Water sucks

[Tadpui]

Yesterday I installed an indoor wading pool. I didn't ask for one, but Mother Nature insisted on installing one for me.

We had a crazy heavy rain storm that blew through town late yesterday afternoon. It rained hammers and nails, it was nuts. And it illustrated a few critical weaknesses in the drainage around the house that we've lived in for a little over 2 years now.

One of our downspouts empties into a rock garden that has an old-school metal "blade" border on it. The downspout has one of those cheap piece of crap corrugated accordion-style extenders on it. Well, the extender is a little too short, and a slight breeze blows it off of the carefully-positioned perch I've placed it on, where it'll empty on the OTHER side of that metal landscape border, into the lawn. Yesterday, it had fallen off and was emptying on the wrong side of that border, which acted like a little dam. The massive torrent of water coming off of the roof all backflowed towards the house, where our below-grade basement window wells were waiting to catch all of that runoff. The water collected so high in the window well that it exceeded the grade of the window, and came pouring in. It was about 14"-16" of water in that well, maybe more. At one point, I was bailing it out with a beer pitcher.

It gets better. In the back yard, the gutter that runs over my studio window was clogged with debris, despite me having cleaned it once per year since we moved in. The backed up gutter overflowed onto the ground right in front of my studio window. Over 40 years of existence, this gutter has done this often enough to erode out a low spot in the garden right outside the window...which made it a prime collecting spot for about 6 inches of water, which also came pouring in.

That same back yard gutter backup also created another pool elsewhere that backflowed the other direction, towards that other sub-grade window, and added to the mass of water that submerged it. Poor landscape grading ensured that all of the water flowed against the foundation of the house and right into the basement windows.

I was outside in the pouring rain with a poncho and a shovel, digging trenches to encourage water to flow one way and not the other. The main improvement was delicately setting that damned plastic accordion extender so that it was ejecting roof water onto the lawn, instead of deflecting it back into the foundation.

The good news is that all of my gear is safe. The water didn't even make it all the way across my studio floor. And just about everything of mine is elevated off of the floor anyways. I had wet guitar straps, but no wet guitars. Two power strips got a little wet, but all computer and rack gear was untouched. Amps, cases, accessories are all good. I knew this could happen, and I did nothing. So as much as I want to rage against the previous homeowner who disclosed none of these issues, I know that the buck stops with me. I saw the problems, and I let them sit unaddressed.

So I consider this a warning shot from Ma Nature. Next time, I'll be prepared.

I stopped panicking long enough to take a couple of photos, but it really doesn't do it justice. I'll see if I can post the video my wife took when she got home in the middle of the crisis. But you can see how the water was higher than the basement window, at least. Fortunately this wasn't in my studio, but another part of the basement with a drain in-between.

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[Armistice]

Holy shit Tad... that's no good at all.

At least your gear is safe - I guess there's a big clean up operation to commence soon and a few renos to stop it happening next time.

Good luck with it all!

[Greg_L]

Holy crap! What a clusterfuck. I'm glad you didn't get any gear damage.

[CrowsofFritz]

Fish fuck in water so you have fish sperm all over your basement now

That really sucks! Hope nothing was too damaged. Hamg in there.

[rayc]

My studio floods were far less exciting though more damaging.
We knew of the issue, a very shallow dish drain along the back of the house with an equally gentle run to a small storm water pipe in the ground, and had addressed it by cutting a box drain into the dish. Unfortunately my wife was concerned about the small pipe becoming blocked by leaves etc and put mesh across it. The mesh, stopped leaves from entering the pipe and successfully blocked any water entering it through the thick mat of leaves that had built up against it. Water built up to above the moisture barrier in the brick exterior and flowed into my studio over night soaking the carpet and rendering various floor based things unsafe. It took a dehumidifier about three weeks to dry the room and a lot of anti fungus/mould/yucky stuff to prevent bigger problems. Sadly it all happened again a couple of years later when she replaced the mesh without telling me. Such is life with a Bipolar wife.

[SweetDan]

Bummer, Tad.

I know it rained a bit more today (I was down in Denver for a gig, actually). Hopefully today's storms didn't turn your window wells into aquariums again. It can be very localized, though, as I'm sure you're aware; one one block it may have poured, and the next block over hardly a spritzing.

[JD01]

Thats a real pain, Tad. Hope you get it cleaned up and things aren't too badly damaged. Then you can get on with fixing up all your drainage.

Give me a shout if you want some advice on designing and installing a soakaway drain.

[CrowsofFritz]

Bummer, Tad.

I know it rained a bit more today (I was down in Denver for a gig, actually). Hopefully today's storms didn't turn your window wells into aquariums again. It can be very localized, though, as I'm sure you're aware; one one block it may have poured, and the next block over hardly a spritzing.

Just a couple weeks ago I went to work and it started raining HARD. Then it started hailing! The dust was falling off the roof and i thought it was going to collapse! The power went out. I asked my brother who lived 3 minutes away if he was alright and he said nothing happened over at home.

