Sump pump fails, flooded basement

[spleen1015]

Went to the in laws yesterday and came back this afternoon to find the basement flooded. I have started the claims process with my insurance company online already since they are closed for calls on Sunday. The person handling the claim will call me tomorrow morning.

After I finished the claim, I was given the option to have a water damage specialist give me a call within an hour. Well, it has been 90 minutes with no call.

Just sitting and waiting for folks to call me without doing any thing doesn't feel right to me. Does anyone have experience with this? Can I start moving the things out of my basement and start trying to get rid of some of this water without jeopardizing my claim with the insurance?

I have taken a few pictures. The water is mostly soaked up by the carpet, but some of the furniture has been damaged, ie my computer desk is big and it is just sitting there in the wet carpet. The coaches have legs so they look okay.

I just want to get the process of recovering from this, but I don't want to hurt the claim some how.

[Mustang]

Everyone I've known that has had a flooded basement has started cleaning up immediately.

[TroyF]

I work for a large restoration company. Our franchises are required to return a phone call for a loss within 15 minutes. If you know the companies name, call them back ASAP.

1) You have no worries about cleaning up right away. Just make sure you don't try to dry anything yourself. (lets say for example you had an expensive piece of artwork and decided you were going to throw it in the microwave to dry. . . you may have a problem getting the full value of the claim. Don't laugh, it was done with a 200,000 painting)

2) Make sure you tell the restoration company where you moved your stuff. It's important not to let water stand for a long period. Even if it's in a box, that water needs to be dried ASAP.

3) When the restoration company does show up, sucks water out and leaves drying equipment, make sure you leave the equipment alone. Do not turn it off. (It sounds stupid, but people do turn the stuff off on about 15% of all jobs. It makes the job go longer and really screws up the restoration company.)

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

[terpkristin]

Nothing useful to add, just sympathy/empathy. I had a similar experience about a month ago when my water heater decided to die and lose all its water, couldn't tell til I walked on the carpet of my finished basement and squished.

Given that I've had the house for 18 months and have already had this and some plumbing issues, I'm hoping the next 18 months go by incident-free.

/tk

[Mustang]

On the bright side (if you can find one), be thankful it is just water. One of my co-workers had the sewage system back up into their basement and everything was a total loss. That was just nasty...

[spleen1015]

Thanks you guys, you especially Troy.

I am trying to stay optimistic. My wife is pretty devastated by this. Nothing really important looks to be ruined but it is stressful none the less.

It is funny. We were trying to figure out what to do. The first thing I thought of was coming here and reaching out because there would be helpful advice and positive feelings.

[TroyF]

One tip for anyone reading this. . . if you don't have no burst hoses for the washing machine, get them and get them now. Rubber washing machine hoses keep me employed. It's a $10 home improvement tool that can save you a TON of headaches down the road.

sadly, this wouldn't have helped spleen.

mustang,

Sewer losses are very nasty. They are also incredibly expensive. My job is to support franchises, not to actually do the dirty work. That said, I've suited up and did nasty mold and sewer losses. I've never went to a trauma loss, which in my mind would be the worst thing to mitigate.

[cougarfreak]

Just out of curiosity, how did it fail? Did you have a power outage, or was it another type of problem?

[stevew]

One tip for anyone reading this. . . if you don't have no burst hoses for the washing machine, get them and get them now. Rubber washing machine hoses keep me employed. It's a $10 home improvement tool that can save you a TON of headaches down the road.

sadly, this wouldn't have helped spleen.

mustang,

Sewer losses are very nasty. They are also incredibly expensive. My job is to support franchises, not to actually do the dirty work. That said, I've suited up and did nasty mold and sewer losses. I've never went to a trauma loss, which in my mind would be the worst thing to mitigate.

What about the ones that came packaged with the washer? I understand that the problem a lot of times is that people will just leave the hoses there for a decade, and when they replace their washer, they may just leave the same ones there. Would it be too big of an assumption to make that LG would package decent hoses with their machine, or would i be dreaming there?

[TroyF]

What about the ones that came packaged with the washer? I understand that the problem a lot of times is that people will just leave the hoses there for a decade, and when they replace their washer, they may just leave the same ones there. Would it be too big of an assumption to make that LG would package decent hoses with their machine, or would i be dreaming there?


If it's a rubber hose, it can burst with high pressure even if it's new. The no burst metal hoses do a much better job.

[spleen1015]

Just out of curiosity, how did it fail? Did you have a power outage, or was it another type of problem?

Had a plumber come and replace it tonight. Basically, it was 13-15 years old and it burned up. It would run but not pump any water.

I think we'll be investing in a battery backup type of deal so that we'll know if it is not working right.

[Mustang]

I've never went to a trauma loss, which in my mind would be the worst thing to mitigate.

Trauma loss = Fire, Natural Disaster related things?

[TroyF]

Trauma - Crime scene type clean up. Usually suicides in residential homes. The authorities clear the body and then we take care of the rest. It's gruesome work and not all franchises do it.

"The rest" usually involves odor. We can get smells out of the house with ozone and other types of technology. (the newest is nano technology which is amazing) Again, i've never went on one of those jobs and I'm not sure I'd have the stomach for it. I can handle sewer losses, dead animals trapped in the walls, and things like that. I don't think I could deal with that.

[Toddzilla]

A sump pump's best friend - although it wouldn't have helped in your case:

http://s3-external-1.amazonaws.com/wootsaleimages/LeakFrog_2-PackramDetail.jpg