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What a mess! The nor'easter left us with 6 inches of water in the basement and no furnace or hot water.
Does anybody have any good advice for mold and mildew? One room is slightly elevated from the rest of the basement with two by fours and plywood with carpeting on the plywood. It's soaked. Does that have to be torn out or is there some way to treat the carpet?
Sorry Dockside but it is safe to say it is time to call the insurance company.
Once plywood is submerged it will begin to delaminate.The 2x4's will begin to rot as well as the rug.In a couple of days it will begin to smell and you don't want to start the mold growth.I'ts best to pull it all out as well as (if it's sheetrock) at least the bottom board of the walls.
when replacing you should should use materials that will hold up to flooding
Replace the bottom 12 inches of your wall with a cement baord and tile the floors.This would be a great help if you ever take on water again.
To dockside: ---for the wet and moldy basement--- throw out the carpet! Once the mold has started to grow, you can never get rid of the spores, at least not from what I've read and experienced. I'd remove everything, open all the doors and windows and remove anything still in the basement. Then I' d use a solution of one part bleach /one part water and wipe down -completely- every surface. Lots of fans placed to draw the airflow toward the outside is good and you may have to do that for many days, depending how dry outside it is.
When you get all the moisture and stink out, then assess how the water got inside, such as through the foundation or through the doors and windows, then fix those areas so it doesn't happen again. You want to make sure the natural drainage of water runs AWAY from the house, not towards it. If it seeped through the cement foundation, which happened to me, after everything is REALLY dry, you can paint the inside walls of the cement foundation w/ Dry-Lock. It works well. My basement was unfinished, if your's is finished, I don't know how you'd fix it. You might also think about a sump-pump, if that fits your situation and also a dehumidifier with a drainage hose attached to a drain. Not the kind you have to empty . I had the former and it took a LOT of moisture out of the air in the basement, even when it wasn't raining. Best of luck!
we are in the middle of the same nightmare 2 weeks ago my boyfriends home was flooded also in New Rochelle...he has a sump pump but since he lost power in the home it didnt wk so we ended up w 7-8 inches of water down in the entire basement. Since this happened we have been going back & forth w/ the ins comp and still cant get a restoration company to come over. If they will they refuse to give a quote on what it will cost. Now 2 days ago we had the other rain storm and he was at wk and I wasnt around so we werent able to keep an eye on the house. Well we got home that night and again it flooded. So now we have to do a second sump pump and put and add a special drain. Get a whole new carpet and remove the panneling (which was the plan anyway but was hoping we can hold off for a yr) also the water heater went w the 1st storm and now the oil burner isnt working from the last storm. We also have to wait for the restoration company to come in and hopefully stay in or close to what the ins is willing to cover!
Def take that carpet out and have a comp come in and make sure the spores havent taken over your home....that will be another nigtmare!
Opps didnt even see the date this post was! ok forget what I said.....by now your issues are fixed!
The latest nor'easter got us again, but this time we were better prepared. I considered a sump pump, but every time we flood, the storm knocks out electricity.
If you have a sump pit in your basement try removing the cap on the cleanout pipe leading to the sewer. The water will quickly drain out of the basement. It's hard to do in a pit full of water, so once you've pumped out your basement, get ready for the next flood by making that cap easy to remove.
Wrap the cap threads with plenty of plumbers tape and keep a large wrench within easy reach of the sump pit, because once you have the water coming in the basement you don't want to have to find it.
We flooded last week again and lost electricity, but just swept it down the open sewer cleanout.
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What a mess! The nor'easter left us with 6 inches of water in the basement and no furnace or hot water.
