Basement flooded? What to do in the first 24 hours

Hour one: safety

• Electricity. If water is anywhere near outlets, cords, the furnace or the panel, do not step in it. Turn off the power at the main breaker if you can reach it dry, or call the utility to do it.
• Gas. If a water heater or furnace has been under water, shut its gas valve and do not relight it until it has been checked.
• Sewage. Gray or foul water from a floor drain is a sewer backup. Treat it as contaminated: gloves, boots, nothing porous saved.
• Photos. Before you move anything, photograph the water level, the source if you can see it, and every damaged item. This is for insurance and for the technician.

Hours two to twelve: water out

If the sump pump has failed or the power is out, a rented submersible pump or a wet vac gets the bulk out. Push water toward the floor drain or the sump. Once the standing water is gone, the clock that matters starts: mold begins to grow on wet material within 24 to 48 hours, and it does not wait for you to finish the insurance call.

Take out what is soaked and cannot be dried in place: carpet and pad, cardboard, particleboard furniture, the bottom foot or two of drywall if it wicked water, wet insulation. Move what can be saved up and out of the room. Bag the rest and get it outside.

Day one: air moving, humidity down

Open the space up, run every fan you can point at the wet surfaces, and run a dehumidifier with the windows closed (an open window in a Louisville summer lets more moisture in than out). Fans and dehumidifiers dry hard surfaces and framing; they do not dry a soaked carpet pad or the inside of a wall. If you are not sure whether the wall cavity got wet, a moisture meter settles it, and that is part of what a water mitigation crew brings.

Day two: find the cause

Where the water came from decides what happens next.

• Inside the house (a burst pipe, a failed water heater, a washing machine hose): a plumber fixes the source, the basement gets dried and rebuilt, and this is often a covered insurance loss.
• Through the walls or floor (seeping at the cove where the floor meets the wall, weeping through block, a crack): groundwater. This is a basement waterproofing problem, it will repeat, and it is usually not covered by a standard policy.
• Sump failure: the pump died, the float stuck, or the power went out. Replace the pump and add a battery backup before the next storm.
• Surface water (through a window well, under a door, from a downspout dumping at the foundation): grading and drainage outside the house.

What not to do

• Do not paint over stained block with a waterproofing paint and call it fixed. Water behind the paint pushes it off within a season.
• Do not run the furnace fan to dry the basement if the ductwork got wet.
• Do not put the carpet back before the slab is dry. A moisture meter or a taped square of plastic left overnight tells you.
• Do not wait a week for the adjuster before removing wet material. Photograph it, bag it, keep a list.

Insurance, briefly

Sudden, accidental water from inside the house is often covered. Groundwater seepage and surface flooding usually are not, unless you carry flood insurance or a water backup endorsement. Call the company the same day either way; we cover the details in does homeowners insurance cover basement water damage.