The Backyard and Basement Flooding Saga

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Hi, I'm Yami

At this point, it’s safe to say that I am officially over rain. As I type this, there is water in our basement again. Let me rev up the wayback machine and jump back to the beginning of this saga which is when we first bought this house.

When we toured the home that brisk January in 2018, we were immediately taken in by the potential of the home while simultaneously taken aback by the odd things we saw. The house was a great size, the yard was amazing but the home was dated, dingy and in despair. Never mind the water bottle jugs, crates filled with water bottles and water dispenser machines scattered everywhere. Turns out they were running a bottled water company from the house but that’s a story for another day,

The basement seemed pretty standard and our home inspection didn’t indicate any red flags to us other than the fact that the HVAC systems were pretty old and might need replacing soon. It was unfinished and we made mental plans to finish it one day.

The first heavy rain after we moved in, we noticed water pooling down there. Then the next rain, there was more water and we quickly realized that this was an issue. We didn’t immediately address the water issue because we didn’t use the space. Once we decided to finish the basement, it became our first priority.

Watch the water pouring in from the window…

We called a local waterproofing company who came out and gave us a quote to install a sump pump and divert the water outside of the house. $3k later and we felt confident our issue was solved. We even waited until it rained again to be sure the leak was fixed. It rained and no water in the house so we pressed on with the basement renovation.

Well…the basement was finished January 2020 and we have had zero issues. Until now. In July of this year, the basement flooded. I will clarify and say that flooded is probably not the right word. We weren’t wading through water in the basement, it was more just puddling, a lot, in the low spots. Enough to be a nuisance and damage some of the kids toys.

Here’s the video Elisa sent me when it flooded in July. We were away at the Haven Conference.

Before all of this…right before Christmas of 2020, our water heater died on us and there was water everywhere. It sounded like it was raining inside. We had to get all new Christmas decorations because water got into our storage totes and everything was covered with mold. So there’s a bad trend with water and this house.

We figured the flooding in July was a fluke because it was a “100 year storm”. Which means that it hadn’t rained that much in that short amount of time in 100 years. Simultaneously, we were in the middle of the pool install and realized that we had dug up a French drain in the yard which caused us to flood the neighbors yard with our runoff.

The flooding from that crazy rain. It went from our house to the neighbors two doors down.

So those two things are completely independent of each other. The yard flooding has no effect on the basement flooding as the latter occurred first.

Then today…more rain…more flooding and I am over this basement. I called the company that did the waterproofing and they’re out until Tuesday. When I checked the pipe outside where the pump drains out to, I noticed that it came straight out and had a dip in it. That isn’t good. A drain pipe is supposed to slope downwards so that gravity can move the water away. No slope, no water movement.

I think this, plus a combination of an old window is what is causing the basement to flood again. I won’t know for sure until the come back out and check.

We also need to get the yard graded and filled to schedule our final pool inspection so I’ll be calling around tomorrow to get that done.

Here is our yard today:

This is now the lowest spot in the yard and where the water runs off to the neighbor

In the meantime…I am over the water issues in this house y’all. At the point I wish we had never finished the basement. So, I am trying to stay positive and hopefully we will get some answers and a solution soon to both of these issues soon. I’ll keep you all updated.

Comments +

  1. Monica says:

    Our basement flooded this week too. What a mess. HANG IN THERE, YAMI!

  2. […] at this grounded home ya’ll. From throwing my back out, to the drainage problems in the yard (catch up here) and the non stop water in the basement, I really needed a […]

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  4. […] go ahead and say it. I may have a slight, very minor issue with emotional spending and well….2021 was emotional AF. That’s a convo for my therapist though so I won’t get into the why and the how […]

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