If you live by the Weather Channel like I do, you know what’s been going on here in the Midwest.
Yeah, we got a little rain...
It’s been raining like Noah was coming back for an encore. With the rains come other problems, from which even yours truly is not exempt. Our sump pump stopped working & our basement was flooded w/18″ of water. In about 3 hours, while we were asleep. New freezer, full of meat, flipped over in the water.
Nice freezer, huh? Lost about 1/2 a steer before we got the water out.
You’ve never seen such a well fed dog & so many happy barn cats! Made the last payment on our new HVAC on the 1st of July. Post flood – toast. It was fixable, thank God! Washer, dryer, 300 golf balls, paint, etc. all soaked. So what do you do in this situation?
Start w/making sure outlets & electrical devices have not electrified the water. How do you do that? Well, you can do what I did. I told my wife to stick her finger in it…just kidding! If you’ve got lights, first visually check to see if anything is running or sparking. Next, wearing well insulated rubber boots, get as close to the water as possible w/out touching it & check it w/a multi-meter or other current monitoring device. If it is safe, wade into the water & shut off any potentially harmful devices such as the water heater, to prevent possible electrocution while working, as the water may continue to rise. Non-essential devices such as air purifiers, radios, etc. should also be unplugged for the same reason.
Next, get yourself as many pumps as you can to get the water out as quickly as you can. We used 3, and it still took the better part of a day. A word of caution – be careful not to pump out the water so fast your basement wall caves in! This is a very real possibility if you’re using a high capacity trash pump, such as your city uses to pump out overflowing storm sewers. Don’t forget you have water pressure from the outside pushing in, plus the weight of the soil. So try to let things equalize, or you may be in for a very nasty, expensive surprise.
Once you’ve got all the water out, you need to get everything either removed or dried out. Fans are great. Opening windows is essential – unless, of course, it is still raining or flooding. Remove any saturated papers, boxes, clothing, wood, etc. & either dispose of them or dry them out in the garage or some other shelter. Don’t forget to spread these items out & turn them over. It doesn’t take mold very long to get a foothold in these situations.
OK. Now for the hard part. If you’ve got carpeting, get the water out of it IMMEDIATELY. Use a high powered wet-vac & some fans. If you’ve got saturated drywall, you probably won’t be able to save it. It’s just easier to take a drywall knife & cut it off. Cut it at least 12″ above the highest watermark. If you use a straightedge & can cut it at 24″ above the floor, it will be much easier to replace. Drywall comes in 4′ x 8′ sheets, so splitting one in half provides you w/two 2′ x 8′ replacement sheets. Much easier to tape & mud it that way, too.
Look carefully & you can tell where the wall studs are.
A little tip. When you’re nailing it back up, try to keep it about 1/2″ to 1″ above the basement floor. Then, if you get a little water in the future, you won’t have to worry about it wicking its way up your walls again.
While you’ve got your walls open, you need to closely inspect the walls studs, floor plates & any other structural surfaces for moisture &/or mold. You can do this visually & by using your hands to check for moisture. You may also want to spend $30 or so to buy a moisture meter. They are available from Lowe’s, Menard’s & Home Depot, as well as some local hardware stores. They are simple to operate & will provide an idea of the moisture in the wood. The ones we use start @ $ 200 & go up from there. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, try www.aramsco.com. They’re expensive, but they sell the highest quality merchandise & can get it to you overnight.
If you have moisture but no mold, dry it out thoroughly before doing anything else. Wooden surfaces should be @ 10% or less moisture, unless they are treated (greenboard) expressly for mold resistance. Drywall should be no more than 14%. If you do have mold, or suspect a potential for mold growth, clean the surfaces thoroughly w/a fungicide. Concrobium is a good one, and is readily available at Home Depot. It runs about $35/gallon. (Now do you have an idea why it costs so much to have us pros come in & do this kind of work?) Microban, Foster’s 80-40 & products by other commercial use manufacturers are available through Aramsco. I do NOT recommend cleaning up w/a bleach solution, or anything containing bleach, such as Mold Armor’s Instant Mold & Mildew Stain Remover. It’s OK for bathtubs & toilets, but NOT for wood, drywall, etc. If you really want to go cutting edge, try nzymsys’s Oceanic Mold & Bacteria cleaner, available @ www.nzymsys.com. This is fairly new on the market & does a pretty decent job of killing everything microbial, w/out killing you. It’s not cheap, but it’s worth the money. DampRid also has some fine products for cleaning & disinecting against mold.
MA's Blocker = Good, MA's Stain Remover & Cleaner = No Recommended for wood
So your wall stud surfaces are clean. Now what? If it were me & I was being paid for the job, I would spray everything w/another layer of disinfectant & let that dry. Then, and ONLY then, I would encapsulate all cellulose surfaces. Ironically, I kind of like Mold Armor’s Mold Blocker. It uses a pretty effective ammonium chloride compound to create an invisible barrier to mold growth. But, on wall studs & floor plates, I absolutely prefer Foster’s 80-20 encapsulant thinned w/Concrobium or Microban. It’s white, heavy & contains a plasticizing agent. So you can not only see where you’ve sprayed or brushed it, you can actually feel the plastic surface when it dries. You know you’ve put a real barrier between mold spores & their food source. Plus, it smells a little like vanilla ice cream. You can also use Kilz in a pinch, but lace it w/Concrobium & apply 2 coats to insure a good barrier.
When you put your basement back together, don’t forget the dehumidifier. Make sure all of you gutters drain at least 6′ away from the house. Make sure they don’t overflow because they’re full of leaves. That water could potentially get behind your siding & cause real trouble! Make sure your sump pump works properly. And, most important of all, get an Ace-in-Hole backup!! I wouldn’t have had all this trouble & expense if I had had one.
If you need professional services, go to www.indevcon.com. Thanks & keep your boats afloat in Ma Nature’s latest mess!
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