Floodwater rising...solved the puzzle!

[infernalis]

Tonight I went downstairs to hang out in my basement den and I immediately noticed water seeping up through the seams in the floor.

So I walked over and looked to find my sump hole completely filled and ready to overflow.

The water table (our well) has risen to meet the basement floor, and it's raining again!

We were NOT prepared, so I had to scramble around and go out to the track to fetch hoses from the watering system in the dark, half of my adapter fittings were out there too.

So we get the hose hooked up and started the pump. Nothing happens, I look and there is a gob of that plastic easter grass all jammed up in my sump pump.

I hooked up pump number two, it hardly made a difference, fired up the gasoline pump, and it won't prime!

So I finally hooked up our 220 volt monster pump (It's a sewer treatment pump, it's big) and it has been running for two hours now, at least it's pulling the level down a bit, and keeping the water off the floor.

This thing will be running non stop now for about the next month!!

No rest here until the water table / underground aquifer recedes below the 8 foot mark.

Meanwhile, the fire hose running out into the yard will be belching a couple hundred gallons a minute. :mad: and our electric meter is spinning like mad!! next months power bill is going to be scary big.

[blindfireak40]

Yikes, Wayne, send some our way! From the sounds of it, there's enough water on your property to keep the farmers AND the Smelt happy lol

Best of luck keeping things unflooded, and with making the electric bill next month :(

[danarchy911]

so sorry to hear this! i hope it all clears up quickly.

[percey39]

Sounds like an interesting night mate. I hope all goes well and your power bill is not too extreme!

[infernalis]

Sounds like an interesting night mate. I hope all goes well and your power bill is not too extreme!

It's been 8 years since the water table rose this high, I don't get much sleep, and I remember that $500+ electric bill very well.

Back in 1998 when this happened, I burned up a big Honda gas powered pump, they were not made for 24/7 continuous duty, so after 3 weeks of never shutting off except to refuel it, the motor died.

So I had to go to a commercial supplier to buy that $1800 electric monster pump.

http://images.drillspot.com/pimages/265/26559_300.jpg

[percey39]

An $1800 electrical pump, Wow it would be a monster mate. How is the noise from it? I hope its bearable for you and your family to sleep.

[Sapphyr]

Oh wow D: I hope all clears up well and everything. I've never experienced a flood before, so I wouldn't know what even a little one is like :c

[infernalis]

I just took this picture, the pump is silent, it's underwater. Look close, you can see the current in the water.

Goulds rates the pump at 280 gallons per minute.

http://www.reptard.info/ssnakess/pump.jpg

[Reptile_Reptile]

wow why do you have to run it so long? thats a lot of water it pumps a minute id think it would be dont pronto

[infernalis]

wow why do you have to run it so long? thats a lot of water it pumps a minute id think it would be dont pronto

Because the water table is billions of gallons big.

My well is trying to get into the basement, all I am doing is keeping an underground river from getting all over the place.

Since I have a den down there (My man cave) with a TV, Computer, stereo, furniture, and all the stuff in storage down there, this is not what I needed.

[Reptile_Reptile]

i had no idea. dang i feel for you, if my man cave was violated this way i would go all out in similar manners.

[Aaron_S]

You know Wayne you could use it as a reason why you need to renovate the man cave. Dorothy would fall for it ;) You need that new top of the line recliner and big screen tv because "water" damaged your old stuff.

[candyraver69]

Why do disasters happen to you whenever I'm here? Am I a bad omen? lol.

I'm so sorry you are having so much trouble with flooding, I hope you can get it sorted out soon :(

[candyraver69]

You know Wayne you could use it as a reason why you need to renovate the man cave. Dorothy would fall for it ;) You need that new top of the line recliner and big screen tv because "water" damaged your old stuff.

agreed! :)

[presspirate]

That's not good Wayne. The aquifir in your basement.... Better start that house in the woods soon, and leave out the basement. Hope it stops raining soon.

[infernalis]

You know Wayne you could use it as a reason why you need to renovate the man cave. Dorothy would fall for it ;) You need that new top of the line recliner and big screen tv because "water" damaged your old stuff.


She already conned me into getting her a HD big screen as a monitor for her laptop:eek:

"Baby, I can't really read the text on my laptop, the screen is too small"

Out of everything down there, the century old hand carved church pew concerns me most, how would anyone ever replace that?

I went on a service call 12 years ago and they were re-modeling the building, the contractors stuffed all the antique furniture into a dumpster bin! I was only able to get one of the pews, everything else was destroyed as trash.

