Two inches of water in my basement

[Anonymous]

What do I do first? What are my steps here? I already turned off the water valve. Am getting a shop vac in there to start draining but have to run it off the car because power is out after storms.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, hire someone. You don’t want mold and that’s a lot of water. Let the professionals with their advanced tools take care of it.

[Anonymous]

Do you know where the water came in?

From a window?

Ground up? Do you have a sump pump? Is it working?

Unless a pipe burst, it's probably not something shutting off the water main would help.

You can call a plumber (if sump pump related). Maybe a water remediation company if it's bad. Definitely shop vac, fans, dehumidifier ASAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, hire someone. You don’t want mold and that’s a lot of water. Let the professionals with their advanced tools take care of it.

Who do I hire? Mold people? Do I call home insurance first?

[Anonymous]

No sump pump. We are at the top of a hill so ground up seems unlikely but I don’t know.

[Anonymous]

Call someone like ServPro or another disaster repair company. It’s going to take forever for you to do this yourself with a shop vac and you risk additional damage (like mold) the longer the water sits.

[Anonymous]

Hire it out and start looking to move.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No sump pump. We are at the top of a hill so ground up seems unlikely but I don’t know.

How are your gutters? Downspouts?

Has it ever happened before? How long have you lived there?

[Anonymous]

OP don't call insurance if you can cover the remediation costs yourself. Save a homeowner claim for something massive.

You don't want to be dropped.

[Anonymous]

Insurance doesn't cover if water came from outside. It only covers internal plumbing water.

That would be flood insurance if it comes from outside

[Anonymous]

Hire a water mitigation / restoration company. ServPro is a big chain one with franchises all over. If you’re in NOVA, I recommend Alliance Water Restoration. They helped us last year when our sump pump failed and they were great.

Also have a plumber out if you suspect the water is not from outside (although given the rain, that’s probably unlikely).

[Anonymous]

Be careful not to get electrocuted when power returns.

I would not use a shop vac, get a submersible pump.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Wayne-1-6-HP-WaterBUG-Submersible-Utility-Pump-with-Multi-Flo-Technology-WWB/207072430

Servpro are good but generally they just pump up water, set an industrial dehumidifiers and standup some industrial high velocity air movers.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/B-Air-1-4-HP-Air-Mover-Blower-Fan-for-Water-Damage-Restoration-Carpet-Dryer-Floor-Home-and-Plumbing-Use-in-Blue-BA-VP-25-BL/207012958

Since you don’t have power, they should be able to supply a generator so they are best option but pricey. You may be able to buy all this equipment including a generator for their service fee.

Is the basement finished? Carpet or concrete or tile?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Insurance doesn't cover if water came from outside. It only covers internal plumbing water.

That would be flood insurance if it comes from outside

You don’t call insurance for 2 inches of water.

[Anonymous]

Serv Pro are crooks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Insurance doesn't cover if water came from outside. It only covers internal plumbing water.

That would be flood insurance if it comes from outside

+ 1

We had several inches of water in our basement after a storm, but got lucky because it was due to a sump pump failure and we had a sewer and drain rider, which covered it. Of course if the sump hadn’t failed then we wouldn’t have had the water in our basement, so double edged sword there. For straight up stormwater in the house, homeowners will not cover it and I wouldn’t let them know about it because you don’t want to be on their radar and not even get a payment from it.

With everything going on with climate change, basically everyone should have flood insurance these days.

Remediation can easily be 20k +. Our insurance company paid several grand for the water restoration to come pump put the water and run fans for serval days. It was thousands more to rip out and re-do flooring and drywall. Fun fact - LVP is not actually waterproof for heavy water like this. I see so many people on this forum recommend LVP for the basement because of potential water issues, but anything more than minimal water damage that is immediately soaked up is going to require new flooring. The concept of waterproof flooring is a scam.