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Cyrano4747 posted:On the topic of this upstairs safe question, I've always wondered, how much is your average upstairs floor in a house rated for? I figure it's got to be enough for a couple of fat people standing close to each other to not crash into the downstairs, but on the other hand there's got to be an upper limit to that where it's inadvisable to stick heavy machinery up there. So here's the thing......it depends. But if don't put a safe int he middle of a floor. Put it on a load bearing (i.e., outside if you don't know any better) wall. The floor can hold a lot more static load than dynamic load, and it can hold a lot more static load without moving at attachment points. 600 lbs should not be an issue unless you're living in a disaster. Firefighters don't give a poo poo. At least I didn't. This kind of thing is expected and common. Unless we've really miscalculated something we're not gonna be there when your second floor is falling into the first floor/basement, and an extra several hundred pound of safe/fish tank/guns/whatever is definitely NOT the major hazard to us in that kind of situation. (it's the literal tons of build materials coming down with it) Motronic fucked around with this message at 02:49 on Sep 1, 2021 |
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Sep 1, 2021 02:46
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As someone that moved heavy office furniture when they were younger, and recently moved a 200lb water heater down the basement stairs alone: there's a lot that can go wrong. The problem with stairs and an appliance hand truck is that you can only safely have one guy doing all the work. Only an idiot would allow themselves to be on the downhill side, so it's basically one guy muscling the thing up there. Whenever we found a safe in an office, a collective sigh was heard and we had to retrieve the special equipment to move it.
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Sep 1, 2021 15:08
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Cyrano4747 posted:On the topic of this upstairs safe question, I've always wondered, how much is your average upstairs floor in a house rated for? I figure it's got to be enough for a couple of fat people standing close to each other to not crash into the downstairs, but on the other hand there's got to be an upper limit to that where it's inadvisable to stick heavy machinery up there. I might be wrong but I'm vaguely remembering from a class I took 12 years ago that residential floors in homes are rated for 100 pounds per square foot. Obviously a person standing with their feet together exceeds this but as long as you don't have people standing tightly packed shoulder to shoulder the whole way across the floor joist you're fine.
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Sep 1, 2021 17:26
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Source4Leko posted:Our slop sink/ washing machine drain into our sump pump pit which avoids all that. Supposed to be done that way? No but every house on my street is done that way. Yeah, the original owner of our home had the mop sink and the washing machine in the basement, draining into the floor drain, which definitely does not go into the sewer or septic system. Its on the short list to get resolved, but it's been that way since the 60's Also crossposting the following from the woodworking thread in case anyone is interested in the process of having logs from your property milled on site: GEMorris posted:...
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Sep 1, 2021 18:26
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Bought 500 dollars worth of tools to drill one 5mm hole for my new Tado(tm) thermostat
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Sep 1, 2021 20:45
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please knock Mom! posted:Bought 500 dollars worth of tools to drill one 5mm hole for my new Tado(tm) thermostat Doing it right.. Kuz that's like a $100 job to pay someone to hookup your thermostat. Good news is that drill will now drill many holes.. so it's only going to improve as an investment
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Sep 1, 2021 21:17
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Well, in the middle of the remnants of the hurricane rolling on through the Mid Atlantic near Philly I finally saw in person where the basement water issue was. Got a half inch of water in the very front 10% of my basement from the water collecting there. Spent the better part of 1.5 hours bailing out the lowest point to try and keep up with it. I mostly did. Probably moved at least 100-150 gallons of water in 20-30 5-gallon buckets over that time Didn't get any pics when it was at its worst since I was too busy bailing it out. I did keep the water to the area that the foundation guy said he'd need to tear up anyway to put in the french drains and sump pump, so hey that's good. Glad I already made the call to have that put in and that I was home for this to do that bailing.
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Sep 2, 2021 00:07
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Get a wet dry vac. Also a dehumidifier and fans to dry everything out. Been there that sucks.
