My parents have the same type of stairwell and installed a sunbrella awning over it several years ago after a major flooding incident. They have wood siding and picked a brown similar to the siding, so its very discreet, and it works wonders.

Anonymous wrote:I have this same issue. Drain at the bottom of the walkout stairs fills up with water during heavy rains. Is it possible that the drain at the opposite end is clogged? How can I tell where the water exits?

You need to snake the drain pipe. There's probably years' worth of debris in the pipe that connects between your house and the main waste pipe under the street. It's a cheap and easy job for a professional plumber (should only cost $200-300).

I have this same issue. Drain at the bottom of the walkout stairs fills up with water during heavy rains. Is it possible that the drain at the opposite end is clogged? How can I tell where the water exits?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


Is it a new home OP? Is it possible a subpar neighbor with a subpar house sabotaged a drain? There is a well known case in Langley about this.

OMG! You are too much.

Didn't you hear about this? Everyone else has.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:W have the same walk-up (now I know!) with a drain..unfortunately the drain is not connected to a pipe. After heavy rains (yesterday) water starts coming up from the saturated ground and we get water through the door. A mess yesterday as we were not home.

Our 1940's house had a drain that also went *no where*, was maybe 6 feet deep. After the torrential rains in '06, and right after we started to move in, our basement flooded (we knew it had water problems). We had to have french drains installed under the basement floor, and a pipe now connects the drain to the interior drain along the perimter of the basement. What a mess!!! On Wednesday night, leaves and debris had covered the drain and water started to build up and was starting to seep under the door, to which I immediately swept up the debris and the water drained.

Heavy rains are a pain in the ass! Even though we spent thousands on our water problem and have been dry for 7 years, I still panic when we have heavy rain for several days.

That is illegal

Anonymous wrote:W have the same walk-up (now I know!) with a drain..unfortunately the drain is not connected to a pipe. After heavy rains (yesterday) water starts coming up from the saturated ground and we get water through the door. A mess yesterday as we were not home.

Our 1940's house had a drain that also went *no where*, was maybe 6 feet deep. After the torrential rains in '06, and right after we started to move in, our basement flooded (we knew it had water problems). We had to have french drains installed under the basement floor, and a pipe now connects the drain to the interior drain along the perimter of the basement. What a mess!!! On Wednesday night, leaves and debris had covered the drain and water started to build up and was starting to seep under the door, to which I immediately swept up the debris and the water drained.

Heavy rains are a pain in the ass! Even though we spent thousands on our water problem and have been dry for 7 years, I still panic when we have heavy rain for several days.

Anonymous wrote:We have this too. The old owners told us that putting a rubber tire mat over the drain was a lifesaver. Something like this:

http://thematking.com/business_industry/industrial/rubbermats/tire-link/tire_link_mats.htm

We get water in our basement from other sources now but not from this drain. You still have to keep it clear of leaves and debris, but this prevents the drain from getting clogged.

We have this too. Works pretty well. My anal, cheap DH (but I love him!) cleans the stairwell before every big storm though.

The rain under the door thing has happened to us twice - it's very minimal "seeping" when it does, and it takes a combination of lots of debris in the outdoor stairwell drain and very heavy rains for it to be a problem. We have ceramic tile on the floor in the back of the basement, so no issues with carpeting. My question is, if we ever sell, would we need to disclose? We have a french drain and sump pump that fixed a different water problem, after which we've had no problems with water entering, other than the door issue twice. We do all we can to keep the drain free of debris and have caulked where we can around the door. Ugh, water stresses me out.

We had an interior French drain installed and they also put a system in our outside stairwell. So far, it is working, thankfully. We used northern Va waterproofing but there are a number. Very expensive, but they will negotiate.

we have a rubberized mat over our drain, which works really well

Anonymous wrote:


Is it a new home OP? Is it possible a subpar neighbor with a subpar house sabotaged a drain? There is a well known case in Langley about this.

OMG! You are too much.

W have the same walk-up (now I know!) with a drain..unfortunately the drain is not connected to a pipe. After heavy rains (yesterday) water starts coming up from the saturated ground and we get water through the door. A mess yesterday as we were not home.

We are in the same boat OP. We are getting the drain snaked this weekend as there is still standing water today.

OP, may consider "quick dams" - they are temporary and I'm not sure if they would fit your situation, but it may work. Since you know the water is only coming in under the door, if you can find one in the right size to place outside the door when you go away/ right before a big storm. They expand when they get wet and act as a barrier dam (similar to an old-fashioned sandbag).

http://www.amazon.com/Quick-Dam-QD617-1-Barrier-17-Feet/dp/B0085S2DEU/ref=sr_1_3?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1399012196&sr=1-3&keywords=quick+dam

Anonymous wrote:


Is it a new home OP? Is it possible a subpar neighbor with a subpar house sabotaged a drain? There is a well known case in Langley about this.

Ha. No. Old house. 1950's. No new construction nearby. I remember seeing something about that, though....

I think what happened was the following:

- our gutters, while clean, got a little busted up with all of the frozen mess this winter, so they weren't diverting water quickly enough, and dripping down into the stairwell. Since the stairwell is completely open to the elements, it was also catching rain like a bucket setting outside would.
- there was more gunk (leaves, grass clippings, etc.) at the bottom of the stairs than there should have been (none) and more accumulated during the storm
- it rained a lot

We were here through the last hurricane scare and a couple other flooding events in the last 2 years, and this was the first time we had this quantity of water. We've had a little come in when the wind blew the rain towards the door, but never quite this much. We have French drains and two sump pumps (we have a crawl space which stayed dry)...only water coming in was at the door.