Flooded Basement...Save the Cellar!

[mrjerke]

Hey guys,
Been a while since I've posted. Life got crazy busy. Going through one thing after another. Anwyays, a couple of nights ago, we got 6-8 inches of rain in a couple of hours and the sump pump couldn't keep up. My office, with my tobacco cellar, is soaked. No standing water, but exremely wet carpet and serious humidity. Luckily my tobacco is off the ground, but I have many jars and tins in my closet. Wondering if the humidity the last couple days will damage anything. I'm thinking potentially anything with a bad seal could be compromised? I have quite a bit at risk here, so I have some serious concerns. Let me know your thoughts guys.
-Jordan

 

[jpmcwjr]

Sorry to hear that. Where is "here'? What's normal relative humidity?
Yes, bad seals could present a problem, but rust could be come a bigger one. Able to wipe every thing down?

 

[mrjerke]

It's about 70 in the northern plains I believe. I put a dehumidifier in the room and at one point it was around 85. The tins and jars are all dry. Just not normally that humid.

 

[aldecaker]

If anything has a bad seal, I would think the danger would be more from steadily drying to a crisp instead of one-time humidity ingress.

 

[ssjones]

I feel your pain, I just went thru the same thing. 4" of rain in one evening last week. We rarely use the finished basement in the summer, and didn't notice that our outside entrance french drain was clogged, backing up into the finished area. I borrowed a couple of dehumidifiers from neighbors and it was dry in a few days. (then bought a new dehumidifier to replace the 20 year old unit. I bet I dumped 15 gallons or so of water from the dehumidifiers in two days. My celler is on the opposite side of the basement (unfinished storage) which stayed dry. I think my Dunhill tins (about 100) are fine. Guess I'll find out in five years...
My flood hit the same day as my 96 year old father fell and spent the night in the hospital and a day before I left town for a week to open a new restaurant (six, 13-14 hour days). I'm home now and we finished putting it all back together. No harm except two bookcases had some damage on the bottom. My wife has 25 photo albums down, which didn't have any damage, thankfully.
Hopefully you will fare as well.
I hope yoru

 

[aldecaker]

OK, Al. I gotta know what a "French drain" is. Sounds like one of those weird sex things like the "rusty bucket" or a "horizontal snowblower". (I actually don't know what those are, either.)

 

[jon11]

I could be wrong but I think it's time to move all these basement cellars to a safer place

 

[maxx]

I've lost too many books to water into an apartment. Last weekend I was monitoring with a flashlight the rain water pooling outside my "patio" door. Luckily, it stopped raining. I got my guitars and amp off the floor, moved some boxes of books, and hoped the water wouldn't flood the entire apartment floor like it did a few years ago. I've bought some plastic storage bins for the expensive math books - at least at the floor level - but really ought to repack all my books from cardboard boxes to DuraBuilt bins. I've got over 50 boxes of books so it'd be rather expensive. I should at least do it for the low box on each stack. I'm far more concerned about water than fire.

 

[deathmetal]

If the jars and tins are sealed, they should be fine. Might want to check the seals for the future. Good luck with the flood. They are disturbing.

 

[ssjones]

Code in our area is that all homes also have a sump pump and foundation drain. All this works fine, if we remember to keep the drain clear of mulch, etc...(it's at the bottom of the exposed basement steps).

 

[jpmcwjr]

I've seen them made also with just rock, very large pieces along the bottom of a trench, smaller pieces on top, covered with turf. Common on some golf courses.