| Author | Message | ||
     Ratbuell |
Man, when it rains, it pours (quite literally, unfortunately). First, I get canned on 3/1. In retrospect, a good thing..but still no income at the moment. Then, I prepare to ride my Uly to Daytona for the 200...and break a belt a half mile from home, heading out to run a couple errands before leaving. Still went, but trucked my S2 down to my folks' place and rode from there. Today, I'm at a job interview/audition of sorts - in a past life I did concert production (lighting, rigging, sound)...and I got an offer to come check out a company at a gig today. No money, no responsibility, just a chance to see how they worked, they could see how lost I was (after ten years out of The Biz, I was pretty LOST on the advances in gear - theory is the same, but the gear is WAAAAY more advanced than I remember. I used to work with ANALOG!). Things are going well, I spend some time talking with the owner, she and I seem to see eye to eye and all is good...till my wife calls and tells me there's four inches of water in the basement and she can't seem to get the sump pump to work. And I'm an hour away from home. Now, this is not unheard of. We live in a split foyer, the basement has full windows and is only half below-grade. Catch is...it's finished. Home theatre, full bath, master bedroom, laundry room. I have flood insurance, I have a sump pump, and I have a battery backup sump. We're in a wet area, this I know. I was NOT, however, prepared for record rainfall in our area which I suspect caused the City to open the dam on the watershed above our house. The pumps just couldn't keep up. My neighbor (who also thinks the dam was opened; he's been here nearly 30 years and has never seen anything like this) brought his spare over, and teamed-up, they finally got the basement emptied. It's been shop-vac'd and is drying now with the heat on (thank god I put in TILE instead of wood or carpet when I finished it years ago). But...I'm ready to go postal on the City. For the amount of water, and how nearly-immediately it receded....opening that dam is the only thing I can think of. Literally, my yard was knee deep with water (and I have a 34" inseam - knee deep is DEEP)...and less than half an hour later, it was ankle high. It wasn't even ankle high when I left at 11am, and Kim called me at 4:30, flooded. F it. I'll let the insurance company go after the City. Sorry. Had to vent. And, facebook keeps tossing me an "authentication error" when I try to post there. So...badweb gets stuck with my rant  | ||
| Oddball |
Damn. Get a dehumidifier in there as well. You'll have to watch for mold growth. My brother is supposed to come by tomorrow. I'll ask him if for any advice. Likely best to replace all the bottom panels to get rid of the water damaged areas. (Message edited by Oddball on March 14, 2010) | ||
| Ratbuell |
Ya. Depending on what the ins. co. says, might be trading the bottom sections of drywall for beadboard/wainscot. And a chair-rail. Floods again? Unscrew, trash, replace, repaint. Grrrrr. Bright side is, out of work means I have PLENTY OF TIME TO DO IT. wheeeee.  | ||
| Etennuly |
So?  You have a little problem with the city and a water clean up issue. Ya don't have a job. And you had to tote the S2.  You have a great wife who let you go to have a cool weekend in Daytona. Ya got to spend some time with your parents. And your leg is working quite well after your last surgery. There is no way you can be late for work. You have no job stress, and income tax won't even be an issue for this time period.  You seem a little tense Joe.  Mark your calendar for April 23rd through the 25th. We will try to help with your stress relief.  | ||
| Nevrenuf |
what ever you do next time joe, find and do stuff that would make it as tight as a swimming pool. plenty of caulk and if you do go back with drywall, get the mildew resistant stuff and use a good semigloss or better paint to seal it. years ago, we used a colored plastic panel for wainscot and don't use wood for the base board. just something to think about. | ||
| Fung |
Hang in their! It will all work out. | ||
| Kim_g |
Vern - You forgot to add that he got to spend time with some great buellers I like the way you think! I've got a race that weekend, so he's all yours. | ||
| Paint_shaker |
Joe... Nothing like a Buell ride to take yer mind off that stuff! | ||
| Etennuly |
Awesome!  We'll take him! | ||
| Ratbuell |
Oh, it wasn't water through the walls. It all came up through the sump pit, which is attached to the french drain. Windows, doors, and walls themselves - nice and watertight. Strictly percolation - but if we didn't have the sump pit, I guess the house would just up and float Toe molding is vinyl already. I think. If not, it's the cheap 4" rounded-top stuff, easy replacement. Drywall is greenboard for the bottom 4 feet. Studs are PT. Wiring is no lower than 18" off the deck. I finished it myself, knowing full well it'd probably get wet. Good points all, Vern. We're all (me, Kim, and the dogs) safe and un-hurt. Stuff, we can replace. They say things happen in threes....guess (hope!) this is the third for this round. Now to just get that damned Uly back so I can ride something guilt-free in all this crappy weather! | ||
