Sehr Interessant, Zwei

'Kay...how many floods do I have to deal with in a single month, hmmm? Thankfully, my house is high and dry this time. My mom had noticed some water around two cabinets downstairs. We got them moved out of the way, and found that a join in the tube that drained the furnace was dripping. It's taped up temporarily. My mom's hoping to avoid calling anyone about it until she has to bring the heater guy back anyway (can't remember for what). That one was minor, and possibly fixable if I could have found the right part.

So then I turned around and happened to glance at the concrete behind the washer and drier. It looked rather like a weeping wall, sad to say. We figured out that water was coming in through the window right above and assumed it was the snow in the window well melting, since today's the warmest day we've had in a while. Then we went outside to bail out the water, and decided that a shop vac would probably work better. I offered Mom the use of mine, but she decided she might as well have her own, so we found one on sale at Fred Meyer. Zoom there, zoom back, plug in, and we discovered that water was continuing to seep in even AFTER we'd vacuumed it all out.

It took me a while to figure out what was going on. The ground back there is sloped to the north. So is the concrete patio right close to the window. The snow was melting, seeping under and through the concrete, and winding up at the window well. To make matters worse, the rainspout from the roof ALSO tends to send water back there. Even better, the ground is too frozen right now to try and dig anything out. So...we've got an extension on the rainspout (a nice bendy one to redirect the water west). Can't do much about the water already under the patio, or frozen into the ground south of it, but at least the roof melt-off won't be adding to it. On the bright side, the main drain in the basement is only a few feet from where the water is leaking in, so it goes right back out. And the seepage is not very fast, so the drain can keep up with it easily. One obvious problem is the window well itself. It only goes a foot down. I think if it went down two or three feet, with good caulk between itself and the foundation, this would be a non-issue. Replacing it...will be a mess and involve chopping through the concrete patio. Not sure what Mom plans to do. It hasn't done this every spring, but it would be nice to avoid a repeat.

Oh, and I remembered while Mom was driving me back after we'd given up for the day that it was Superbowl Sunday, and remarked that fixing a flood was MUCH more enjoyable than watching the Superbowl. Not sure she agreed, but she did laugh. :^)