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bailing out the basement, etc.
Apr. 28th, 2019 08:12 amWell, that's why there's water in part of the basement I've never seen water in before. The PVC piping that's supposed to lead water pumped out by the sump pump to a point several feet away from the house is busted, right by the house. So now, when the sump pump kicks on, it sprays the water right on the foundation, in the corner between the back wall of the great room and the bay window wall of the in-law sitting room.
A handyman I contacted said he couldn't fix it. Why the heck not? I'm looking at this page: https://homeguides.sfgate.com/repairing-ruptured-pvc-pipe-33814.html and it doesn't look that difficult. Maybe I should just drive back to the Suburbs of Despair and try to fix it myself. The forecast is now not showing rain until the late evening, so it might be a good day for such work. I don't want to surprise the tenants too early in the morning. Also, perhaps I should see if my kid wants to go to Brookline Open Studios. How much should I be shirking parental duty to work on the house? Hopefully this is temporary and I do sell the house this summer.
Yesterday I went to the house, dumped out the dehumidifier tank (full of course), and went to work on the puddles on the floor with the shop-vac. (Actually is "Shop-Vac" a brand? It's not branded "Shop-Vac" so I technically should be saying "wet/dry vac"?) Yay it works, yay it has a hose. Perhaps it would be more effective if I had an attachment at the end of the hose, but it was pretty effective. Sucked some water out of the sump pump wells, too; I did't want the water to either be pumped out by the sump pump and "helpfully" sprayed on the side of the house, grr. Sucked about 24 gallons out of the sump pump well and the water level would not drop any more after the first 16 gallons, so probably I had hit the water table. No sense in trying to shop-vac out the entire aquifer. Then I looked again at the puddle near the stairs, and more water had seeped back to that part of the floor. It wasn't raining much yesterday. I don't know how much it is that the ground behind the stairs is utterly saturated, and how much it is that water was dammed behind the clutter under the stairs. I should get a junk removal service is. To had off the tenants going "ack, you're throwing away my stuff!!!" when I have the pile of mildew-y, cobweb-y junk removed from the basement, I've e-mailed the tenants, telling them to inspect whatever they think they want in the basement-- and pack whatever they think is salvageable.
Then I dug up the septic tank cap. It was where I originally thought, just a bit deeper than I had remembered. I carefully measured, based on my little map, thrust the shovel in, and CLANG! hit a rebar handle on the first try. Always read the documentation first before you go digging around.
Then I was too dirty to go back in the house so I haven't had a chance to look for the hose attachment on the dehumidifier. Really, yes, I should go back out there today. *sigh*
A handyman I contacted said he couldn't fix it. Why the heck not? I'm looking at this page: https://homeguides.sfgate.com/repairing-ruptured-pvc-pipe-33814.html and it doesn't look that difficult. Maybe I should just drive back to the Suburbs of Despair and try to fix it myself. The forecast is now not showing rain until the late evening, so it might be a good day for such work. I don't want to surprise the tenants too early in the morning. Also, perhaps I should see if my kid wants to go to Brookline Open Studios. How much should I be shirking parental duty to work on the house? Hopefully this is temporary and I do sell the house this summer.
Yesterday I went to the house, dumped out the dehumidifier tank (full of course), and went to work on the puddles on the floor with the shop-vac. (Actually is "Shop-Vac" a brand? It's not branded "Shop-Vac" so I technically should be saying "wet/dry vac"?) Yay it works, yay it has a hose. Perhaps it would be more effective if I had an attachment at the end of the hose, but it was pretty effective. Sucked some water out of the sump pump wells, too; I did't want the water to either be pumped out by the sump pump and "helpfully" sprayed on the side of the house, grr. Sucked about 24 gallons out of the sump pump well and the water level would not drop any more after the first 16 gallons, so probably I had hit the water table. No sense in trying to shop-vac out the entire aquifer. Then I looked again at the puddle near the stairs, and more water had seeped back to that part of the floor. It wasn't raining much yesterday. I don't know how much it is that the ground behind the stairs is utterly saturated, and how much it is that water was dammed behind the clutter under the stairs. I should get a junk removal service is. To had off the tenants going "ack, you're throwing away my stuff!!!" when I have the pile of mildew-y, cobweb-y junk removed from the basement, I've e-mailed the tenants, telling them to inspect whatever they think they want in the basement-- and pack whatever they think is salvageable.
Then I dug up the septic tank cap. It was where I originally thought, just a bit deeper than I had remembered. I carefully measured, based on my little map, thrust the shovel in, and CLANG! hit a rebar handle on the first try. Always read the documentation first before you go digging around.
Then I was too dirty to go back in the house so I haven't had a chance to look for the hose attachment on the dehumidifier. Really, yes, I should go back out there today. *sigh*
