<p>We had heavy rains with flash flood warnings today. I found water in our basement near a window well. This part of the basement is finished with carpeting. There was water visible on the window sill near the window crank mechanism. The carpet is visibly wet in about a 10x12 ft area. I have been using the steam vac to pick up water and have already emptied the canister 7 times. Areas I have already gone over are wet again within 10 minutes. </p>
<p>Originally I thought water spilled in through the base of the window but now I am wondering if it can still be seeping in. I have lived most of my life in areas without basements and I am not sure what to do. With this much water in the area, it seems to me we should have the carpet replaced. I don’t want mold issues. Should we pull back the carpet now? Call our insurance co? I think I will go double check our policy.</p>
<p>ETA: our house is 14 years old.
So, basically, how do people handle water in basements?</p>
<p>Does the roof have an eave extending over the window well area or is the window well open to the rain? You can get plastic window well covers at home Depot/Menards, etc. if rain is falling in well.</p>
<p>If there is an eave, then the water is probably coming in through wall and dripping to floor. Is that side of house downhill from neighbor so that there is water pressure against wall? Where does water flow from neighbor’s downspouts?</p>
<p>Check outside that your gutters/downspouts are all connected and that water isn’t splashing back into well from a gutter. </p>
<p>If there is water flowing outside you may be able to direct it with long plastic pipe gutter extensions depending on your landscape.</p>
<p>We had a year several years back where by end of spring everyone had rolls of carpet out by the street for garbage collection.</p>
<p>If there is somewhere in your basement where there is a drain and you can pull carpet back to allow water to flow to it, that might save the carpet. Water will even flow through base of walls to get to drain if floor is sloped correctly.</p>
<p>Once the rainy season is over, make sure to grade the land either side of window well so water will flow naturally away from the house. If it’s not too muddy you might be able to shovel it to help this now.</p>
<p>Yes pull back the carpet. If there’s a mat, you may be able to replace it and dry the carpet. </p>
<p>Check outside to see what might be directing water there. It may be as simple as building up the edge around the window well. We had a water leak that turned out to be caused by a rock: when a guy was working on the house, he moved a drain pipe so it splashed out against a rock instead of past it. That water came back at the house and seeped in at the bottom. </p>
<p>A window well should have a concrete block outside edge or something else designed to push the water down. You need to figure out if the well filled - so you can fix that - or if water came down along the foundation and found a crack or hole through which it could seep.</p>
<p>Insurance policies often do not cover finished basements. As celesteroberts says, the best approaches to solving the problem involve work outside to make sure water is directed away from the house / basement window.</p>
<p>Ok, I think the water accumulated due to our downspout. The exterior downspout is tied to a pipe which goes to the side of the house. The coupling between the downspout and pipe is loose and cracked so water may have spilled out through this.</p>
<p>Our back yard is sloped toward the house but the area extending at least 20 ft from the exterior walls is sloped away from the house. We had heavy rainfall in a short period of time so it could have pooled in the well and seeped in through the base of the window. I hadn’t looked down there until after the heaviest of the rain was done since I was spending most of my time worrying about the side yard flooding into our garage and washing away my raised garden beds.</p>
<p>I will look into well covers. The eaves do not extend over the openings.</p>
<p>Ok, off to figure out how to pull up our carpet.</p>
<p>I would pull up the carpet and try drying it in your driveway on a sunny day. That way you should also be able to see if water is still coming in. Well covers will help and making sure downspouts eject water a few feet from your house at a minimum. Otherwise you may need to install a sumppump. Personally I would never put anything but throw rugs in a basement.</p>
<p>We had a flood in our finished basement (washing machine hose) and cleaned it up with a shopvac and high-speed fan. Took about two days and constant work for a ton of hours. I would not like to go through that again. The carpet and mat underneath were fine.</p>
<p>I am not a big fan of our basement. When we moved to the Midwest I asked the realtor if we could look at some houses with out basements. He said we wouldn’t find many and that they would have poor resale value adding in, " Without a basement, where would you go during tornado warnings?" Yikes! </p>
<p>We already have a sump pump and I can hear it working away. I think the water did come in through the window crank as the wall has no signs of water within it. I hope so at least. </p>
<p>We are getting the baseboard off and using the steam vac and shop vac to get up water. There is a surprising amount of water to be picked up.</p>
<p>I have my home office in the basement and my daughter has her desk and work area there. We also have a gym down there so we use our basement quite a bit. I don’t think that I’d buy a place without a basement but I grew up in a house with one which we used mostly for storage.</p>
<p>I live in the midwest and I would never ever buy a house without a basement–don’t care how great a deal it was–been through too many tornadoes :(</p>
<p>In addition to the great ideas above, I’d suggest using a dehumidifier. It’s amazing how much water they can pull out. I loaned my two to a friend with a massive water leak and she’s convinced they saved her hardwood floor.</p>
<p>Water can also be seeping up from underground if the ground is really saturated. I had a house that did this in the basement. Just as mysteriously, it’d suck right back out in a few days. If yours were prone to this I think you’d already know it though.</p>
<p>We have carpeting in our basement that is rubber backed and glued to the floor. Maybe it is indoor/outdoor carpeting? It has been wet a few times from leaks in the basement and we never had a problem with mold. I cleaned up the water with a carpet cleaning machine.</p>
<p>Here in Texas we have tornadoes but no basements. I’d love to have one again.</p>
<p>But you have my sincere sympathy for your wet carpet. We had a burst pipe and horrible mess a few years ago. There are flood mitigation companies who will bring in big fans, dehumidifiers and heaters to dry a room out. They peel up the carpet and blow air underneath. Whether or not you want to spend that much money probably depends on the age of the carpet in question…</p>
<p>In our experience, we were told that insurance doesn’t cover water in basements unless it comes from plumbing disasters or direct weather damage (what we were told is–water that comes down is covered, water that comes up is not.) That’s considered something that only flood insurance covers. That may be our state, though.</p>
<p>The custom of basements was begun to house the heating plant - used to be giant things, coal burning. Shelter for tornadoes was a side benefit. Of course now rec room and storage keep them going!</p>
<p>Homeowner’s insurance will not cover flooding–which is the same thing as seepage like you are getting. In some states you can add a rider to your policy that will cover sewer and sump-pump damage but the water would have to be coming up through the plumbing or as a result of a failed or overloaded sump-pump–which doesn’t sound like it’s the case. Federal flood insurance has limited coverage for basements, if you have a policy. It will cover things attached to the house, drywall, your furnace, etc. but none of your “stuff”–furniture, etc. that is below ground level. Federal flood insurance has limits, however, and typically are not high enough to cover your house in a major flood but usually enough to cover partial damage. The catch, however, is that your area has to be deemed to be “flooded” by FEMA to collect. Most likely what you are experiencing is not a flood.</p>
<p>I agree with the others, get the carpet out of there, get the padding pulled up, set up fans and dehumidifiers, wash the floor;/walls with a bleach/water mixture to kill any mold growth. Add downspout extensions to direct water away from your foundation and if you don’t have a sump pump system, look into getting one installed. Once water has found a way into your basement, it’s more likely to return.</p>