[Aaron_S]

I don't know how high the water currently is but what about lifting the pew onto some 2x4's in the mean time? It might be damaged by humidity but not by actually touching the water.

[infernalis]

I don't know how high the water currently is but what about lifting the pew onto some 2x4's in the mean time? It might be damaged by humidity but not by actually touching the water.

It's still exactly where it was in the pic on post 8.

I am running a propane heater down there right now to drive the humidity out, Plus all that ice cold water under the slab has turned my basement into a 50 foot refrigerator.:eek:

[Reptile_Reptile]

It's still exactly where it was in the pic on post 8.

I am running a propane heater down there right now to drive the humidity out, Plus all that ice cold water under the slab has turned my basement into a 50 foot refrigerator.:eek:
now you know how my man cave is lol its a construct it yourself garage so its cold as hell. a lot of the time outside is colder.

[percey39]

It's still exactly where it was in the pic on post 8.

I am running a propane heater down there right now to drive the humidity out, Plus all that ice cold water under the slab has turned my basement into a 50 foot refrigerator.:eek:

Thats good news about the pump being silent. I wish you best of luck keeping all the water in your well and not rising.

[infernalis]

Thanks everyone, it's holding it's own right now.

[infernalis]

Not anymore, its all over the floor, this sucks!!!

[percey39]

Sorry to hear mate, any chance of running all the pumps at the same time once they have been fixed?

[Damion930]

Oh man that's a lot to deal with wayne hope thers not to much damage best of luck to you and yours.

[infernalis]

I have two on right now, it only pulled it down a little bit.

Been moving stuff to "higher ground"

I set the church pew up on the coffee table, the hardest part is we also use the basement for a storage unit, so there is tons of stuff stacked on the floor, I just threw a bunch of computers and monitors out into the yard, it's all obsolete crap anyhow.

My PAL television was on the floor, thankfully it did not get wet, moved it upstairs. Again, it's rather obsolete since nearly all of the new HD televisions are multi standard capable, it's just the value to me, since back when I had it imported, it cost me a small fortune to get it, and I do still watch those old European VHS tapes from time to time.

A bunch of my power tools got wet, and two piles of laundry are soaked.

Break time is over... Back to work.

[Sapphyr]

Oh wow D: Sorry to hear that Wayne... Hope the power tools are ok, sure you can just wash the clothing thoroughly and throw it in the dryer.

Hope no further damage is done and mother nature stops trying to smack your house around :c ... particularly your storage man cave.

[infernalis]

One thing is for certain, I will never be thin unprepared again.

The thing that makes this so bad is that our whole valley here was cut by a glacier and when the ice melted at the end of the ice age, all of the small rocks were left behind.

I dug down 12 feet with a backhoe, and its nothing but gravel after about the first few inches of soil, the bedrock is underneath that way down, so that leaves us sitting on top of a vein of gravel that is about a mile wide and 40 miles long.

Those conditions are perfect for underground rivers, and add in the fact that the first settlers here re-routed the creek from the middle of the valley to the base of the hill, the water wants to follow the original path, consequently right under my house.

[infernalis]

I have been up all night, so I think I'm going to have a power nap, I just checked and the water level has dropped enough that the floor is already drying up.

[Sapphyr]

Ohhh wow :c I'm guessing there's no plans for the nearest city to be fixing that up? It's a shame, really.

Glad to hear things are, at least, getting a little better. Hope you have a very restful nap :D

[infernalis]

Ohhh wow :c I'm guessing there's no plans for the nearest city to be fixing that up? It's a shame, really. :D


Thanks so much, I actually smiled when I read that.

Closest thing to a real city is 100 miles away in either direction.:Wow:

We have a few towns that are 25 miles or so away that resemble little cities, but those entire zip codes have populations so small that if they opened a second Burger King or dollar store, one of them would go bankrupt from lack of business.

The last time I worked for a company rather than myself, it was a 100 mile round trip commute every day just to go to work.

We had a 4th of July party out back once and we stacked dead trees up in the field, sprayed kerosene all over it and shot roman candles into the brush pile, the flames reached up some 30-40 feet into the air, and no authorities got called.

Thing is, I like it this way, would never trade it for anything.

I can walk out my back door, keep walking for over half an hour and still be on my own property.

We don't even have any zoning laws.

[ilovemypets1988]

just an idea infer, but why cant you dig drainage ditches with gravel in them

[Lankyrob]

just an idea infer, but why cant you dig drainage ditches with gravel in them


If the whole water table is rising then ditches arent gonna help.