| Tbolt_pilot |
Joe, Sorry to hear about the job dude. Guess I won't stop in there now. Go after the city. Let them know what they are doing to people when they open that dam. Take dam pictures, ask dam questions, approach the dam officials, let your dam complaints be heard. My half sunk basement did the same thing a year or two ago. I'm half a mile from the bay and 6" of water cam up within an hour because the float switch hung up on the side of the pit. I waded through the water, looked in the pit thinkin "WTF?". I smacked the riser pipe out of frustration and the float frees itself and the pump goes crazy. 20 mins and the water is all outside again. But it's too late, everything is wet. But it was a blessing and a curse. Ripping up wet carpet I was going to replace anyway, found bigger problems lurking from three previous half-ass 'waterproofing' jobs before. So it's still gutted and I'm slowly getting it built back in and adding about 200 more sq feet of finished area. I hired Basement Waterproofing Inc to do the perimeter drains and new pit with backup pumps like you have. They also did bentonite all the way around. And the 2 days they worked, it rained about 3" each day and I actually saw the system start to work as it went in. All dry since then. I'm going with tile now too. | ||
| Kim_g |
so I just got off the phone with the insurance adjuster who 1) can't come until Friday (almost a week after the basement floods) and 2) tells me that our damage may not be covered due to sump pump failure. Well... the pump didn't fail it couldn't keep up. Our entire 2 acres was under water anywhere from 3 inches to 12 inches and he's thinking they may deny our claim? Oh, and then he tells me that we must get a water extraction company out here regardless of whether they are paying for it!!! Anyone out there that works in insurance I'd love to hear from ya! | ||
| Tbolt_pilot |
Now I bet they will try and say that you live in a flood plain and your flood coverage is void or some other such nonsense. My pump did, in fact, fail(kinda) and I wasn't covered. But yours is a bonafide flood. I'm no insurance guy but maybe get ahead of them and make sure the size of pump is rated for your sq footage and things like that. Be able to pour a couple of buckets of water in the pit to show them that it is functioning properly. Be ready to disprove any excuse they come up with. Is there still any evidence of how high the water was outside and inside? Like the bathtub ring-like stains on stuff and washed away soil? If the water was knee deep on Joe then that IS a flood. Good luck! | ||
| Kim_g |
There is still evidence from the amount of water. Our neighbor can talk to them too he was here helping. We actually do have flood insurance because FEMA put us back in the flood plain last year. I have to call insurance company tomorrow to get a copy of policy can't seem to get my hands on our copy here. Hopefully that will shed some light... | ||
| Terp_bueller |
Rat, Sorry to hear about your house and employment. Start a Buell mod, repair and accessory shop. Tbolt, We should ride, soon. I would love to see the bike, again | ||
| Etennuly |
We should ride, soon. I would love to see the bike, again You cannot be talking about his Uly!  Wow, sorry to hear about having to fight your own insurance company. That sucks. Flood insurance.....probably had better odds of a payoff in Vegas! Hell of it is, you were likely 'forced' to buy it because of the flood plain!? What if you called your mortgage holder(the one who could make you buy flood coverage)to let them know the insurance coverage they make you buy, is trying to get out of paying? | ||
| Tom_b |
Sorry to hear about your basement. I deal with this sort of thing all the time. Sump pumps are rated by GPH. I've seen this many times where the pump is just too small. Have a plumber come out check your pump and give a written evaluation of that pump works and didn't fail, was just overwhelmed by the amount of water. Have done this for people and gotten their insurance denials reversed. Was yours the only house flooded? If several were flooded, contact all of them and band together to fight the insurrance companies. It could have been worse. could have been raw sewage backing up thru the city main . Have seen that before.. Now THAT is nasty. I would suggest getting rid of your battery back up and installing a water source back up. | ||
| Ratbuell |
