What should I do....

[TraumaRN]

Thanks to all the heavy rain plus massive snowmelt of the last couple days my basement started to leak, not a huge leak but enough that I had to move my computer, my couch etc...So I decide to peak behind the area where the water is coming from by pulling up the baseboard and i notice the drywall is ruined...and looked like it had been ruined by water damage long ago...so I tore up a good section of the basement wall down to the bare foundation.

However then the real surprise hit me...what looked like some kind of mold on the drywall. Now I'm in a bit of pinch...suddenly I don't want to be anywhere near my basement! Now it isnt much but it's definitely mold/fungi of some sort...should I be contacting my insurance company ASAP?? And how much would something like this cost me???

 

[Billb2]

Yes, and a lot.

 

[rudeguy]

Originally posted by: Billb2
Yes, and a lot.

Good thing he got that new job to pay for it

 

[spidey07]

No flood insurance means no money for you. You should contact somebody to repair your foundation, many thousands. But contacting insurance and documenting your claim would be the first step (pictures).

 

[TraumaRN]

Originally posted by: spidey07
No flood insurance means no money for you. You should contact somebody to repair your foundation, many thousands. But contacting insurance and documenting your claim would be the first step (pictures).

I have flood...and mold/fungi coverage....

 

[DaTT]

Did you see where the leak is coming in? I had a crack in my foundation and just had it injected with resin...cost me under $500 to fix that leak.

EDIT: Unfinished basement though. It will cost you more if they have to rip out and replace drywall.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: DaTT
Did you see where the leak is coming in? I had a crack in my foundation and just had it injected with resin...cost me under $500 to fix that leak.

EDIT: Unfinished basement though. It will cost you more if they have to rip out and replace drywall.

My first house used to leak water around the gas line coming thru the foundation. $10 can of hydraulic cement fixed the problem.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: DeathBUA

Originally posted by: spidey07
No flood insurance means no money for you. You should contact somebody to repair your foundation, many thousands. But contacting insurance and documenting your claim would be the first step (pictures).

I have flood...and mold/fungi coverage....

Well then you call insurance. Done deal, make sure to document it.

 

[Jeff7]

Definitely look into some sort of drainage system then. The basement at my parents' house flooded every few years, though just with up to an inch of water before it started flowing out the back door. There's a sump pump, but it doesn't do very much when the water would also come in through the numerous cracks on three sides of the house and up through the foundation. (The ground slopes toward the house on three out of four sides. The builders were evidently unaware of the relationship between water and gravity.)

After ripping out everything in the basement which was affected the first time, including carpeting, some paneling and drywall, some furniture, etc, and after a few more floods, they finally spent the money on a drainage system. I think it might be called a "French Drain," but I'm not sure.

Around the front and one side of the house, a trench was dug to at least the depth of the foundation. A perforated pipe was placed in the bottom, and then the rest was filled with crushed stone. The trench and pipe led to an existing drainage ditch along the side of the property. The contractor also drilled a large hole in the frost barrier at the back of the house; he said that since water was forcing its way up through the foundation, and because the sump pump ran nearly continuously during prolonged rainstorms, water was pooling in the stone bedding below the concrete in the foundation, and that the frost barrier was preventing its escape. So the hole was drilled, and a pipe was fitted to it. This also was directed to the drainage ditch.

Thus far, there have been only a few long rainstorms, persisting for several days, with no signs of basement flooding.


Long story short: Do something about the real problem, which is the fact that water is even making it to your foundation or basement walls. You can fill in whatever crack it is that's letting water in now, but unless you waterproof that wall completely, it'll find another way in.
And of course, thinking "Maybe it won't ever rain that hard again," isn't going to stop nature.