Water in Our Basement

The storm that came through the area today was supposed to result in about a foot of snow, but it turned out to be mostly rain with only a little snow. We thought we’d really lucked out with not having to plow the driveway until we went downstairs tonight around 6:00 and found our basement floor completely soaked. With the ground still mostly frozen, the water seemed to find it’s way into our basement with no problems. Here’s a photo of the soaked indoor/outdoor carpet:

Water in Basement

We didn’t have a ton of stuff stored in the room, but we did have an old mattress and box springs and a bunch of cardboard that got kind of wet. After we moved it all out of the way, we realized just how wet the carpet was, so we made the decision to pull it up. The carpet was already pretty stained and we think it was responsible for the musty smell we noticed coming from the basement right after we moved in last fall.

Water in Basement

The carpet was glued down pretty good, but we were able to get up most of the part that was wet. We aren’t entirely sure what’s under the carpet. There’s a good bit of glue and carpet backing still left on the surface underneath and it looks like there either are or were tiles there at one time. The glue definitely looks like there’s a tile pattern and we wouldn’t be surprised to find them in this room since we have them elsewhere in the basement, but we aren’t able to find any seams between the tiles or anything. In some places, it also looks like some self-leveling cement might have been used. So, we’re going to have a fun time figuring out how to clean this up … especially considering that installing more carpet probably isn’t a good choice now that we know that the basement takes water.

We turned a fan on and plugged the dehumidifier back in … and we tried to vacuum up as much as we could with the wet/dry vac and it was starting to dry out, but it’s still pretty moist. Hopefully we won’t get any more rain so it can dry up quickly.

When we took up the carpet, we did find something interesting, though. There’s a metal door in the middle of the floor. We knew we’d find something interesting there because we could hear a difference in the way it sounded when we walked on it, but we still aren’t sure what it’s for. Chad lifted the cover off of it and here’s what was underneath:

Water in Basement

We aren’t sure what the hole was ever used for. It just looks all rusty now … and whatever it is, it must have been something that the previous owners knew they’d never need access too. Any thoughts on what this might be for? We think it might be the remains of a waste clean-out, but we’re not sure.

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