[Tadpui]

My studio floods were far less exciting though more damaging.
We knew of the issue, a very shallow dish drain along the back of the house with an equally gentle run to a small storm water pipe in the ground, and had addressed it by cutting a box drain into the dish. Unfortunately my wife was concerned about the small pipe becoming blocked by leaves etc and put mesh across it. The mesh, stopped leaves from entering the pipe and successfully blocked any water entering it through the thick mat of leaves that had built up against it. Water built up to above the moisture barrier in the brick exterior and flowed into my studio over night soaking the carpet and rendering various floor based things unsafe. It took a dehumidifier about three weeks to dry the room and a lot of anti fungus/mould/yucky stuff to prevent bigger problems. Sadly it all happened again a couple of years later when she replaced the mesh without telling me. Such is life with a Bipolar wife.

Oh man, that sucks! I know exactly what you mean...it's a tough decision between allowing debris through a drain and risking it clogging, or strain out the debris and risk the mesh being clogged. Damned if you do, damned if you don't!

Bummer, Tad.

I know it rained a bit more today (I was down in Denver for a gig, actually). Hopefully today's storms didn't turn your window wells into aquariums again. It can be very localized, though, as I'm sure you're aware; one one block it may have poured, and the next block over hardly a spritzing.

Fortunately yesterday's additional rain wasn't nearly as intense. I cleared some debris from one of the misbehaving downspouts, and my trenches and correct placement of the extender all helped quite a bit. There was still a fair amount of water up against the foundation, but none of it ended up indoors.

I know what you mean about the localized weather. A friend 5 miles from us got so much rain that it flooded the transformer outside of their house. It went up in flames and blacked out the whole neighborhood! And another friend that lives in-between us didn't get a single drop of rain!

Thats a real pain, Tad. Hope you get it cleaned up and things aren't too badly damaged. Then you can get on with fixing up all your drainage.

Give me a shout if you want some advice on designing and installing a soakaway drain.

Thanks JD. I've got a landscaping guy coming over to estimate the cost of properly grading the trouble spots, and a gutter guy coming to estimate a total replacement of our old failing gutters and downspouts. I'm still deciding on whether or not to introduce a drain into the equation. I think I'll see how proper grading and gutters improve things and go from there.

Bummer, Tad.

I know it rained a bit more today (I was down in Denver for a gig, actually). Hopefully today's storms didn't turn your window wells into aquariums again. It can be very localized, though, as I'm sure you're aware; one one block it may have poured, and the next block over hardly a spritzing.

Just a couple weeks ago I went to work and it started raining HARD. Then it started hailing! The dust was falling off the roof and i thought it was going to collapse! The power went out. I asked my brother who lived 3 minutes away if he was alright and he said nothing happened over at home.

We had a hail storm here a couple of weeks ago that was so intense that the hail was accumulating on the lawn! Our house has a pretty big footprint, so it has a LOT of roof. And that roof displaces a ton of water and, as I learned, hail! We had a hail storm a few years ago that filled up all of our gutters and caused some minor water incursion in the basement. I should have taken care of it back then...

Weather is weird. I've seen pictures of the aftermath of tornadoes where one house is leveled and the next door neighbor's house was untouched.

@Greg_L @Armistice thanks for the well wishes. Hopefully this place will be like Fort Knox before the next intense rain storm!

[Greg_L]

We had a lot of puddling in our backyard so we had some French Drains installed. What a difference. They run underground down to the street. When it rains water is just gushing out of that thing. Gutters and draining is a big deal down here.

Down here in the south we need some water around our house foundations. There's a lot of clay in the soil and the moisture helps the clay stay "full" and it keeps foundations from sinking. It gets so hot and dry in the summer the ground dries up and the clay shrinks and foundations get fucked. Something like 60% of the houses in SE Texas have some kind of foundation issue. A lot of people run soaker hoses around their foundation perimeter just to keep the ground saturated. We have no basements so it's actually a benefit down here to have some water run around the sides the house.

[Tadpui]

I have to say that these things were my first line of defense in this whole episode:



It's a Govee water alarm, and these things are cheap and awesome. I've got 1 under our kitchen sink (the diswasher has backed up a few times), 1 next to our water main (which is where the "aquarium window" was, and our water main leaks as well), and 1 in my studio. The one in the studio was the one that I heard first, so I knew as soon as water intruded into the basement. The alerts to my cell phone were pretty slow, but I did eventually get a push notification and an email for each of the 2 basement alarms, plus the blaring alarms themselves. So at least I was able to start moving things right away, thanks to the alarms.

I highly recommend them for any of you that have basement studios!

[vomitHatSteve]

Well that's an adventure.

I'm a big fan of keeping music gear on casters. Not only is it easier to move, but a couple inches of flooding will only slightly ruin your day!

[liv_rong]

Wow, crazy!

[Armistice]

Luckily my studio will be on the first floor... if I ever get there.

