If you have had water, please beware of mold. If your sheetrock walls got wet, cut the wet stuff out and get rid of it. Trash stuff that got wet if you cannot dry/clean it. Spray a mixture of bleach and water on basement floors and foundation walls to prevent/kill the mold. After the water is gone, the prevention of mold is a necessary, but often overlooked exercise.

My Mom got 6 inches in her basement and everything got wet! Gonna have to bring in a dumpster and start spring cleaning early! Sheetrock walls my nephew put in 6 years ago are all gonna have to come out!!! (I told him when he put them up it would happen!!:smash:

thanks Ross
you must be busy now

Larry,

Cut out the bottom 12 inches of the rock (or however high you need to go). Snap a chalk line and cut it out. Then you can get the 3x5 sheets of 1/2" Durock. Cut them in 12x48 (so you hit the studs) and install them in the place of the rock you cut out. It's cement, so wont take water. and can be feathered in to match the remaining sheetrock.

Yeah, Bruce. But it's gonna be ugly work. I'll post some pics.

Thanks Ross but they are crap walls my nephew put up and they are gonna have to go someday anyway when my Mom sells the house as they look like Mickey Mouse put them in and painted them white and powder blue! Flood=blessing in disguise!:uhuh:

I am proud to say not a drop in the basement. Late last year I had water gushing through a window in the basement. Its dug out and stoned near the window but there was so much rain the water from the gutter formed a wall in the mulch bed and stacked up in the window well. I was looking up at the window from the basement and the whole thing was underwater. As water was pouring in I tried tightening the window and it made it worse. I ended up outside with a marine battery and a bilge pump. After 2 hours and getting the house soaked it was under control enough to pat it down and silicone. I siliconed the crap out of that window and it will never open again. But I am one very happy camper. This storm would have destroyed my entire basement if that didn't happen last year.

I can now test swim my plugs right in my cellar. Pump and vac. It will be another long night tonight.:fury:

If you have had water, please beware of mold. If your sheetrock walls got wet, cut the wet stuff out and get rid of it. Trash stuff that got wet if you cannot dry/clean it. Spray a mixture of bleach and water on basement floors and foundation walls to prevent/kill the mold. After the water is gone, the prevention of mold is a necessary, but often overlooked exercise.

Ross, that's great advice. I would have never thought about the mold after I got everything dried out

thanks for the tip Ross, I will definitely need to do the bleach/water spray down now
basement got pretty wet, but the sump pump kept it under control.

ANY water in the basement should make you start thinking about mold FIRST.
We had had a washing machine flood my parents basement a few years back, and we thought (at the time) that the damage wasn't that bad since we were on it right from the start.
We decided to redo that basement as a favor to my mom, and when we pulled down the old crappy paneling that was there, we found mold on the base of the walls.
Well, we pulled out everything but the weight bearing walls (which we bleach-blasted) and rebuilt the basement. We found a crack in the foundation wall which we packed with hydraulic cement and the Dryl-lok'd the entire basement, put up drywall and a new ceiling, and the place looks like a completely new room.

This flood has shown many of us that we aren't as prepared as we would like to believe we are. Hopefully no one lost anything of irreplaceable value.

Now it's time to dry out!

thanks, will do the bleach/water!
We have pump and vac going too, basement is unfisnihsed but its been a job just to keep the water under control

Ross, thanks for talking with GOD and stopping the rain. :)

Now if you can talk with him about me and lottery numbers please

Sorry guys, getting your basement flooded must suck, especially if its not expected...but mold is just as bad. I got mold the first year I moved in due to having an aquarium in the basement cause I rehab the up stairs. Didnt think much about it but as the water would evaporate from the aquarium it was causing mold thru out my basement. I had to do the bleach thing and went as strong as I could when mixing it with water...something I recomemnd, but make sure you wear a mask and goggles it gets real bad. The last two years have been mold free as far as visual mold, but I bet it's behind the walls..........The best thing for mold control is having central air.

The best thing for mold control is having central air.

Either that or a Fantech air exchanger.:uhuh: Fortunately I don't have a wet basement, but do have the air exchanger and de-humidifier going constantly and it works real well. The Fantech can fully exchange my entire basement with outside air 3-4 times a day, maybe more. No foul or musty smelling air, ever.