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Sep 2, 2021 00:21
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Nitrousoxide posted:Well, in the middle of the remnants of the hurricane rolling on through the Mid Atlantic near Philly I finally saw in person where the basement water issue was. Got a half inch of water in the very front 10% of my basement from the water collecting there. Spent the better part of 1.5 hours bailing out the lowest point to try and keep up with it. I mostly did. Probably moved at least 100-150 gallons of water in 20-30 5-gallon buckets over that time Ugh, I feel you.  I lost the battle of keeping the barn from flooding, but at least it's no longer flooding any worse or anymore. I'm going to have to do a lot of grading when things dry out. This is all gonna be a huge mess.
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Sep 2, 2021 00:26
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I don't think the trusty 5 gallon bucket gets mentioned enough as an essential homeowner tool.
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Sep 2, 2021 01:48
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Philly suburbs here. We spent some money last year to get a new full french drain and sump pump in our basement. That part is working great. However, the stairs that lead from our garage down to the basement are a different story, and I opened the door to several spouts of water spraying from cracks in the concrete and filling up the bottom of the stairs ready to go into the basement. A smarter me would have told the french drain guys to make sure we had a drain here connected to the system. Maybe a better company would have pointed out this potential issue. In any case since we still had power I was able to get a little pond pump going sending water into a drain to the sump. If the power had gone out we would have been fuuuuuuuuuucccked though. No backup on the sump currently. Debating battery (short backup time) vs water pressure backup (unlimited time but you pay your water use) vs whole house generator ($$$).
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Sep 2, 2021 01:48
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Verman posted:I don't think the trusty 5 gallon bucket gets mentioned enough as an essential homeowner tool. For real. Ladder, bucket, and a good light source should be day ones.
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Sep 2, 2021 01:55
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Thats an excellent list. I gave all my friends a good shovel and a heavy duty metal rake as a housewarming gifts since when I first got my old place I ended up using both far more than I expected.
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Sep 2, 2021 02:01
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Elysium posted:Philly suburbs here. We spent some money last year to get a new full french drain and sump pump in our basement. That part is working great. However, the stairs that lead from our garage down to the basement are a different story, and I opened the door to several spouts of water spraying from cracks in the concrete and filling up the bottom of the stairs ready to go into the basement. A smarter me would have told the french drain guys to make sure we had a drain here connected to the system. Maybe a better company would have pointed out this potential issue. I faced this question too since my basement will flood if the power goes out when we're getting any real rainfall. The sump pump I have is too large for any battery backups I could find either which sucks but it's a great pump and I need to be able to move that much water at times. I ended up cheaping out for now and getting a portable generator and decided I'm just gonna deal with having to run extension cords for my pump and stay around and feed it gas if our power goes out here for an extended period of time, which almost never happens here, I've lived around here 35 years (midwest) and can count on one hand the times the power has been off for more than 6 hours so thats a risk I'm willing to take. There's no one solution to the problem I found that was cheap and reliable.
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Sep 2, 2021 02:09
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Source4Leko posted:Thats an excellent list. I gave all my friends a good shovel and a heavy duty metal rake as a housewarming gifts since when I first got my old place I ended up using both far more than I expected. Yeah those're on my list for the future, but (fingers crossed) there hasn't been much serious work to put in outside. POs landscaped the backyard very nicely, and took much better care of the outdoors than they did the in.  A good hose should be up the list of day ones, also.
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Sep 2, 2021 02:19
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Elysium posted:
There is a middle ground for generators - one sized just for your pump (or pump + fridge) with a manual transfer switch. Though probably these days powering your whole house isn't much more than the sump pump. As long as you aren't running forced air or other big motors (washer / dryer) or resistive heating.
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Sep 2, 2021 02:22
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Source4Leko posted:I faced this question too since my basement will flood if the power goes out when we're getting any real rainfall. The sump pump I have is too large for any battery backups I could find either which sucks but it's a great pump and I need to be able to move that much water at times. I ended up cheaping out for now and getting a portable generator and decided I'm just gonna deal with having to run extension cords for my pump and stay around and feed it gas if our power goes out here for an extended period of time, which almost never happens here, I've lived around here 35 years (midwest) and can count on one hand the times the power has been off for more than 6 hours so thats a risk I'm willing to take. There's no one solution to the problem I found that was cheap and reliable. Our power is pretty reliable actually, we are close to a hospital so I think that helps. It blipped out for 2 seconds at the beginning of the storm but came back. But with this much volume even an hour or two with no power I’m not sure we could have bailed out manually. A tornado touched down a few miles away, so even with our normal reliability a bit closer and we’re out for a while. The thing with a portable generator is if we happened to be away, then there is no one around to start it and then it’s useless.
