Well, the water heater issue seems to be stabilized. Showers (even longer ones) are no problem, but filling the tub after using a lot of water is a little more of a challenge. So I think we will watch and wait and maybe try to replace it in the summer.

Good thing too, because now we have a major water problem to deal with, we had bad rain yesterday and our basement flooded, big time.

I am thinking it must be a problem with gutters and/or drainage, because we've had bad rain before and this hasn't happened. But this time, water was coming in as it was raining, IOW, not seeping up from saturated ground water. Water was sort of pouring in on two opposite sides of the basement. We were home (thank god) so we pulled up the carpet tiles and moved things around, and then I did the wet vac while Mr. SK shoveled water out the door (on the walk-out side). When the rain stopped, the water stopped coming in, and we had most of the water vac'ed up in two hours. (Two hellish hours, but two hours).

Tomorrow I will be contacting some gutter cleaners and also a basement water solution guy that was recommended to us (he does things like french drains apparently).

Anyway, the scope of the problem seems very big to me, based on what we observed while it was raining and water was coming in. Basically, this is a nightmare. I knew that having a basement means you have to deal with water at some point, but this isn't quite how I anticipated it unfolding. Naive I guess. Sigh.

Where was the water coming from? Over the upper part of the foundation wall? Could you see water coming down the wall?

Since you have a walkout, you are obviously on a slope. How is your front yard graded? Does the slope run to the house or away from it?

Been there... I feel your pain!

In one house, it helped a lot to install long run-outs for the downspouts from the gutter. That same house would clog the gutters and pour over the edge - running into the basement. (big tree close to house...) Decent gutter guards are a big help!

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Where was the water coming from? Over the upper part of the foundation wall? Could you see water coming down the wall?

WTG, water was coming in at the bottom of a wall on the side of the house that's underground, so we couldn't see it coming down the wall. But that's the finished side of the basement.

Water also appeared to be coming in from a bottom corner on the walk-out side of the basement (diagonally oppose the other flow in). But that part there's a built in work shelf thing, and we couldn't see exactly where the water was coming in. But that is the side of the house where Mr. SK can't get up to the gutters because it's too high, so I am thinking it may be a gutter problem on that side. On the other side, from our porch we could see water pouring over the side of the gutter, so that side is definitely a gutter problem. Well, I am thinking that it's a combination of gutter plus drainage problems.

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Since you have a walkout, you are obviously on a slope. How is your front yard graded? Does the slope run to the house or away from it?

Mik, yes we are on a slope... how to explain... if you stand looking out our front door, the land slopes up to the left and down to the right. Mr. SK has been outside most of today looking at the yard, foundation etc. and we think it's clear that the house could benefit from some modifications to encourage water to flow away from the house.

If you or anyone has any advice, please share! This is a topic we definitely know nothing about.

BTW, one piece of advice we had was to file an insurance claim, but I am thinking this isn't claimable, tell me if I'm thinking about it the right way.

1) the gutters. let's say the problem is they're blocked, that's our fault, right? because it's a maintenance issue. Let's say the gutters need to be replaced, well then that's because they're old, not because they were damaged in a storm or something. So I am thinking gutter expenses are not something we could file an insurance claim for.

2) the carpet tiles in Mr. SK's studio: I cannot for the life of me remember how much they cost, but it was definitely less than $1000, and our deductible is either $1000 or $2000 (how bad am I that I don't remember that!) Anyway, say we replace the flooring in the finished side of the basement with something waterproof, which will be more expensive. That expense also does not seem to be to be something we'd file a claim for. Am I right?

Thanks Ron! We're definitely contacting gutter people tomorrow!

When the rain stops, pictures of the exterior would help.

A few general observations, especially the ones ron mentioned:

1) Unless the gutters are not pitched properly because they've popped loose from rotting wood or something, just being old doesn't keep them from doing their job.

1) Overflowing gutters seem like a likely cause, especially if there are sections you couldn't access to clean out.. Gutter guards help a lot, but you really have to put them on everywhere to keep the debris out. The stainless ones at Costco are great, and not much more expensive than the plastic ones you can get elsewhere.

