Surprise: Sump Pump Conked Up!
By KK on Jul 24, 2008 in Rants, Homemaker
You win some, you loose some. Just when I thought I could finally settle down and blog about the details of how our summer is going, my daughter runs up to tell me that daddy needs my help with the computer down in the basement. Her voice was very urgent. When I got down to the basement, there was ankle deep water in some parts and D had his feet up on the air asking for his shoes. Water plus electricity is dangerous! We had to secure the electrical stuff before even considering walking through the water. During the thunderstorm, D was engrossed with doing some work on the computer and didn’t notice water was slowly rising around him. So we had been vacuuming and scooping up water for the rest of the night. I am now running on adrenaline and can’t go to sleep - so might as well blog about the experience while it’s fresh.
The sump pump that we were thinking of replacing last year just gave up on us tonight. With just too many things happening lately, we entirely forgot about it. We still consider ourselves lucky that it happened while we were home to minimize the damage and to think that we were just thinking of finishing the basement. We would also now speed up on the process of replacing the water heater because the HVAC guy did warn us that we are on borrowed time. He has seen leaky water heaters that has been flooding basements in the area. Well both sump pump and water heater are 15 years old and are contractor quality, I’ve seen some of our neighbors drying out their basements and replacing carpets(all our town homes have been built by the same developer and build in the same time). We have been here for seven years and this is the first time it has ever happened.
Seriously, how many homeowners right now are doing the recommended preventive maintenance on all the nooks and crannies of their homes? With the present economy, most of us will say, “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” Who would be saying, hey I have an extra $1,000 maybe I should spend it on a new sump pump and the working water heater has to go too? But now I have to say that I have to advocate on preventive maintenance because there is a higher risk when they are not addressed to. We really don’t want to be kicking ourselves 2-3 months down the road when we have to spend a whole lot more because of water damage which could have prevented the situation.
How about you? Are you on top of your home maintenance?
raqgold | Jul 24, 2008 | Reply
aww, sorry to hear about that. we’ve had the house repainted last year and we’ve had the gas tank cleaned, too. but i dont know about our sump pump.. but my husband’s got his list of what’s next to be maintained and i hope he’s got his list updated!
KK | Jul 25, 2008 | Reply
Hi Raqgold,
The service guy said that we are really lucky because our neighbor’s pumps were working because since we share the same grounds that they were sharing the load. He said our pump hasn’t been working for a while. It’s just good that it happened when we were here and not during our one week vacation.
It’s been replaced now.
julie | Jul 27, 2008 | Reply
Good thing what happened was not worse,and you were there too to do damage repair.
We need a lot of repairs done too, especially on the roofs. These leak a bit when there is a downpour because the downspout has to be fixed. These are full of leaves from the three trees on the side of the property. I can’t understand why my late FIL planted these. The fence on that side is also leaning a bit. Sigh.
KK | Jul 30, 2008 | Reply
Hi Teacher Julie,
It’s a good thing that we did change it because there was another down pour last weekend.
You really have to prioritize the ones that will make serious damage first. The leaves have to come out of the gutters and downspout because if not the water will overflow and can eventually dig into the foundation. It’s wonderful to have the trees as long as they are kept a good distance away from the house to keep air circulation going at the exterior of the house and keep the leaves out of the gutters. It might be a good idea to trim the branches of the tree.
Girlie | Aug 1, 2008 | Reply
repairs and maintenance shouldn’t be taken forgranted. mas malaki ang gastos pag pinabayan. happy weekend Tina!
KK | Aug 5, 2008 | Reply
Hi Ate Girlie,
.
Lesson learned