Hanna's in my basement. Dang this hundred year old foundation anyhow. It's going to be a long afternoon and evening.

Not to worry, John, if you had a vac down in your basement, it would already be a "wet" vac.

Hope you don't get too much water, Hanna is a fast moving storm so she is not dumping that much water in one place. That's a "good thing"

Heck, her forward speed (25 mph last I heard) was almost half her wind speed (50 mph at that same time).

Of course, if you add (and they are "additive") 50 mph wind speed swirling in your direction to a 25 mph direction speed, your resulting wind speed is 75 mph!

The people on the other side of the storm, though have the reverse - 50 mph - 25 mph - 25 mph net wind speed.

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Jerry Peck, Construction / Litigation Consultant
Construction Litigation Consultants, LLC ( www.ConstructionLitigationConsultants.com )

Borrowed my neighbor's wet vac. Much better than mop and towels.
Anyone care to recommend a particular wet vac? It's about time I bought one.

Ah yes

Basements.

You dig a big hole in the ground and line the entire hole with concrete and then spend the next 3 or 4 generations trying to keep the water out.

I just never did get the whole good idea thing about that.

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Ted Menelly
"Castle"
Home Inspection Services

Concrete?! Try rocks.

Shop-Vac works for me John. And get a bigger size one. When you're sucking water off the floor and it just keeps coming, the canister fills up faster than you realize.

Now that you've mentioned it, I should probably go check my 110 year old basement.

I picked up a Rigid vac this summer. It works great so far. I haven't tried to pick up water with it. Not many basements here, and even less water.

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Jim Robinson
New Mexico, USA

There ain't no water in New Mexico. Maybe thats why you haven't used it for water yet

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Ted Menelly
"Castle"
Home Inspection Services

I have a Shop Vac and it is designed such that I can attach a hose to its discharge and use it as a pump, I think that between the head height it could pull and push it was plenty more than adequate to use to pump out a basement.

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Jerry Peck, Construction / Litigation Consultant
Construction Litigation Consultants, LLC ( www.ConstructionLitigationConsultants.com )

John,

This one ( 16-Gallon 5.75-Peak HP Pump Wet/Dry Vac ) states:

"16 gallon pump vac can be used as a wet dry vac but also as a pump to remove water from flooded basements, swimming pools, or back yard ponds with 5-year warranty"

Some stated 'will pump to a height of 50 feet'

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Jerry Peck, Construction / Litigation Consultant
Construction Litigation Consultants, LLC ( www.ConstructionLitigationConsultants.com )

Or the " Green " Water Removal Models.
.

Attached Images

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It Might have Choked Artie But it ain't gone'a choke Stymie!
Billy J. Stephens HI Service
Memphis TN.

Heh..heh..heh...
Hanna came ashore at my front door and I'm dry...
I miss my house in Pike county that was built in 1870 with laid up blue slate foundation. (NOT)

I commiserate... been there .... done that... lots of wet tee shirts.

two words...... sump pump.

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Critical Home Inspection Services
www.Home2Spec.com

Just what I was looking for! Thanks Jerry. We get water in our basement here in Mass. It has to rain fairly heavily, though (at least a couple days of straight rain). Then it slowly comes in from the southwest side (ledge) and moves acrosss the length of the basement, never more than 1/4" or so deep and maybe 8' wide. When it gets really bad, It can come up in the center of my basement in front of my fireplace and behind the chimney and furnace. I was thinking about sinking a sump pump though so I wouldn't have to man the vac. I have been on water suck & dump a couple times for 10 hours.

Question: This is the house my wife grew up in. Some years ago, before I moved here, the town put a neighborhood behind the house and cut through the side yard (the side my house leaks from) to lay drainage (I believe) or some sort of underground pipe. Could this have upset the area around my house enough to cause leaking? Would the town be liable/responsible in any way? The area that was dug up next to my house is about 8 - 10' away. Thanks, Kirk

It may have. Some installations of "pipe" call for encasement in gravel (strom drains) water or sewer will be sand. If it was storm drain it may be acting like a french dran and collecting the ground water and allowing it to seep into your basement.

However most AHJ's are exempt from being held liable. Now the contactor or engineer is a different story. It is a civil matter and would be up to you to prove them in the wrong. Lot's of money (attorney, engineers etc) and still might lose!

Hope everything works out for you!

Yep, could be.

The town? Possibly, but fighting them is usually a waste of your money, and, being a taxpayer, the taxpayers money (i.e., you pay twice).

As Wayne said, the engineering firm and/or contractor who did the work, an easier target than the town, plus, they did the work, probably did the design too. Which would pretty much take the town off the hook.

Would it be cheap to fight? Probably not.

First thing you could do, and do it yourself, is to go to the town engineering department and ask to look over those drawings, those drawings are "public record", so you should have no problem getting to see them, you should have no problem even getting a copy of them (although expect to pay a dollar per page for the copies).

Take the drawings home with you (if you decide to get copies) and look them over. Where does your property, is there an easement there, where does the project start? Did they work on your property? what soil did they remove (there should be soil samples stating what type of soil was found at what depth) and what type of soil did they replace it with? did the drainage grading originally drain away from your house and does it now drain toward your house?

Many, many questions. No answers.

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Jerry Peck, Construction / Litigation Consultant
Construction Litigation Consultants, LLC ( www.ConstructionLitigationConsultants.com )

Fein Turbo II
or even better for draining, large size Festool vac
Great vacs that take a beating

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Accurate Inspections & Consulting, Inc.
773/844-4AIC
Markus Keller