Rain on 7/19/2007 (Pueblo, Pueblo West, Monument: houses, crawl space, water heater)

[McGowdog]

Anybody get rain last night? I think we got 4 inches out in Pueblo West. On my way home Mrs. McGowdog told me that my neighbor needed help with his basement. By the time I got home, I realized I'd better check my own. Sure enough, one of my four window wells started filling with water. I got the towels, the wet vac and the steam vac ready. Then I went outside to try to dig a trench away from the house where the drain spouts come out. Then I just started shovelling mud from the house along the window well.

I started to get soaked and the lightning was freaking me out. I ran back inside and checked the other window wells. Two of them, no problem. But the one on the north east side, in my office, just started to fill up. I had my wife keep the one at bay and the one in my office had about a foot and a half of water in it. We've got padded carpet. I'm standing on soaked carpet as water is pouring over the window sill and onto the floor. I'm using a 6 gallon shop vac to suck water out of the window tract and in the corner of my window sills. About every minute I got to dump the thing into the toilet, and start over. This went on for about an hour. The next 3 hours we were shop vac-ing and using the steam cleaner to dry the carpet in the office.

The rain didn't let up much, but the window wells didn't fill back up. The window wells are covered very well, but the water just seemed to come in from where the corrugated metal stops and the foundation begins, about 3 or 4 feet below grade.

I'm not the only one who got a wet basement last night. Outside of having negative drainage, a perimeter drain, etc. what can I do to keep those big window wells dry? It almost seems like I could put a plate or barrier in the window well up against the outer wall and window to keep the water from rushing in the basement.

Any thoughts?

[Charles]

Originally Posted by McGowdog

Anybody get rain last night? I think we got 4 inches out in Pueblo West. On my way home Mrs. McGowdog told me that my neighbor needed help with his basement. By the time I got home, I realized I'd better check my own. Sure enough, one of my four window wells started filling with water. I got the towels, the wet vac and the steam vac ready. Then I went outside to try to dig a trench away from the house where the drain spouts come out. Then I just started shovelling mud from the house along the window well.

I started to get soaked and the lightning was freaking me out. I ran back inside and checked the other window wells. Two of them, no problem. But the one on the north east side, in my office, just started to fill up. I had my wife keep the one at bay and the one in my office had about a foot and a half of water in it. We've got padded carpet. I'm standing on soaked carpet as water is pouring over the window sill and onto the floor. I'm using a 6 gallon shop vac to suck water out of the window tract and in the corner of my window sills. About every minute I got to dump the thing into the toilet, and start over. This went on for about an hour. The next 3 hours we were shop vac-ing and using the steam cleaner to dry the carpet in the office.

The rain didn't let up much, but the window wells didn't fill back up. The window wells are covered very well, but the water just seemed to come in from where the corrugated metal stops and the foundation begins, about 3 or 4 feet below grade.

I'm not the only one who got a wet basement last night. Outside of having negative drainage, a perimeter drain, etc. what can I do to keep those big window wells dry? It almost seems like I could put a plate or barrier in the window well up against the outer wall and window to keep the water from rushing in the basement.

Any thoughts?

I saw stuff like this when I was looking for a cover:

The Custom Built Window Bubble Window Well Cover from Dilworth Manufacturing

But I ended up buying the metal grate, one size fits all, sold at depot. I need something to keep the kids from falling inside.

[COflower]

I live in Briargate and didn't get squat for rain. Although the temps cooled a lot which was nice but only a sprinkle here and there. Nothing to write "home" about nor even worthy of a mention anywhere.

Same with tonight (Friday night). Just clouds and thats about it.

[Joebondoe]

Where in Home Depot do they have the metal window well covers? I've been all through most of the stores here and never saw any.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Joebondoe

Where in Home Depot do they have the metal window well covers? I've been all through most of the stores here and never saw any.

I got mine at the HD in Monument. They were in the lumber section in the southeast corner of the store. They are made of aluminum and have sliding ribs which are adjusted to fit my "half oval" shape of my window well. I also bought an emergency escape ladder on the internet.

Takes about 30 minutes to adjust, and it really helps if two people do it.

This is it here:

Adjust A Grate Window Well Covers

[Nadine]

We have the bubble on ours. Got little over and inch of rain. But because of high water table and irrigation, basements, cellars even some crawl spaces, in our area, all have sump pumps. If they don't at at first, they soon will. Regardless of the reason, they are well worth the trouble. Many areas in the plains do not absorb water quickly. Thus arroyos. When many homes are built it does cause a problem along with paved roads, parking lots etc. Myself, I think if I had that problem once, I would put in sump pumps, not just window well covers. They only run when water lifts the float.

[McGowdog]

Since I have a finished basement WITH padded carpet I guess I need four sump pumps; one for each window well. Then I'll have to wait another 7 years before this happens again!