[JD01]

Down here in the south we need some water around our house foundations. There's a lot of clay in the soil and the moisture helps the clay stay "full" and it keeps foundations from sinking. It gets so hot and dry in the summer the ground dries up and the clay shrinks and foundations get fucked. Something like 60% of the houses in SE Texas have some kind of foundation issue. A lot of people run soaker hoses around their foundation perimeter just to keep the ground saturated. We have no basements so it's actually a benefit down here to have some water run around the sides the house.

Do people ever build foundations in clay with void formers around them? In the UK we obviously have a little bit of seasonal variation so that we have a minimum foundation depth which is mandated in clay soils. Also, we have trees which cause massive variation in clay moisture content when you build within the zone of influence. As such, when you're using strip foundations in the zone of influence of trees, foundations you use void formers alongside the foundations to prevent damage.

It does add to the cost of the build slightly which is why I'd imagine that people skimp on it during the build and then opt to use the remedial options like the soaker hoses that you mention above.

[musicturtle]

Wow @Tadpui that sucks, but as you said it could have been worse.

When I looked at those first pics, didn't realize that was water halfway up the windows.

Good luck getting it all sorted as quickly as possible.

[Greg_L]

Do people ever build foundations in clay with void formers around them? In the UK we obviously have a little bit of seasonal variation so that we have a minimum foundation depth which is mandated in clay soils. Also, we have trees which cause massive variation in clay moisture content when you build within the zone of influence. As such, when you're using strip foundations in the zone of influence of trees, foundations you use void formers alongside the foundations to prevent damage.

It does add to the cost of the build slightly which is why I'd imagine that people skimp on it during the build and then opt to use the remedial options like the soaker hoses that you mention above.

No idea about void formers. I am certain though that every cost and corner is cut when building houses.

Trees can be a problem. I have five moderately large oak trees on my property. They were twigs when we moved in, now they tower over the house. I love oak trees but their roots are evil.

[JD01]

Do people ever build foundations in clay with void formers around them? In the UK we obviously have a little bit of seasonal variation so that we have a minimum foundation depth which is mandated in clay soils. Also, we have trees which cause massive variation in clay moisture content when you build within the zone of influence. As such, when you're using strip foundations in the zone of influence of trees, foundations you use void formers alongside the foundations to prevent damage.

It does add to the cost of the build slightly which is why I'd imagine that people skimp on it during the build and then opt to use the remedial options like the soaker hoses that you mention above.

No idea about void formers. I am certain though that every cost and corner is cut when building houses.

Trees can be a problem. I have five moderately large oak trees on my property. They were twigs when we moved in, now they tower over the house. I love oak trees but their roots are evil.

Oak trees are pretty high water demand too... you don't have to worry about your soil swelling with those fuckers around... that being said, don't cut them down whatever you do! Your soil will swell like fuck.

We have a lot of building regs in the UK which makes it really hard to cut corners - its also why people like me have a job!

[Greg_L]

Oak trees are pretty high water demand too... you don't have to worry about your soil swelling with those fuckers around... that being said, don't cut them down whatever you do! Your soil will swell like fuck.

We have a lot of building regs in the UK which makes it really hard to cut corners - its also why people like me have a job!

I think in general we want our soil to swell. Or at least stay very hydrated. The way it was explained to me is that our kind of soil provides buoyancy and the foundations are kind of floating in the ground as opposed to sitting there. That's why when the ground heats up and dries out in the summer people start noticing foundation problems. And when there are foundation problems, the repair requires going down to actual bedrock to fix it. We had some minor foundation problems a few years ago. It was really wild and primitive how they fixed it. The heat and droughts and my trees all contributed to my foundation cracking a little. I'm not cutting down the trees though. I like their shade. It's like I have oak umbrellas over my property.

[JD01]

Oak trees are pretty high water demand too... you don't have to worry about your soil swelling with those fuckers around... that being said, don't cut them down whatever you do! Your soil will swell like fuck.

We have a lot of building regs in the UK which makes it really hard to cut corners - its also why people like me have a job!

I think in general we want our soil to swell. Or at least stay very hydrated. The way it was explained to me is that our kind of soil provides buoyancy and the foundations are kind of floating in the ground as opposed to sitting there. That's why when the ground heats up and dries out in the summer people start noticing foundation problems. And when there are foundation problems, the repair requires going down to actual bedrock to fix it. We had some minor foundation problems a few years ago. It was really wild and primitive how they fixed it. The heat and droughts and my trees all contributed to my foundation cracking a little. I'm not cutting down the trees though. I like their shade. It's like I have oak umbrellas over my property.

Swell or shrink... the important thing is that after your foundations are poured you don't want the soil to change volume 'cos that's where your problems start! We have a LOT of high plasticity/volume change potential clay all over the place here and we have really strict regulations about foundation depths and how close to trees you can get.

Everyone talks about root action with trees affecting foundations - in clay, soil desiccation and shrinking is a way bigger issue.