, my wife slipped on the wet stairs and badly injured her back side and elbow. So we spent the next day at the hospital and thankfully, nothing was broken but she has been in serious pain (but getting better). We had two days of dry weather which gave us a chance to repack things of value but then the rain came and multiple flooding with it. We would spend 12 to 16 hours pumping and drying out the floor, only to get fully overwhelmed in a matter of hours.

I have bought every pump and gadget you can think of but none of them are effective with shallow flooding of quarter of an inch of water (seeping through the walls). Actually it has been so bad that in the time it takes me to go to the hardware store to buy the next thing, the house been flooding completely again! No restoration company would come to dry the house because the leak is still there. So stuck doing it all ourselves.

My builder called a crew with excavators and such over the weekend and they showed up Monday, only to make it worse and leave. So last two days has been more rounds of hell. I was drying and pumping the house for nearly 20 hours straight last nigh as the non-stop rain caused it to flood again and again! A more competent crew is here and is building a much more extensive water management system. Hopefully they get it done and it works.

Getting help of course in this environment is next to impossible. Had a great handyman I had used on other projects but he wouldn't come over to help either.

Anyway, starting tomorrow it is supposed to dry out for a few days so maybe this insanity will be over by the weekend.

I have only been able to drop in the forum for a minute or two per day. Just so much to do.

So sorry to hear of all the flooding issues Amir, living in the northwest I know the nightmare of it. I had to deal with flooding beginning of this year, when multiple atmospheric river events slammed us back to back. I had the old french drains replaced at both the top and the bottom of the hill right after and I am holding my breath to see how I get through today and the next couple of days.. Good luck

 

[dpturner]

damn atmospheric river! hang in there Amir!

 

[Robbo99999]

I don't like to sound pessimistic, but at some point it might be considerable to move to a less "prone" location.
Or ist the whole area similar? All this, apart from the stress, costs a fortune, and may not last too long...

Yeah, sounds super stressful, especially as it seems he is having to do it on his own after not being able to rely on professionals (for whatever the reason was), if I remember rightly. Does sound very stressful, I'm (only) in my forties and think I would find the physical & mental part of it stressful.
EDIT: well there's worse things happening in the world, so there's stress and then there's STRESS.

 

[rman9]

Yeah, sounds super stressful, especially as it seems he is having to do it on his own after not being able to rely on professionals (for whatever the reason was), if I remember rightly. Does sound very stressful, I'm (only) in my forties and think I would find the physical & mental part of it stressful.
EDIT: well there's worse things happening in the world, so there's stress and then there's STRESS.

The physical and mental part of the stress is a horrible combination. As the water kept coming into the utility room, I was using this industrial strength wet/dry vac with a garden hose connected to it, so I syphon the water out to the street. I was doing this every 10 minutes non-stop for a little over 11 hours..so that the water doesn't get into the bedroom and subsequently into the room where all the audio gear is. I was literally reaching up to the heavens to my mom's spirit hoping to influence the weather event.. it sounds silly, but it was desperation.. And the next day the contractor showed up with his crew and started to dig up the old trench out and laid the new drench while it was still pouring.. I'll never forget his timely help.. In this last round of rain yesterday, there was a little bit of water in the garage but nothing major.. So I am relived.. Hope Amir get's his problem fixed soon..

 

[Thomas_A]

What a mess! Hope for some dry period soon so you can have some break.

 

[Doodski]

What a mess! Hope for some dry period soon so you can have some break.

I don't want to be a stick in the mud although Amir lives in a rainforest sort of region with lots of rain at this time of the year. If he gets away with little to no rain he is very fortunate.

 

[Thomas_A]

I don't want to be a stick in the mud although Amir lives in a rainforest sort of region with lots of rain at this time of the year. If he gets away with little to no rain he is very fortunate.

Yes, I know the area and that it is very rainy. But I still wish there would be some break for some time.

 

[Doodski]

Yes, I know the area and that it is very rainy. But I still wish there would be some break for some time.

I remember flying in and out of Seattle one rainy day. I was scared the jet engines would drown...lol It was W E T de jour!

 

[Holmz]

What a mess! Hope for some dry period soon so you can have some break.

I am not a climate change denier, but I doubt that the PNW is going to become a desert in a week.
(It is sort of renowned for rain fall.)

 

[antennaguru]

I have been to Seattle numerous times, and it rained every day I was there. Locals I met with said that it rains at least 80%, and more like 90% of the days. Clearly many people don't mind mostly rainy weather as the area is so popular.

What I was unable to get my head around was why there are big "tent cities" of homeless people living outdoors in such a rainy area. I just can't grasp why they squat in a mostly rainy area and wouldn't migrate a little further down the coast to the People Republic of California, where the weather is milder, dry, and living on the street would appear to be more pleasant - plus the government handouts seem more generous...