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Sep 2, 2021 02:23
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Elysium posted:Our power is pretty reliable actually, we are close to a hospital so I think that helps. It blipped out for 2 seconds at the beginning of the storm but came back. But with this much volume even an hour or two with no power I’m not sure we could have bailed out manually. A tornado touched down a few miles away, so even with our normal reliability a bit closer and we’re out for a while. The thing with a portable generator is if we happened to be away, then there is no one around to start it and then it’s useless. Yea thats the single greatest failing of using a portable one by far. We have animals and are rarely more than 2 hours from home at max, and the basically one time a year both of us are, or were before covid I have friends nearby that have said they can set it up for me in a real emergency. So for the next few years til I can afford the hard plumbed natural gas generac thats where were at.
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Sep 2, 2021 02:29
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Motronic posted:Ugh, I feel you. Oof. Hope nothing important got damaged. On the plus side for me, I stuck my head back behind the drywall in the basement and actually saw where the water was entering through the foundation. Got a video and placed one of those hand fishing tools to point to it so the foundation guys can fix that up when doing the drain and pump. Also, I can highly recommend a good head lamp as an essential home tool. I'm a fan of the Nitecore.
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Sep 2, 2021 03:17
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Motronic posted:Yeah, grease is another one but for a different reason. Grease will break down, but grease floats. The primary way your septic box separates solids from "processed" water that is ready to go into your leach field is with a screen between the first and second chamber of your tank. The solids are supposed to settle into the chambers to be processed. Since grease floats it will either or both get on the screen, cool down and clog it or just plain on pass through to the second chamber, where it will continue to float and go right out into your field eventually. Actually, if your septic tank is set up correctly, it will trap grease effectively in the first chamber. The pass through between the first and second chambers should be below the water level but well above the sludge level, allowing grease to stay within the first chamber. Still don't want to put grease down your septic if you can avoid it, if only because of how it'll clog up your plumbing and won't break down in the timeline required by your septic. You're bang on that food scraps are in general not a problem at all. The bacteria will eat any kind of carbon based food source, it doesn't need to be poop. Source for the above, I'm a wastewater treatment engineer. Sometimes I'll dump a bag or two of dog food into a system if there's an unexpected drop in usage (think system for a hotel where they close half of it for a week of renovations - you really don't want to dump dog food into your septic).
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Sep 2, 2021 03:37
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Goons, my basement has 3" of water. Hopefully we won't get more than another 2-3" tonight. We've removed anything important and gotten everything else that we might want a shot at keeping above 6". What do we do first? Call someone to pump it out? Call Servpro or Roto Rooter? Needless to say a call to basement waterproofers is also in order - I saw where two of the leaks came in, through painted concrete/cinder block/whatever the hell a 1949 basement wall is made of. What else does one do in minor flood/basement-water recovery assuming there's no electrical, chemical, or plumbing hazard?
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Sep 2, 2021 03:48
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MJP posted:Goons, my basement has 3" of water. Hopefully we won't get more than another 2-3" tonight. We've removed anything important and gotten everything else that we might want a shot at keeping above 6". drat man, I'm sorry. At 3" aren't you in homeowners claim territory? They would give you a contractor to call. Although I've gotten wildly different opinions in the thread on what warrants a claim and what should be handled yourself, even at 4 or 5 digits in damage. TrueChaos posted:Actually, if your septic tank is set up correctly, it will trap grease effectively in the first chamber. The pass through between the first and second chambers should be below the water level but well above the sludge level, allowing grease to stay within the first chamber. Oooh that's a cool job! Please regale us with any fun stories if you want to write it up. I am interested in the risks of unexpected usage drops, like what are you protecting against in that case? Inner Light fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Sep 2, 2021 |
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Sep 2, 2021 04:07
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Inner Light posted:Oooh that's a cool job! Please regale us with any fun stories if you want to write it up. I am interested in the risks of unexpected usage drops, like what are you protecting against in that case? Essentially, a large part of the treatment process involves active biomass (bacteria) eating all the biological content in the water. If they have nothing to eat they die off and need to be re-established, which can be a real pain. Providing some food during a slow period means the system is ready when things ramp back up.
