basement help

[Ralph D]

Hey every one, I need some advice. I have a finished basement and Irene had some fun with my basement. i don't live in a flood zone I actually live on the down slope of the street so getting flood ins, is impossible. I got about 5 inches of water in my basement. the water raised up and through the basement floor not through the walls of my basement. I have two problems I need advice with, the first one is, once I shop Vac the water out of the house and the floor started to dry yesterday, I noticed lots of green coloring in the cement. Now last night and today there is a heavy smell almost like "rose tone" type of spell. For those of you that don't have rose gardens rose tone is a fertilizer/ food topical treatment that you put on roses. Another words, I've got a really bad poop smell in my basement now. I have checked with my landscaper and about a week ago He put down his end of the summer fertilizers. So I am pretty sure the green stains coming up from the floor are from that and he (my landscaper)thinks so too. My bigger concern is the smell. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can use to get that smell out.

Second question is, I'd like to talk to somebody about proper irrigation around my house to try and keep excess water from coming into the house, does anybody in our community do this for a living or know anything about it. My front yard is already pitched downwards away from my house and the one side of my house where most of the flooding happens is also pitched away from the house. I don't know if it would be as a simple as putting one of those French drains in. has anyone had a deal with anything like this before? At this point it's just a mess, I've had to rip up all the rugs in my finished basement. had to get rid of the padding underneath it, and in the middle of all this. The smell is happened. I tried the shampoo the rugs, cleaned the floor. Nothing is working. The smell was so bad you can't even go down into the basement and when you open the basement door it hits you in the face like a ton of bricks.

thanks everyone.

[David Rise]

Just a thought. Pour some bleach in a bucket (like 4 cups), fill the bucket the rest of the way up with water. Spread it around with a mop. Should get rid of the green stuff within a day, and the smell should follow.
Be sure it's well ventilated and use a couple of fans to keep the air moving.

[Guest Don Gillespie]

David Rise wrote:

Just a thought. Pour some bleach in a bucket (like 4 cups), fill the bucket the rest of the way up with water. Spread it around with a mop. Should get rid of the green stuff within a day, and the smell should follow.
Be sure it's well ventilated and use a couple of fans to keep the air moving.

I'll say open windows if you are going to go this route

Question 1 do you have a sump pump

Question 2 do you have weeping tile around your house

if the answer to any of those are no then you might want to look into both of them and the third thing you can get is a back up protector for your floor drain when the water starts to rise it closes itself off not allowing water to come up through the hole and into your basement.

[BrownOut]

I am a professional! Do what???

[Ralph D]

thanks everyone. don, no I do not have a sump pump and no i dont have weeping tile. but thanks for your help. im cleaning the floor again and ripping out the rug and ill be dont by thursday. i hope.

[Mwhite7097]

I was in the same boat as you. The padding under the carpet locks moisture in and the mold and mildew forms (and smells) quickly. It should be removed. If your house is old and you don't have footing drains around your foundation, I would suggest them. It requires digging around your house but then you can tie in your gutters to help remove water away from the house. My house floods about once every 2-3 years so I installed indoor/outdoor carpeting with no padding. The shopvac can suck the water thru the carpet fairly easily. I also have 5 pumps standing by when any chance of flooding in possible.

[Dave Batzdorf]

I had a similar problem here. During the Mother's Day floods up here we had ground water coming up thru the cracks and along the foundation. I do have decent drainage but the ground water table was just so high it had to go some where. Last year the wifey and I were fed up and we called Basement Technologies and they installed an inside perimeter drainage system in that part of the basement, about 50 linear feet or so. Basically that corner of the basement, luckily it was my shop (well sort of lucky). Anyway they installed the system into a sealed sump and no more issues. Something to think about.

[CKSedg]

I installed a perimeter draining system about 25 years ago. The perforated pipe runs under the floor---inside the footings of the basement---all the way around the house. It is channeled to a sump pit where I have a sump pump. It pumps for about 20 seconds every ten minutes or so. LOTS of ground water.

Once the sump pump failed because the power went out for many hours. Afterwards I installed a "WatchDog" backup pump. It is operated from an RV battery. The charging system keeps it ready to go at all times. It will give about five days of pumping with no external power. I "exercise" the backup pump once a month to assure it is running well.

Without this I would have a swimming pool in the basement!

[Dave Batzdorf]

CKSedg wrote:

I installed a perimeter draining system about 25 years ago. The perforated pipe runs under the floor---inside the footings of the basement---all the way around the house. It is channeled to a sump pit where I have a sump pump. It pumps for about 20 seconds every ten minutes or so. LOTS of ground water.

Once the sump pump failed because the power went out for many hours. Afterwards I installed a "WatchDog" backup pump. It is operated from an RV battery. The charging system keeps it ready to go at all times. It will give about five days of pumping with no external power. I "exercise" the backup pump once a month to assure it is running well.

Without this I would have a swimming pool in the basement!

I dont have the battery pump, but i do have a generator.

[Mwhite7097]

Dave Batzdorf wrote:

I had a similar problem here. During the Mother's Day floods up here we had ground water coming up thru the cracks and along the foundation. I do have decent drainage but the ground water table was just so high it had to go some where. Last year the wifey and I were fed up and we called Basement Technologies and they installed an inside perimeter drainage system in that part of the basement, about 50 linear feet or so. Basically that corner of the basement, luckily it was my shop (well sort of lucky). Anyway they installed the system into a sealed sump and no more issues. Something to think about.

Dave, can you give me an idea about how much that ran you? The water table is high here also. If it rains more than 6" in a few days, we flood. The water comes up around the perimeter of the entire basement. The basement is 2600 square feet, so it may be too costly for a fix. (especially with the price of LEDs these days).

[Dave Batzdorf]

Let me check my records at home and get back to ya.

[KStatefan]

Why is flood insurance impossible?

I was in a flood zone when the maps were redrawn. I was able to remove my house from the flood zone. Prior to removal flood ins was going to be $3600 per year after $300.

[steve synek]

As a Building inspector here in Ohio, I have made the following observations. There is no simple answer to remedy basement flooding. As a general overview, and this is general and not in every circumstance, the standard means of storm water removal becomes over burdened because of a storm. There is no place for the water to flow. If you add something like an interior system, make sure it has an outlet to flow away from your house on the surface of the land. If the storm piping around your house is full,and most likely is because your taking on water, you could be recirculating the same water. If the power goes off, you could, could be running a pump consistently and the battery power will be gone quickly. Storms and extended power outages could be a major problem. A generator would be the preferred method of back up power. Adding a back up system might seem like a great idea, but think about it, at the time the existing system is backing up, the water is going to flow through that back up system freely into your house. You must be prepared to pump it out. As preventive measures, make sure your downspouts are connected to an operational storm sewer. If they dump on the ground, get them to dump away from the foundation. Today's building code in Ohio, requires the ground to slope 6 inches in the first 10 ft away from the house. I think this is a national standard. If water is backing up through floor drains, I would investigate back flow devices.

Best advice-Buy a house on top of the hill.

On a Christmas lighting note: Don't stand in the water and test your lights!!!!!:cool:

Steve