How to Handle a Basement Flood

The moment you’ve dreaded since you saw rain the forecast has come: your basement has flooded. Or maybe you weren’t expecting it at all and cheerily walked down the basement stairs only to end up with a shoe full of water. Regardless, finding a basement full of water can be confusing and scary and you might not know where to start. Here are some tips. 

Cut power 

If your breaker box is upstairs, go and shut off power to the basement. If the box is in the basement, you can call your electric company to temporarily shut off power - you don’t want to touch anything electrical while standing in water. Sure, it will be inconvenient, but so is getting electrocuted. 

Find the source 

Check for broken pipes, a leaking water heater or washer, or any other potential source of the water. If you can’t find anything, you’re likely looking at a classic wet basement flood. If it turns out to be a malfunctioning pipe or appliance, call the appropriate professional and do what you can to collect actively incoming water (buckets, etc). If there’s no visible source, call us. 

Move keepsakes 

Do a quick scan and prioritize what needs to be rescued. Photo albums or other boxes of mementos or important documents will likely take priority; get them to higher ground on a shelf or even upstairs. Anything expensive and movable should also go upstairs - don’t assume there’s a safe part of the basement just because it hasn’t flooded yet. If you have any spare plastic bins to transfer cardboard boxes into, those will come in handy now.  

Abate the water 

Do what you can to remove as much of the water as possible. A shop vac plugged in somewhere safe will pull up a good amount but involves multiple trips outside to empty it. Some people go the “millions of towels” route, but this isn’t super effective. Basically do what you can to bide time until your designated professional arrives. 

Get it fixed 

Whether it’s an old pipe that needs to be replaced or a waterproofing problem, don’t hesitate to get the problem fixed. If it happens once, odds are it will happen again and you probably don’t want to go through this again. 

Take a nap 

It’s been a long day/night/both. Kick back. You deserve it.