Glad it is subsiding now Wayne - fingers crossed that this is the end of it for you. Just think of that nice new house oyu will have soon in the woods!!

[CanadianEryx]

It sounds like you are living in Paradise--except for the water, of course. Have you ever thought of putting your home on stilts??
I hope things settle down soon and you get some rest!

[infernalis]

It seems to fluctuate up and down, at least it's daylight and I can fiddle around easier.

[Reptile_Reptile]

sounds like you live in a much larger version of my last place.
Glad you can rest now and you can see.

[infernalis]

Eureka! found the formula, Huge hose = Huge volume

I forget the exact math, but if you double the size of a hose it can flow 5 times the volume. I replaced the 2 inch hose with one of those big hoses that fire departments use to connect the truck to the hydrant and chaka boom! it started pulling it down so fast I had to shut the other pump off.

VxMWC-pha4I

http://www.reptard.info/ssnakess/hole.jpg

http://www.reptard.info/ssnakess/discharge.jpg

One of my neighbours up the street just told me they have 4 feet of water in their basement, his breaker panel, hot water tank and furnace are all under water, they have no electricity or any other utilities right now:eek:

So my situation is nothing compared to theirs.

[Lankyrob]

Glad to hear you have it as under control as you can ever get mother nature!

[percey39]

Glad to hear you have figured it out mate and that your stuff is alright. With a pump like the electric one you would easily be able to run a 4" line. Its only when you have small pumps that you run into trouble trying to get the flow out of them when going bigger lines.

[infernalis]

Thanks Rob, Looking so forward to sleeping tonight.

Sounds like waterfalls in the basement, but I will take that over destroyed belongings any day.

[CanadianEryx]

Congrats, Wayne, for figuring things out. Have a GREAT sleep!

[infernalis]

Congrats, Wayne, for figuring things out. Have a GREAT sleep!


Thanks.

And thanks for e-bay, I got a whole truck load of fire hoses a couple years ago for $75. and another time I got enough metal hardware and fittings to equip a fire department for $45

[Sapphyr]

Yey! :D glad everything's under control now~

And wow, sounds like paradise but lord have mercy if anyone ever needed to get to a hospital like -REALLY- quickly around there :c That'd be my only concern being in such a location besides the water problem.

[infernalis]

Yey! :D glad everything's under control now~

And wow, sounds like paradise but lord have mercy if anyone ever needed to get to a hospital like -REALLY- quickly around there :c That'd be my only concern being in such a location besides the water problem.

The helicopter has landed in my back yard twice.

[infernalis]

A better lit clip, look at the sheer volume moving here, then imagine how bad it would be if that pump stopped. note there is two big pipes dumping into that basin. I can stand on that hose and it supports me, it's rock hard.

I can't hear the motor hum upstairs, but that waterfall sound is quite loud, I can hear it upstairs and out front in the yard.

zfsdVMBLrdw

[TeaNinja]

lol jeeze. it's supposed to rain for the next week straight here and we're alwready having flood warnings. i don't expect it to get very bad though.

[infernalis]

"April Showers"on the way soon enough too.....

Wish I could bottle it, average price for a bottle of spring water is $1, times 280+ gallons per minute, thats 16,800 gallons per hour, 403,200 per week, 1,612,800 per month. I would love that.

[Sapphyr]

Ohh, I never thought about helicopters... That's true~

And doesn't rain water contain 1 - 2% acid per drop and other contaminates/pollutants in the air? You'd think it'd be a little unsanitary/unsafe to drink pure rain water without a little filtering.

[infernalis]

Take into consideration that rain will pass mother natures finest filter, by the time the rain and runoff make it to that sump basin, it passed through no less than 8 feet of Tera firma composed primarily of sand and gravel.

The water in our aquifer here is so pure, that a homeowner/land owner would be fined ten thousand dollars if caught messing with it.

Even logging permits require that the lumberjacks stay out of the creeks and streams.

That water is well water and the very same water that comes out of our family faucets.

[Sapphyr]

Ohhhh :> Then I wouldn't be so weary~ Man, you'd be rich if you could bottle up that stuff! :D

[TeaNinja]

Ohhhh :> Then I wouldn't be so weary~ Man, you'd be rich if you could bottle up that stuff! :D

after all, evian backwords is naive ;)
bottled water is the #1 scam of all time lol.
wait...maybe that's religion....don't want to get into that debate :x

[presspirate]

after all, evian backwords is naive ;)
bottled water is the #1 scam of all time lol.
wait...maybe that's religion....don't want to get into that debate :x
Right along with global warming. Don't want to touch that one either.:no:

[infernalis]

Two full weeks later - still pumping!

rough estimate is over 4 million gallons of water pumped into the ditch out front.