I've got a guy coming in today to use structural fill or back fill to get that negative drainage back. The northeast corner of the house is where it kind of settled and it's near the window well that filled up with water. Those bubbles or window well covers have nothing to do with what filled up our wells. Water came shooting in to them from about 3 or 4 feet below grade.

I also got that poly 4" pipe to hook up to the downspouts. I've got two of them draining onto my lawn. I should have thought of this before. Some people use these and bury right into the ground, but they must drain somewhere. Maybe into the Frech drain or a perimeter drain or something. I assume that whatever you do with these, they just need to slope away from the foundation. The ones I got are 10' long. It seems like they should do the job.

[Nadine]

Originally Posted by McGowdog

Since I have a finished basement WITH padded carpet I guess I need four sump pumps; one for each window well. Then I'll have to wait another 7 years before this happens again!

I've got a guy coming in today to use structural fill or back fill to get that negative drainage back. The northeast corner of the house is where it kind of settled and it's near the window well that filled up with water. Those bubbles or window well covers have nothing to do with what filled up our wells. Water came shooting in to them from about 3 or 4 feet below grade.

I also got that poly 4" pipe to hook up to the downspouts. I've got two of them draining onto my lawn. I should have thought of this before. Some people use these and bury right into the ground, but they must drain somewhere. Maybe into the Frech drain or a perimeter drain or something. I assume that whatever you do with these, they just need to slope away from the foundation. The ones I got are 10' long. It seems like they should do the job.

No that is not how you use sump pumps. Do some research. You are lucky if the seepage was only in the window wells but that means the whole foundation had water against it. But most basement can have a seepage problem. Through so called water sealed walls whether rain or leakage from pipes in house or lawn sprinklers. Water is going to run down no matter where it comes from. A family a mile from us was gone for a week in which the water heater sprung a leak. Now they are putting in sump pumps which they want for back up. after they live in a trailer camper while repairs are being done. Told it will take a long time to get the smell and damp out of the walls of the basement. Not to mention the water bill. The drainage you are speaking of sound good maybe for your area or maybe even here but did not help the neighbors non in their 2 yr old home, which I understand they had some sort because the main irriagtion ditch is behind their backyard and backed up to an irrigated alfalfa field, they said that with the field, the ditch, the rain and then the water heater all seeping against the walls, plus they said they soaked the lawn real well before they left because it had been so hot. The basement was just a pool. Am told others in that new housing area are putting sump pump too now. Old timers tried to tell them but they believed in the newer things that are done. After all what can grey haired old farmers know.

[McGowdog]

Originally Posted by Nadine

No that is not how you use sump pumps. Do some research. You are lucky if the seepage was only in the window wells but that means the whole foundation had water against it. But most basement can have a seepage problem. Through so called water sealed walls whether rain or leakage from pipes in house or lawn sprinklers. Water is going to run down no matter where it comes from. A family a mile from us was gone for a week in which the water heater sprung a leak. Now they are putting in sump pumps which they want for back up. after they live in a trailer camper while repairs are being done. Told it will take a long time to get the smell and damp out of the walls of the basement. Not to mention the water bill. The drainage you are speaking of sound good maybe for your area or maybe even here but did not help the neighbors non in their 2 yr old home, which I understand they had some sort because the main irriagtion ditch is behind their backyard and backed up to an irrigated alfalfa field, they said that with the field, the ditch, the rain and then the water heater all seeping against the walls, plus they said they soaked the lawn real well before they left because it had been so hot. The basement was just a pool. Am told others in that new housing area are putting sump pump too now. Old timers tried to tell them but they believed in the newer things that are done. After all what can grey haired old farmers know.

You can do some research if you'd like. I don't need to do research to see that water was coming into the window wells from between the foundation and the corrugated window well about 3 feet below grade. This was during a very heavy rain storm (4 inches of rain). People have done a number of things keeping water out of or drained from window wells; up to and including putting sump pumps at the bottom of them. Do your research.

[dpitts]

I had the same problem with a window well at my house in Peyton. When water collected in the window well my carpet got soaked. I do not know how it came in. It may have came in between window and basement wall. Or maybe even at the foundation level. All I know is that when it colleced in well my floors got wet. So I solved the problem by stopping it from collecting. My house had a periemter draining system that ran from the back of the house towards the front below the foundation level right under the window well. It seems most houses do. Water is supposed to drain through the soil or down the side of house and run into this drain. Because of the dense clay like soil in my yard around and under window well and surrounding area the water could not make it to the perferated perimeter draining system. So I had my plumber dig a hole in the window well down to the perimeter drain and placed a vertical drain pipe which sat on top of the perimeter drain pipe. He then placed some sort of grated cover on the top of vertical pipe. The grate was level with the soil in the window well. He placed back the dirt around the vertical pipe and packed it in. Now water that runs into window well immediately gets sent to perimeter drain. It can no longer collect. I hope this helps. The whole job took him 6 hours.