Water World

Last night Erin and I arrived home at about 10:00 excited to watch the final two episodes of Prison Break Season 1 before going to bed. But when we walked downstairs we were greeted by this unwelcome sight:

Standing water in the utility room...

Definately not what you want to see in your own home, especially when you are trying to sell it. Luckily the water had not climbed enough to reach the basement carpeting so if we acted quickly we could limit the damage to just a wet concrete floor.

I tried to turn on our existing sump pump but there was no response. I found that the circuit breaker had tripped. I reset it, but it tripped again. The pump was shot, not to mention completely gross from years of pumping hard water and apparently clay. The piping was also thickly coated with the nasty clay.

What to do late at night with a broken sump pump? Thank you Meijer! We went to Meijer, bought a new pump and new fittings, and then tested my plumbing skills.

I tried to clean out the existing piping but it was beyond hope. Someday soon I'll have to replace it all. Instead I just hooked up the new pump and crossed my fingers.

It worked...kind of. The level started dropping but the nearly plugged pipe kept it from pumping very fast. 4 hours and $105 later we finally went to bed only slightly nervous that our basement would flood.