Upgraded the plumbing, if needed I can hook up another big fire hose in a hurry.

http://www.thamnophis.us/random/CD2.jpg

The weights should give a good size reference.

http://www.thamnophis.us/random/CD3.jpg

[shaunyboy]

Tonight I went downstairs to hang out in my basement den and I immediately noticed water seeping up through the seams in the floor.

So I walked over and looked to find my sump hole completely filled and ready to overflow.

The water table (our well) has risen to meet the basement floor, and it's raining again!

We were NOT prepared, so I had to scramble around and go out to the track to fetch hoses from the watering system in the dark, half of my adapter fittings were out there too.

So we get the hose hooked up and started the pump. Nothing happens, I look and there is a gob of that plastic easter grass all jammed up in my sump pump.

I hooked up pump number two, it hardly made a difference, fired up the gasoline pump, and it won't prime!

So I finally hooked up our 220 volt monster pump (It's a sewer treatment pump, it's big) and it has been running for two hours now, at least it's pulling the level down a bit, and keeping the water off the floor.

This thing will be running non stop now for about the next month!!

No rest here until the water table / underground aquifer recedes below the 8 foot mark.

Meanwhile, the fire hose running out into the yard will be belching a couple hundred gallons a minute. :mad: and our electric meter is spinning like mad!! next months power bill is going to be scary big.

we used diesel powered pumps on the coal site they were economical to run and came in various sizes.our big pumps were plugar pumps and they pumped millions of gallons of water.it may be worth your while looking into portable diesel powered water pumps wayne

the local water table here is called the fordal day level its basically the level all natural water settles at under ground

one day we hit a seam of coal and a lot of water started to seep into the coal site.we brought in bigger and bigger pumps and could not stave off the relentless gush of water.so we brought in 2 massive pumps and after 24 hours the water was dropping.we sent engineers out and about to try and figure out where the water was coming from,.it turns out we were draining a farmers duck pond 15 miles away.the water had been coming through the natural water table onto our site.water knows no bounds mate so i'm hoping your not draining half the state water table or your electric bills going to be a bad one mate

cheers shaun

[infernalis]

Finally had to shut the monster pump off, now running two much smaller pumps.

The water table has receded enough that the flow dropped by 60% or so.

it still backs up all over the floor if I shut those other two off, but at least my power consumption has dropped profoundly.

[stephanbakir]

Must suck lol, the water level raises at least 6 feet where i live in the spring, it should happen in the next few weeks, but never close to peoples homes, there is a swamp between my house and the lake, and the swamp goes under but we stay fine :)

[infernalis]

I live right on top of an underground (subterranean) river.

The level is back up, had to re-install the big pump.

normally it's about 10 to 11 feet below the surface, but all it needs to do is rise up a couple feet and boom it's knocking on my basement door.

The baement floor is 8 1/2 feet below surface level.

[infernalis]

First post 3/16/11 - Turned off pump 5/16/11 that's 2 full months that water was pouring in.

Glad it's over.

[stephanbakir]

Wow man that must have sucked, is it yearly?

Glad its over man!

[infernalis]

Wow man that must have sucked, is it yearly?

Glad its over man!


No, only after huge snowfall winters. about every 8 years or so.

[stephanbakir]

This winter we only got about 6 inches of snow at the highest point =/

[Coffee Black]

We got slammed here in the capital region this winter but from what I heard and now see it wasn' t much compared to you folks in the western part of NY. Glad you're out of the woods on this one. Ha.

[mistersprinkles]

Ohh, I never thought about helicopters... That's true~

And doesn't rain water contain 1 - 2% acid per drop and other contaminates/pollutants in the air? You'd think it'd be a little unsanitary/unsafe to drink pure rain water without a little filtering.

Water doesn't 'contain acid' per se. Of course, it can, but that's not what acid rain is.
"Acid rain" is just referring to rain where the pH is below 7 (acidic). Typically rain is neutral (7).

It has rained EVERY day where I live for well over a week now. It's very lame.

[Reptile_Reptile]

per se. im sorry but... lol

[infernalis]

Per Se - Latin for "in itself" why LOL?

[Reptile_Reptile]

i think its a funny phrase, knew what it meant too just funny..