All home maintenance, all the time

[kate_schaefer]

The flood in my basement was as nothing compared to the flood in any random east coast basement, but it was a flood nevertheless, and it was in my personal basement, so I had to deal with it.

I was going to work on new curtains for the backstairs window, but I found water on the floor by the sewing machine. First thought, of course, was that the washing machine had overflowed, but there was no water on the laundry room floor. Okay; damn. Water coming in through the foundation because it's been raining for days? Start mopping and keep looking at the water path. In the adult guestroom? Must be coming through the wall, but where?

Glenn got home soon after I discovered the flood but before I had discovered its cause, so he helped. We moved more stuff, scattered towels here and there, and discovered that the largest puddle was right by the water heater. The water heater must have leaked! It's not old enough to have croaked -- wait, no, it can't be the water heater, because there's more water coming from the laundry area; no, from near the laundry area. Back to examining the foundation and putting more towels in place.

It was the drainpipe of the laundry sink, which is just far enough from the washing machine itself that the laundry room rug stayed bone dry while the cork floor of the toilet enclosure got soaked, probably ruined. Glenn wrapped the drainpipe in duct tape -- this is one of the things that duct tape is really good for. It's famous for being bad at taping actual ducts -- and we stuck a bucket under it for good measure. Tomorrow, I call a plumber.

Trivial and dealable. It's an old house. Old plumbing leaks from time to time. Many of the things in the basement are stored on a base of pallets because washing machines do overflow sometimes, but that's only true of the things in the direct path of normal washing machine floods. We so rarely have floods that aren't caused by the washing machine that we aren't as careful about other areas of the basement; not that the washing machine overflows every week or every month, but it's happened more than once in the past 27 years.

In positive news, we no longer have a portable toilet in the driveway, and the painters may finish the porches on Friday if the rains stop long enough.

Comments

[librarygrrl]

Very sorry to hear about the possible demise of the cork floor! But good news on the porta-loo leaving the driveway. Does that mean the painting is all done except the porches?

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Yes, the painting is all done except the porches. They've both had a first coat, and the front porch should be okay for its second coat on Friday, since it has a roof and won't get terribly wet unless it turns out to be windy as well as rainy on Friday night. I'm dubious about the back porch, though, since it has no shelter. Part of its first coat washed right off in Monday night's rain. It is just barely possible that it won't rain on Friday night, so it might work if they do the painting first thing Friday morning.