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Sep 2, 2021 08:26
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TrueChaos posted:Essentially, a large part of the treatment process involves active biomass (bacteria) eating all the biological content in the water. If they have nothing to eat they die off and need to be re-established, which can be a real pain. Providing some food during a slow period means the system is ready when things ramp back up. So would you recommend that for a residential property that gets used for a weekend once or twice a month? We have had… an interesting time with a septic system at the old family farm.
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Sep 2, 2021 08:32
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TrueChaos posted:Source for the above, I'm a wastewater treatment engineer. Sometimes I'll dump a bag or two of dog food into a system if there's an unexpected drop in usage (think system for a hotel where they close half of it for a week of renovations - you really don't want to dump dog food into your septic).
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Sep 2, 2021 13:34
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MJP posted:Goons, my basement has 3" of water. Hopefully we won't get more than another 2-3" tonight. We've removed anything important and gotten everything else that we might want a shot at keeping above 6". If it's not finished you can probably bail it out or pump it out and then have foundation folks come out to fix it up. Do you have a drain and/or sump pump?
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Sep 2, 2021 13:55
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No sump pump. Not finished, at least. My entire town got hit bad, I doubt I can get someone out fast. Homeowners claim is open. Bailing and shop vac only go so far. Is there some way to rig up the vac so it can pump or if I don't have that pump accessory they make for it, I'm screwed? I think the leaks are still coming in so it seems pretty futile.
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Sep 2, 2021 15:17
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On mine you just take the filter out and then it does water.
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Sep 2, 2021 15:25
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TrueChaos posted:Actually, if your septic tank is set up correctly, it will trap grease effectively in the first chamber. The pass through between the first and second chambers should be below the water level but well above the sludge level, allowing grease to stay within the first chamber. Now that you mention it, I have seen that in some of the newest boxes, but a lot of the stock around my area is not that. I'd have to stick my head in there again but I'm pretty sure even the one at my current house isn't new/nice enough to have that. MJP posted:No sump pump. Not finished, at least. My entire town got hit bad, I doubt I can get someone out fast. Homeowners claim is open. Bailing and shop vac only go so far. Is there some way to rig up the vac so it can pump or if I don't have that pump accessory they make for it, I'm screwed? If the leaks are still coming in it's probably not advisable to pump yet. We've had homeowners crack their foundation walls this way - the water is balancing all the hydrostatic pressure outside of the walls. Motronic fucked around with this message at 15:35 on Sep 2, 2021 |
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Sep 2, 2021 15:32
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Source4Leko posted:On mine you just take the filter out and then it does water. doesn't it need to be attached to the tub to create the vacuum. like you can't just get a long rear end hose and put it on the driveway and run it constantly.
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Sep 2, 2021 15:35
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tater_salad posted:doesn't it need to be attached to the tub to create the vacuum. like you can't just get a long rear end hose and put it on the driveway and run it constantly. You're confused. They mean just removing the paper element. I think you still want some filtration, like the foam deal I've seen before. Edit:of course you're right and I missed the original question. You can't turn a shop vac into a pump. Those of yall with flooded basements should invest in a small submersible temporary pump. 50-100$ at Ace, almost certainly sold out in your area. Attach to a garden hose and route it outside. It took a long time to dry up my basement with some water in the perimeter, but it worked. Motronic is right if you have feet of water and if it's coming in through the walls. If you have inches of water I would go ahead and start pumping IF it can be routed away from the home. Otherwise it's just going for a little journey around and back in.
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Sep 2, 2021 16:27
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StormDrain posted:You're confused. They mean just removing the paper element. I think you still want some filtration, like the foam deal I've seen before. You can also pump it into a toilet where it'll get routed through the sewers away from your home, though obviously this may not be great if you're pumping a bunch of sediment into the toilet.