We've never had a problem with the pump not keeping up. I have to pull the paperwork, but it's the largest GPM (edit: GPH, not GPM...whoops) I could find when I bought it years ago, I want to say 3700 or 4000-something. The problem came - this is gonna require mental imaging - when this happened... - split foyer house, basement about 4' below grade. - rear walkout, into a "pit" - concrete basin with stairs up to grade, about 8'x12' by the 4' deep. It's under our deck and does NOT receive rain from the sky, the underside of the deck is a roof. - Top of the pit is about four inches(ish) above grade; coming out of the pit you have to take one step up too many, then step back down to grass. The pumps can keep up fine with what's entering through the french drain / sump pit. It's got a pair of 1.5" pipes and a 4" pipe routing water into it, the pump can handle that flow with NO problem. The problem came from water coming OVER the top step into the exterior walkout 'pit'. It was a waterfall into that area (and under the door into the basement), as well as what was coming into the sump pit inside. Yes, I'm required to carry flood insurance because we're in a 100 year floodplain. Proving the pump works is no problem; we have a pretty constant flow of water (granted, a relative trickle by comparison) every day. The pump is still firing at least once every 2 minutes. I went with battery backup instead of water power because we're rural and on a well. No power = no well pump = no water pressure. And yes, we have the following to prove water levels: - 'scum ring' of high water marks, in the basement and in the garage - debris fields stacked against the fence: branches, leaves, whatever, piled at least 8" tall (except the 10' section I cut open to alleviate backup and help the water flow) - pictures that Kim took of water flow, submerged driveways, submerged yard, etc. before I got home. We'll get it square. I've always had good luck with the company I use (they also carry my auto and home), and this is the first flood claim I've had to make since buying the home in '96. (Message edited by ratbuell on March 16, 2010) | ||
| Terp_bueller |
Etennuly, I've seen Rat's Uly (that does not sound good). What...just because a Uly does not get washed and has a broken belt, one can't get excited? Actually, I was talking about Tbolt's XB. | ||
| Etennuly |
 | ||
| Ratbuell |
That's OK, Terp...even with my broken belt, my Uly never went into skip-spark. Vern's just jealous!  | ||
| Etennuly |
See if I ever buy new Buell parts from you again! | ||
| M2statz |
Joe, That is going to be a tight line if the insurance will cover anything. Watch out for terms like "transient water" and "seepage". My wife calls our flood insurance legalized extortion. When we flooded two years and two years before that, the insurance company(which is underwritten by the Federal Gov.) said you get squat because all the damage was caused by "transient water." In your case the savior may the lay out of the walk out but it could also be your downfall because it is man made and does not have to be there. We ended up putting new drainage systems, battery back-up sumps with what they call maseraters(I think) it grinds up anything that gets in the sump hole so there is little chance of the pumps burning up. We do not have a finished basement as it is over 100 years old and is all stone. We did water proof as much as we could and every thing that couldn't go in rubber maid totes is 18" off the floor including the furnace and appliances. I didn't mean to high jack your thread, I guess I am just trying to say that I feel your pain as far as the flooding is concerned. Good luck with the job hunt and as with every thing Buell the Uly will work itself out and you will be riding in no time.   | ||
| Ratbuell |
Oh yeah? Well...well...I won't sell any to you anyway. So THERE! | ||
| Tbolt_pilot |
You are probably OK as far as the walkout having to be there. Pretty sure it's the 2nd fire escape as required by code. My walkout is. I built heavy water resistant butterfly doors over it that only open from the inside. And it gets some water in it too. It's box drain was redone with the perimeter drains. What the he11 is 'transient water' anyway? Isn't all water transient? Terp, The XB has been out a few times this year and I've tinkered with it some. Yes, we will have to ride sometime. Hopefully get Rat and some other guys out too. Etennuly, is the Dragon open again? Was that you in the cage that hit the rock slide? jk | ||
| Etennuly |
Still closed as of this morning's news story. Me wreck on to a stationary pile of rock like that??.....could happen, but no.....my man boobs are way short of that wreck! | ||
| M2statz |
What the he11 is 'transient water' anyway? Isn't all water transient? The Federal Gov. defines "transient water" as water the that does not originate from a)rain fall or b)a water way. Thus being, in our case, the water damage was from the water table rising to the point of the level being greater than the lowest point of our basement and the water did not come over the top of the wall of the basement, said water damage was caused by "transient water" and not flood water, therefore we(the insurances company)can not pay for any damages. | ||
| Tbolt_pilot |
I wonder where that 'transient water' comes from if it isn't from rainfall filing up the waterway and and soaking into the ground and making the water table rise? Joe, you need to stop buying all that bottled water and pouring it out in the yard and stop letting the garden hose run all the time. There, no more flood! |
