Category Archives: Weather

Jul 01 3 comments
Weather

Every time I turn around, its raining

No really.  I found this precipitation overlay on the National Weather Service web site this morning.  This is the June 2009 rainfall amounts:

June 2009 rainfall, National Weather Service

June 2009 rainfall, National Weather Service

We quite near those pink zones in the middle of the graphic, which is 10+ inches of rain.  I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it were more than that.  I know there has been some local flooding and a few roads washed out around here.

That puts quite a damper on the outside work, as one might imagine.  Last spring I tried to dig the footings for the solar photovoltaic system out by the garden.  I went down about 2 1/2 feet and hit water.  And that was after a dry spring.  I can’t imagine what it would be like now.

I can say that the raised beds in the vegetable garden are really proving their worth now.

Update: Local newspaper reports June rainfall totals breaks 140 year record.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Jun 19 6 comments
Interior, Weather

Basement not flooding

It is hard to take a picture of what is not there.

Since June 10th, we have received 5.38 inches of rain.  That is quite a bit for a 9 day period.  Our old basement would have looked like this:

flooded basement floor

flooded basement floor

That is a picture from two years ago before we had the basement french drains installed.

Today the basement looks like this:

basement after installation of interior french drain system

basement after installation of interior french drain system

Which is to say, much better indeed.  I also noticed that there are no wet spots on the walls, no active mold colonies, or any other features of wet basements.

I have also noted that the dehumidifier is used a lot less than it used to be.  Last year, I only used it during July and August to keep the cold water pipes from sweating.  This is saving use some significant money (my estimate is $580.00 per year, based on the Kill A Watt meter results) on our electric bill.  That is all good.

In all fairness to American Dry Basement Systems (ADBS), the system that they installed works as advertised and it was worth the expense.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Jan 11 1 comments
Weather

There is nothing as quiet as a snow storm

We are receiving more snow today, I have a feeling it is going to be a bad winter. I walked up to get the mail around 3pm yesterday and took a few pictures:

snow falling on white pine tree

snow falling on white pine tree

All is calm as light snow falls on the White Pine tree.

The stream, known as the Salmus Kill, at the end of our road:

Salmas Kill in January

Salmas Kill in January

The back yard with the clothes line, unused since last September:

snow in the back yard

snow in the back yard

The field across the street. Normally, this field is cut in the fall, but this year it has been let go. The dried high grassy looking plants are reeds, they grow in wet lands and are a wet land marker.

snow falling on reeds

snow falling on reeds

The street looking down the hill.

looking down our street

looking down our street

With the exception of the occasional snow plow, everything is very, very quiet.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Mar 05 27 comments
Interior, Weather

Putting the American Dry Basement System to the test

It was one week ago that AmericanDry Basement System, Inc. (AKA A.D.B.S., Inc) finished the water proofing of our basement. Tonight will be a good test of their system, as we have 12-14 inches of snow on the ground, temperatures are expected to rise through the night, we have so far received about 3/4 of an inch of rain and we are to get 1-2 more inches of rain. If ever there were a “Perfect Basement Flooding Storm” this is it.

As of 7 pm, both pumps were cycling on and off, with pump number one running once every 1 1/2 minutes and pump number two running once every 10-15 minutes.

1:00 am Update: Heavy Rain. Pump one is running once every 30 seconds, pump two is still running occasionally.

4:10 am Update: Weather Radio goes off, National Weather Service has issued a flood warning for the Esopus Creek, well north of here. This is normally the first place to flood, but is not a good sign of things to come. Still raining heavily.

5:52 am Update: High water alarm for pump one. The pump is running full time and water is still getting higher in the pit. Pump number two is running about once a minute. Water stains noted in some of the floor and wall cracks. Overall basement floor remains dry. Deployed third pump (small submersible) and cleared snow and ice from surface drains on the patio area. Camera Battery dead.

sump pit one water rising

Sump pump pit one, pump running all out and not keeping up with incoming water. The capacity on this pump is 2220 gallons per hour.

Sump pit two

Water flowing into sump pit two. This pump is keeping up with the incoming water, capacity on this pump is about 2000 gallons per hour due to the larger friction head.

6:34 am Update: Water is shooting from wall cracks in outside basement stairwell. Work harder to clear patio drains, about 6 inches of water/snow/ice on patio.

7:44 am Update: Third pump is doing the trick. Water level in sump pump pit one is dropping slowly. I will call American Dry Basement and tell them we need a bigger pump for this pit. The pump in pit two is working great. Throughout, no water on the basement floor. Because the high water alarm woke me up, I was able to avoid any flooding (at least so far)

third sump pump added to system

Sump pump pit one with two pumps running.

basement drain pipe

This is the water that would have been in my basement, had it not been pumped out of the ground first.

12:44 pm Update: Mixed results from calling American Dry Basement Systems, Inc. First, there was no one to take my call so I had to leave a message. When they did call back, I was told how to deactivate the high water alarm, which I had already done. I told them how the water was about to come over the top of the sump and we need a bigger pump. Their response, the Zoeller M53 pump is the only model they sell. That’s fine, it is just a little under rated for the job. Zoeller makes an M98 pump, which looks perfect. I will call them again today and re-enforce my point that we need a bigger pump. Stay tuned.

Of course, I saved them a service call by dropping the second pump in the sump and keeping the water down. Perhaps next time I should let the water run out on the basement floor and make them come out and fix it.

Conclusion: The ABDS system does work, however, it is a little expensive.  Negotiate hard and don’t fall for any of the fancy wiz bang clap trap that the sales guy might spout.  It is a under slab french drain system with a pump, pure and simple.  Materials probably ran about $500-600 or so.  The labor is intense.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Feb 11 7 comments
Interior, Weather

Yet again, Flooding!

This is a little depressing… In spite of all the drainage work I have done around the house over the last two years, we are still getting water in the basement. I am beginning to think that I will have to dig out around the entire foundation and replace the footing drain. I’d take a picture, but it looks pretty much the same as the last picture taken:

winter time basement flooding

Uhg. The water seems to be coming in through various places including up through the cracks in the concrete floor. The biggest culprit, however, is the floor drains. They are bubbling up like springs. Fortunately the sump pump keeps up with it and the floor never gets completely covered.  This has happened before and it seems to be worse in winter time when the ground is frozen and we get a lot of rain, the way we have over the last week.

I have a feeling that tree roots have blocked the drainage pipe for the footing drain and the floor drains. There is a nice big Norway Spruce growing right over where the pipe should run out away from the house. I suppose I could start by digging up that section and replacing it with a new stretch of PVC pipe, however, somewhere out there in the side yard is also the leach field for the septic tank. I really don’t want to to is mess with that, as it seems to be one of the few things that is working right.

Popularity: 4% [?]