[Bill Baker]

While watching the news this evening, I saw a reporter reporting from your town standing waist deep in the midlle of the main road.
 I don't know how far up you are and just wanted to make sure you were high and dry.

 Just a concerned friend checking in. Let me (us) know.

[Scott F.]

Hiya Bill,

Yep, all is well. I don't live in Pacific city limits, I'm actually about five miles north of the river up in the hills. Things got a little exciting Tuesday though.

A couple of years ago we had an alarm system installed in the house and at the time we decided to have a moisture sensor installed in our (mostly) finished basement where my two big listening rooms are. Well, after a full day of rain (about 7 inches worth) about 11:30 Tuesday night the phone starts ringing. On the other end of the line was Brinks telling me they were reading a moisture sensor alarm going off and asked me to go downstairs and check it. Sure enough, I had water coming in though the foundation.

We're normally dry even when it rains. About 10 years ago, on top of an already saturated ground, we got 9 inches of rain in about six hours. Needless to say, my house tried to stay buoyant but some of the floor and foundation cracked and we took on about two inches of water in the basement. Even though I chipped back and patched the cracks, when we get these gully washers (6"+) in a short period of time, the water still seems to find its way in.

Tuesday I had some warning with Brinks. That let me get up the carpets and rugs plus any other stuff that was on the floor. After that, I just let the water run until the rain let up. After going through this a couple of times, I just roll with the punches. I break out the squeegee, the wet dry vac and fill my Hudson sprayer with Hospital grade biocide/fungicide/algicide and start spraying.

Sometime later this year we're looking to do an addition to the house. When we do it, I plan on adding drain tiles inside and outside of the existing foundation. Hopefully this will keep the water out once and for all.

Anyway, all is well. Thanks for checking  Hey, I still owe you a box or two don't I 

[JLM]

Scott,

Make sure they back fill with pea stone most of the way up the wall (for much better drainage) and use a sock (sand filter around the tile so it stays clean longer).  I love pea stone.  It self levels/compacts and also prevents frost heaving against the foundations walls (probably why you have cracks in the walls to start with).  I'd also consider fluted insulation board against the outside foundation walls to improve comfort, reduce heating bills, and aid in drainage.

I also highly recommend 6 inch gutters (commercial size but only cost a bit more) and using tile to drain them well away from the house.  The larger gutters will handle the real gully washers and prevent hard rains from overshooting the gutters.

We did the sock, pea stone, gutters, and gutter drains (plus generous overhangs) on our 3 year old house which is located in heavy clay as our basement is finished too.  The code required sump pump has never run.

In my previous house I added a battery powered sump pump on top of the existing pump.  The battery was supposed to be good for weeks of steady use and after a few years can be used in the car.  Great solution if you're away and power is lost during heavy rains (gee that never happens does it?  ).

[alexstl]

Hi Scott,  sorry to hear about these problems.  Do you need some help to do the clean up work?  I could work on Sat. evening, Sun or Mon or even later in the week.  Let me know.  Alex

[Scott F.]

Alex,

Thanks for the offer but we've got it put back to together already. Luckily I got everything off the floor when the water was running. After that it was a simple job of sucking up the leftovers and spraying a healthy dose of bio/fungicide.

Thanks for the offer 

[Bill Baker]

 Hi Scott,
 I'm glad to hear you were not in the brunt of this flooding. When I saw "Reporting from Pacific", I was obviously concerned.

 I know all too well about flooding since our 100 year storm in 2006 where I had 6 feet of water in the store. I heard reports that this week's flooding is the worst in 80 years and is only a glimpse of what is to come this spring due to current whether patterns.

 Even though they say ours was a once in a 100 year event, I still get a bit nervous when I see a lot of rain in the forecast. I guess it takes some time to get over it. You know how long it takes to clear out 1300 sq ft? Where do you put everything? We have had some flooding here the past few weeks as well but nothing that has effected me.

  Again, glad to hear you are safe but can't help but feel for those who have to go through this across the nation.