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Sep 2, 2021 16:44
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I believe this is what's being refered to by pump: https://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-...cB&gclsrc=aw.ds A shop vac will suck up water and put it in the tank, and replacing the paper filter with the foam filter means splash inside won't mess up the filter, but it will still be stuck in the shop vac. Unless you buy a pump accessory that will actually pump water out.
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Sep 2, 2021 16:46
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StormDrain posted:You're confused. They mean just removing the paper element. I think you still want some filtration, like the foam deal I've seen before. This thing saved my rear end last night. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-1-4-HP-2-in-1-Utility-Pump-UTA02510/303642270 My sump pump room had like 4ft of water in it cause it couldn’t keep up/is probably old as gently caress and lovely (new home owner). Dropped this fucker in there and between the 2 pumps it cleared in like 20 minutes. It also let me clear most of the 1/4” or so that got in my boiler room. Seriously was worth every drat penny.
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Sep 2, 2021 16:53
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I'm just going to vent about my neighbor's lawn care methods. We've been in a drought for months, but since he's been irrigating the poo poo out of it, he's had the only green grass on our block. Now that we've had a week straight of rain, and the weather has cooled, it's been growing like mad. He's finally mowing it today. It's probably 6-8" tall, which I know because I just mowed mine down to 4" a few days ago. He's scalping it down to about 2-3". No big deal, his yard. Except he's also blowing the clippings about 4' into my yard, so I'll have to go clean up the clippings before it rains again tonight, since I'd rather not mat down that whole side of my yard.
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Sep 2, 2021 17:41
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tater_salad posted:doesn't it need to be attached to the tub to create the vacuum. like you can't just get a long rear end hose and put it on the driveway and run it constantly. This is correct it still needs to be attached to the tub.
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Sep 2, 2021 17:44
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Nitrousoxide posted:You can also pump it into a toilet where it'll get routed through the sewers away from your home, though obviously this may not be great if you're pumping a bunch of sediment into the toilet. Do not pump rain water into the sewer system. Water treatment plants are not designed to handle the amount of water produced by storms. Even the Superbowl halftime mega flush is several orders of magnitude less water than your typical rainstorm.
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Sep 2, 2021 18:14
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Motronic posted:If the leaks are still coming in it's probably not advisable to pump yet. We've had homeowners crack their foundation walls this way - the water is balancing all the hydrostatic pressure outside of the walls. Dang. I can't tell if the leaks are still running or not since they're right below water level. D: Only way to know is to pump out. My plumber says they can come today, someone on a nearby FB group said they'd try to beat them there. I have leak-stop concrete lying around so I can at least take a shot at it if I can get at it. It maxed out at 6" of water at the deepest point in the middle of the basement, so I'm hoping that there's no pressure issue at play. StormDrain posted:Motronic is right if you have feet of water and if it's coming in through the walls. If you have inches of water I would go ahead and start pumping IF it can be routed away from the home. Otherwise it's just going for a little journey around and back in. Could we drain it down a utility sink drain? We've been bailing and shopvac-dumping into the sink, and it does indeed drain. There's a window or two in the basement we can route hoses through, at least. We spent the morning getting all the stuff that got soaked/floated out. Our cats' litter boxes were in the basement; we got them out before Bad Stuff Happened but I sure as hell hope we're not going to get tetanus or worse from wading around in the water with secondhand litter particles. We aren't in a flood-prone area so we don't have flood insurance, and I guess we're about to find out the fun way if homeowners insurance will cover fixing basement cracks. Two of the leak sources were window boxes. Could I just caulk them or should I have them checked out? Never had an issue with them before but they're original wood. MJP fucked around with this message at 18:19 on Sep 2, 2021 |
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Sep 2, 2021 18:17
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MJP posted:Dang. I can't tell if the leaks are still running or not since they're right below water level. D: Only way to know is to pump out. How deep are we talking here? Because like StormDrain said, I'm talking about feet of water, not inches. If this is say, 16" or less pumping should not be a problem.
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Sep 2, 2021 18:21
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6" deep. We should be airing the poo poo out of the basement for the next week before mold testing, right? All windows open, central air fan going, fans in the basement, dehumidifier set to kill, etc.
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Sep 2, 2021 18:34
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