Yesterday afternoon our daughter Danielle came home (her home) from work and smelled *That smell* Anyone with pets knows what I mean by that smell one of the 2 dogs or cats left her a pretty pile. After searching the main floor, she didn’t find any piles. But still smelled that smell..
Heading downstairs…..this is what she found.About a third of the basement underwater. By the time we got there more had come in and this is what we found.
Now, keep in mind they have been married less than a year, a lot of the household items Danielle moved in with are still waiting to be unpacked and blended into the household. BOXES of books waiting for book shelves, pool table, etc. in the back section. The basement also holds Erika’s household goods, kids clothes, their bedroom and sitting room….other than those few items stored here at our house.
Over 1500 sq ft of basement….3/4 of which is under water. Poopy water. The sewer backed up
Thank goodness for rubber gardening boots!
And to make it worse, it’s the city sewer backing up!!! INTO THEIR HOUSE!
Every time a neighbor flushed or ran water more came in.
We were afraid one of the kids flushed something that broke a line, after snaking the outside lines (backed up) they checked the actual city sewer man holes…. and they were overflowing the actual sewer pipe and were at the second step down in the access pipe….for 3/4 of a mile away! The city had been working on the main sewer line 3/4 a mile away on Tuesday and must have accidently created a blockage. Their house happened to be the first in the line with a basement….gravity wins out…ding ding ding…they won the prize!!
After calling the city emergency number they were on site working within an hour and, within 2 hours we could turn the water on.
Restoration company was onsite first and started sucking up the water, spraying decontaminate stuff, blowers dehumidifiers, dryers all going full tilt.
Any furniture that was dry they quickly hauled upstairs which was a good thing…because as soon as they did more *stuff* flowed out of the pipes flooding even more. We joked that half the work of Erika’s moving would be hauling things out of the basement & we appreciated the heavy lifting help,
Now, the clean out begins
The city has said they will cover the damage, (I think our photos of the actual man holes opened showing raw sewage in backed up sewers helped LOL) clean up (also providing a dumpster) and replacement of materials and personal items. The great photo inventory begins
.
Trying to keep dry things dry
It should be interesting how much they will actually cover…I called the carpet company where were purchased the carpet a year ago & the same carpet is $2. a yard more. We need to do this with EACH item in the basement. Erika was in process of sorting kids clothing, out grown to send to the children's resale, items to save for Alix…..everything is soaked with poop.
Well, Danielle wanted to clean the basement out after Erika moved….it’s just happening a bit sooner
Katie
OMG, poor Danielle. She must have been shocked to walk in her house to be hit immediately with that smell. I only hope the city follows through with what they said about paying for the cost.
ReplyDeleteThe smell is thankfully gone after the restoration co sprayed....now it's just sorting what can be salvaged 8/
DeleteOH how awful! Poor Danielle. I sure hope she gets help. Big hugs to her!
ReplyDeleteDebbie, were a "pitch-in" family..were through about half pulling out what can be saved and making detailed lists with photo's of damaged/wet items to be pitched. Its finding dry spots to set *good* items that is getting hard. Anything on the floor is shot.
DeleteOMGoodness .. this is HORRIBLE. Hope that help is at hand!
ReplyDelete