Walkout Basement Baptism

Well, the weather finally got me. Last night I went to check our walkout basement rec room before going to bed. The lights were off when I stepped off the last step in the stairwell and my foot was suddenly immersed in 3" of water. AARGH!
The walkout has 3 walls that are concrete up to 36" with the front wall and stairwell being the only framed and sheetrocked walls. There's a 4" cedar molding around the framed walls and the carpet is a commercial carpet with no padding. It's just glued to the concrete floor. A hot water stub-out I had installed for a wet bar froze in the wall and burst. The flow was so fast it couldn't run out the door and that's why water was 3" deep. I opened the door from outside and water poured out like you see in cartoons. :shocked:

We dewatered the floor down to the wet carpet and we will use a wet-dry vac this morning to get as much water out as possible. Of course it's the weekend and bad roads to boot, so there is not telling when we can get professional help. Unlike the photo I posted, the room is full of furniture with theater seats, a bar, pool table big screen TV and many other goodies that have wet feet. The TV and electronics were plugged into a power strip that was plugged into a ground fault plug. The ground fault popped when the strip got water into it and shut everything down. I think we are good electrically/electronically, but this is still going to be a huge mess.

I've been in the house now about 10 years with nothing major, so I guess it was my turn. It doesn't make it any easier though when it happens. At least it was on the lower level and the room that will see the least damage. Still, I was looking forward to a Super Bowl party with my daughter and grandkids tomorrow. That ain't gonna happen. :thumbdown:

Sorry to hear abou this It looks like a beautiful room from the picture.Your post ,you seem to have come to grips with it. (the cursing was done with lol).
Ive seen worce if that helps any...

You don't want a professional. They have already screwed up by putting plumbing in an outside wall. Do it yourself so it will be done right.

Sorry to hear of your damage. It's no fun stepping off a step and hearing a splash. Under the circumstances my main advice would be to get a fan going down there as soon as you can - keep air moving until you can do more. Unfortunate, but at least you had ground faults in place - it could have been really bad.

get out and buy fans and dehumidifiers fast get them running and leave them on, also turn the heat on anything to dry out the area

Not good Jim. Hope the damage is not real bad.

Wow. Sorry to hear that. I assume you had a water shutoff that turned off the water to the broken pipe without turning off all the water to the house. Good luck with the repairs.

You might loose the bottom of your dry wall. The water that leaked in as you stated was potable so there would be no bacteria in it. In New Orleans I watched This Old House and they had to cut back to the bare walls because of the spores and bacteria that would be there forever because it was sewage and flood water.
Craig Clayton

Darn Jim! Thank God for insurance.. I bet as we thaw this will be more common. I had to water traps freeze, but nothing like you have to deal with for sure.

Hopefully you can get the bulk of the water out today to start the drying process and try to salvage some time tomorrow with your family.

Certainly not making "light" of the headache your dealing with, but look at it like your "basement is HALF full". Just trying to find some humor for ya.

Good thing you guy's where home and not out of town!

If you get to the point and need an ozone machine, I think we still have one in the family. I can check with my mother, if we still have it your sure welcome to use it.

I have used it to remove molds from several rooms in the past if that becomes a problem or concern.

Thanks Western for the offer and everyone for the good wishes and advice. I thought the problem was only hot water until I turned the cold water on this morning and more water came flooding out of the wall. I shut the water off and determined it is an outside spigot pipe that busted. I had those foam covers on all my spigots, but when I opened up the wall, I found the pipe had that black foam insulation around it and the fiberglass insulation had been put to the inside, leaving the pipe between the insulation and the outside wall. I just don't think that is right. There was plenty of room to put the insulation between the pipe and the outside wall, but the installers just didn't bother. The pipe split about 3" long at an "L" and about 2" back down the pipe. Both the "L" and the pipe were busted. I cut the pipe back and installed a cap. I'm waiting for the glue to set up good and then we'll give it a pressure test.

We contacted our insurance company this morning. Of course they are swamped with claims. They said they use Servpro most often and gave us their number. I called a local restoration company because Servpro has to come from about 45-65 miles away. The local company told me they could get here to dewater the rug for me, but would have no drying equipment available until Monday because of the demand. I called Servpro and talked to someone who said they would call me back, but they have not returned my call. If they don't call within another hour, I'm going back to the local company and let them do the job. I know that Servpro has a bad reputation in some places, but every location is probably different. However, if they want my business, they need to call me back and tell me when they can be here. I'd rather support the local company anyway.