They're definitely a DIY possibility, depending on how tall your house is.

2) Long downspout extensions help a lot.

3) What happened to the carpet tiles? Can you get a fan on them and dry them out and put them back down?

I remember when you were looking at those carpet tiles; I think you could get them for less than a $1 a square foot if you have to replace them, after you figure out the water problem.

4) Would definitely avoid the insurance claim. Everything goes against your record and I think it best to save claims for much larger events.

I don't think insurance would pay for an upgraded floor, only for something equivalent in cost to the original.

Thanks for all those comments WTG. Yeah, this isn't something I want to go to our insurance with.

And re gutters, from the ground they look "okay" (i.e., not obviously coming loose etc.) so I think we just need to get them cleaned. ASAP!

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What happened to the carpet tiles? Can you get a fan on them and dry them out and put them back down?

Oh, the carpet tiles just got wet, so as long as we can get them dried, they're probably ok. When we realized the water was pouring in we panicked for a little bit and then we started pulling up the tiles, about half were really soaked, the other half not so much (and some not at all). Today was sunny and Mr. SK had them all out in the sun, but he said some are not quite dry.

Unfortunately, we're supposed to have rain for the next three days, so we can't sun them again until the weather gets better. And we're worried about mold so we won't put them back unless we're sure that they're ok, and we won't put them back until we've had some work done and are reasonably confident that we won't have another water event.

If we can get everything under control, I would like to put the tiles back in place if at all possible. And then we can save up for some truly waterproof floor tiles that I remember reading about when we first were trying to decide about the flooring down there.

So it is coming in on the finished wall, so you really don't know whether it is coming in over the top of the foundation or not. I'm going to guess it is coming over the top from water building up against the front of the house. Do you have a sump pump?

I like this stuff in basements. Basically a raised subfloor.

http://dricore.com/nw/subfloor_about.php

You can put pretty much any kind of flooring on top and not have to worry about it.

The original thread about the basement floor. Unfortunately the pics are gone.

http://well-temperedforum.grou...791002366#5791002366

From that thread:

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there seems to be a door (to the outside?) to the right of the workbench area. The door casing on the right side at the bottom looks like it might have some deterioration due to moisture. I'm not sure, but that looks like an exterior door? You might want to check to see if the casing is soft there. Doesn't look like you've got major water in that space, but if the casing is getting damp you might want to figure out why, especially if you were to go with a carpet option.

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re the water, yes, we know there was water damage there, prior to the owners who we bought from, apparently because of a problem with gutters, the water damage is actually on the walk-out side. The sellers we bought from said there hadn't been water damage for probably 10 years, and I believe them. You can tell in the opposite side of the room (the actual underground part) by looking at the tiles, baseboards and quarter rounds that it's in much better shape.

Anyway, so 1) we're not worried about water now, and it's not damp at all, but 2) if there was water there once, it could happen again, hence my decision to choose flooring that's water proof/resistant.

The tiles you have:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Na...Case-16088/308025782

We had a tall house that I finally got scared smart enough not to climb the ladder anymore... I ended up finding a local guy that would clean the gutters for a decent price at the end of fall season before I finally had gutter guards installed.

Since you went through rain with no problems and then had problems with this rain, I would look to overflowing gutters as the problem. Once I got the longer run-outs to flow the water away from the house, we stayed dry. (except for when those dang kids ran across the lawn and knocked the extensions off...)

WTG, yes, exactly! So I think I was thinking of some other flooring that we didn't buy, which was going to come to something like $750... But I think we ordered maybe 9-10 boxes of the carpet tiles and it was around $300... Anyway, obviously much less than our insurance deductible! We'll see how they are and whether we can reuse them...

Ron, yes, we will start with gutter cleaning and maybe a less invasive draining option (i.e., not re-doing all of the grading) and go from there.

Fingers crossed!

Let those tiles dry out (basement/garage/house) and there is a 99% chance they’ll survive. Don’t stack them - you want airflow. Put sticks or something between them, or maybe hang them on a line.

Spray the ones still on the floor and other damp things with Lysol aerosol disinfectant. I have saved the carpet in a lot of office buildings that way.