Rec-room/basement saved from flooding

trickman

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Did anyone else experience the torrential downpours we had this past weekend (particularly Friday)? Rain started last Friday evening and didn't stop until Saturday morning in the Chicagoland area. I heard we got around 7" of rain in one night. This was the night I almost lost my rec-room/basement (where all my arcade games are) to groundwater shooting in from the outside drain and steadily rising up in the pit. My pump couldn't keep up with the amount of water coming in, due to the ground being completely saturated. This has never happened before, and this is the most water I've ever seen fall at one time in my area. The only thing I could do was run a hose from my shop-vac to the sump hole and start draining. I could only do this for 20 seconds at a time, as the vac filled with water quickly, and I had to lift it to dump it into a basin sink to let it flow into the sewer drain. I must've done this between 75 and a hundred times throughout the night. By 7am, it had stopped raining and the water was manageable enough for my pump to take over again. I was exhausted and slept into the afternoon the next day, but it was worth it to save the basement.

I got a little water on the basement carpet, but nothing that fans and a dehumidifier couldn't dry up in a day. I was lucky...REALLY lucky that I was able to keep up with the water, or I would've lost a lot of items, and possibly have water-saturated arcade cabs. Seeing the news the next day of how many people were not so lucky and had to curb their belongings made my insides turn, and thank God that I had enough endurance to keep up with the water.
 
I've been there man! It's tough but it sounds like you made it through ok. Between busting your ass all night bailing water and the stress of the whole situation I'm sure you could sleep for days.
I'm in a similar battle at least once a year. My house is already practically in the water table so you could imagine.
 
It didn't help that my wife was out of town overnight visiting family, so I had no help whatsoever! But I made it through! :)
 
My wife is always present but has never helps with the water situation.
She just keeps screaming about how "the water's going to ruin everything!" from the top of the stairs. She never helps.
 
Early on when I first started collecting I had some water issues creep up in my basement too...one thing I learned is that you can't keep the water out...you have to learn to control where it goes...basically I did three things to control this...
First was had french drains installed on front side and a few feet around the walls on each side..has the pump and tied into the drains...this keeps walls dry and directs the water on heavy rain days to where it needs to go ....

Second was to put a aluminum awning over back entrance to basement where small drain would often flood under door when we got heavy rain...

Last thing was to make sure my drains were clean and I used the over-sized downspouts to carry more water out...
I've yet to get any water in the last 8 years since doing this and we get severe heavy downpours here in Pittsburgh on regular basis..

Good luck..to me I have too much invested in these games to take a chance...I do have the older drainage still that I'd like to change..my drains run back into house to basement drain and then to main drain...I'd like to plug that up so no water runs back through my house..but if you keep the area around you house clear of trees and stuff that clogs them you won't have any issues..
 
There was that much rain that night around the St. Louis area. After I moved into this last house how I bought several hundred feet of 6 inch corrugated pipe and I ran all the gutter drains from the roof between 30 to 50 feet away from the house using the corrugated pipe and buried them except for the openings. My property is sloped so the water is routed away from the house down the hill. That was before I finished the basement.

Then during that rain last weekend, I ran out and was curious how well they were working. Water was flowing out those pipes so fast It was like holding a 6 inch round water hose with water spewing out. That was insane. I'm glad that water was re-routed away from the house and not going straight down the foundation.

Good job on rescuing those games. Thats deserves some high kudos.
 
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Good advice; thanks! I'm going to look into french drains and see what my town allows for that. Also, it's time to go up on the ladder and see what I can clean out of the gutters. Thanks guys. Glad to hear I'm not alone.
 
Good job bailing water... Now, buy a more powerful sump pump. And if you REALLY wanted to be overkill, get a DC backup pump for when the power goes out and it's raining.
 
I've been there too man. I have a basement door that used to get water under it during heavy rains. I also have a french drain and sump pump system. My basement has old style cinder block walls which I put a couple coats of drylock over. So far so good.
 
Good job bailing water... Now, buy a more powerful sump pump. And if you REALLY wanted to be overkill, get a DC backup pump for when the power goes out and it's raining.

I have a Basement Watchdog w/ backup battery. The rains were coming in so hard and heavy it overpowered even that! I think an alternate drainage system is likely the answer.
 
It's threads like this that give me a warm fuzzy feeling about my garage-cade...

I would...but we use it for a car, a second freezer, lawn equipment and tools. If I could put the car in the basement instead, I would. Who cares if it floods then?
 
I would...but we use it for a car, a second freezer, lawn equipment and tools. If I could put the car in the basement instead, I would. Who cares if it floods then?

Also, I've put all my games on 3" wheels. Each cab is about an inch off the ground, so if my gameroom flooded, the only thing that would get wet are plastic wheels... makes it super nice to move games around too.
 
So you live up to your name "trickman"...lol. That job can be grueling even if you had a big shop-vac!!! Good job saving the games and that is really what is important here!! No Victims,Trickman can be stopped!
 
Although my games are not in my basement..I know where you guys are coming from. I have an intelligent lighting co. and my shop is my basement...alot of gear down there. I never leave anything on the floor down there...sometimes its soooo easy to come home from a job and want to simply drop everything..but I try to never do it. Flood is a scary thought, though, seeing as how some of my fixtures are worth $1,700 a piece used.......
 
yeah of course the two rooms i picked to be my arcade, even though i drylocked those walls, got water in it. THe day of my bday party i went down there and was greeted with the smell of damp wood lol.. story of my life.
 
In times of distress, you've only got a few minutes to save the valuables ...

We narrowly missed disaster during the height of the Nashville flood this spring, had to move my Donkey Kong machine up into the bed of a truck (parked inside the garage) to avoid the water. The ST:TNG pinball nearby had to take its chances on its own.
 
Or better yet, 1 or 2 small boat bilge pumps. They're made to move serious amounts of water quick, AND they run on 12v so you can power them from a car battery if you lose power.
 
I've got TWO crocks each with two pumps in them on Separate circuits and a automatic backup generator...I'm taking no chances as even when it's not raining I get 3 gallons a minute coming in at certain times of the year. Sounds like you need a higher output sump pump.

I've heard people through around the French Drain term a few times...what the heck is that?
 
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