Thank God it waited until after Christmas day to begin the Midwest Monsoon of 2015!   Now, I’m from Hurricane country and know a thing or two about torrential rain and high water levels….from no electricity to moldy drywall to finding small sea creatures in your kitchen drawers after storm damage.  It’s not fun.  But in Florida when 12 inches of rain falls,  it drains very rapidly in the sandy ground.   And most folks don’t have basements.

Here in the Midwest we have a love/hate relationship with our basements.  We love them for the extra living space and storage they provide; not to mention shelter in a tornado!  Most folks looking at homes in this area won’t look at a home without a basement for that reason.  But when rainfall of Biblical proportions hits us and those wonderful below ground playrooms flood, it’s a nightmare.

We had such an event beginning Christmas night and lasting three days.  To be honest it was my husband Mike who bore most of that nightmare. (I like to think that it was his penance for not being Santa – see previous blog post)   We have an unfinished basement and are in the process of getting ready to renovate it.  It was a blessing in disguise in a way that we had this happen before we finish it.  We have lived in our home just over 2 years.   This was the first time we had any water in the basement.   For three days as one previously repaired crack began leaking and another new crack appeared and started leaking as well, my husband would empty buckets and mop the floors round the clock every 1-2 hours depending on how hard it was raining.    He heroically kept all of our boxes and extra furniture that is being stored down there, dry.   He was like the little boy in the fairy tales with his finger in the dyke.  He certainly has a new appreciation for what our forefathers and mothers had to go through to wash clothing in years past.  Raw, sore hands from wringing out towels and a sore back from mopping the floor.

I am not in any way complaining.  While a huge pain, we didn’t have to rip out carpeting or have anything ruined in a finished basement and we certainly didn’t lose our house as some in these parts did with all the rivers over flowing etc.  Others have suffered devastation.  From homes floating down river having been pushed off their foundations to lives lost when cars were swept away and everything in between.  We have a warranty on the one previously repaired crack and we discovered that someone put in a partial french drain and sump pump in our basement and we only need to extend the french drain to fully cover the areas we plan to fix and hopefully this won’t happen again.  So our situation was in the grand scheme of things, minor.   

As a realtor, we often deal with basement leaks and what to do about them.   Sellers must disclose knowledge of leaks etc.  What we tell our clients is that all basements will have foundation cracks at some time and some of these will leak.  The clay soil holds so much moisture and doesn’t drain quickly.  It has nothing to do with flood plains. It’s just the way it is. Vertical cracks are normal and easily dealt with.   Horizontal are more worrisome.  These suggest foundation instability and need more shoring up.  It’s not a deal killer but engineers need to be involved in repairs.   So buyers beware!

When you prepare to finish a basement,  spending money on sump pumps and french drains is money well spent. Especially when your basement is completely below grade.  But I would do it for walkout basements too.   And consider what you do on your floors.   I have decided to stain and seal my concrete floor instead of putting down wall to wall carpet.  That way if at any time we have any water in the basement, it won’t destroy the floor. Ceramic tile is also waterproof.   I will keep all my readers posted as we move forward with our renovation.

In the meantime, let us all hope that the deluges are over for a while and our saturated ground can dry up.    I suppose it could have been much worse, if we had temperatures cold enough for snow, we would have had over 120 inches!   Imagine St. Louis with that kind of snow.  If it wasn’t so dangerous a situation, it would be funny to witness.   So as we begin 2016 let us all toast to drier weather in the coming weeks and happy renovating!