Photo by Michael Garrett
Good morning! This is what we know so far about life in Baristaville post-Irene:
- DeCamp buses are running. Or as Montclairion Thom Kennon put it on Twitter: “A little nervous clot of NJT rail commuters huddle awaiting the resentful vibes of the DeCamp bus riders, should they allow us aboard.”
- Some people have their power back! We have some happy reports from a couple of tipsters that their power is back on. PSE&G says it restored service to 240,000 customers overnight. The bad news is that 265,000 power customers are still without. Despite the 5 to 7 day estimates everybody heard yesterday, PSE&G says the “majority” of customers without service will be restored within 48 hours.
- New problem: PSE&G warns that gas outages may be possible. “Water could enter the utility’s gas distribution system, as well as flood customers’ basements and gas appliances”
- There are still plenty of wires down. (Including one in back yard.) Be careful to supervise small children.
Help us crowd source the story as the day goes on. What we want to know.
- Which ATMs are working and which are not.
- Where people without power can find outlets and wifi to work.
- What’s going on at the Jersey shore? People who were planning end-of-summer vacations, let us know if you’re going to get to go. And what happens if you aren’t.
Lots of downed trees and live wires in West Orange…be careful! When I went to work this morning, Eagle Rock Avenue at Pleasantdale was open to local traffic only due to a downed wire. Many folks are still without power.
DeCamp is running pretty close to schedule. My bus was only about 5 minutes late, pretty good considering the situation.
Hope everyone is OK and that your electricity comes back on soon if you are without. That was the most frustrating part for us because you basically can’t do anything, such as run a pump to clear water from your basement.
At any rate, being that I am basically new to home ownership, I have a question for all of you seasoned homeowners concerning basements. This is the first time we ever had water in our basement due to a storm. It’s gone now but I would like to be able to do something to prevent this from ever happening again. I suggested to my husband that we bite the bullet and have it sealed but he said that no amount of sealant in the world would prevent water from coming inside in a storm like this. Is this correct?
Some of our neighbors had water, others did not. It appeared pretty random until you observed the layout of everyone’s properties. Some had natural barriers, like trees on the side of the house, preventing water from getting in. Obviously if you are situated on a hill, you’ll be better off than in a valley.
So, I am putting it out there: What do you do? Sealant, French drains? Should we invest in a sub-pump? Of course a sub-pump is useless if there is no electricity. Thanks in advance!
We were very lucky. No damage at all, no loss of power, except for a 2 minute flicker.
Husband got into NY on Decamp, no problems. His NJ office in Wayne is closed.
Just had the garbage truck come down to pick up garbage, despite Montclair township saying it was suspended.
MM…..French drains if you can afford them. A sump pump would be good also unless power goes out. If the water wasn’t that high just get a wet & dry shop vac. They’re worth their weight in gold!
We’ve gotten most of the water out the basement (about six inches worth). Hot water heater is busted, which means no hot baths or showers for a while, and the Y is closed all week. So if you drive by, keep the windows rolled up…
Mrs Martta…we purchased a generator on Saturday (we were on a waiting list) just in case the power went out. Without our sump pumps running we would have had over 3 feet of water in our basement.
We plan on purchasing another sump pump in case one of them goes, they had to work so hard during this storm. We have no regrets purchasing the generator and feel it is a good investment.
That sucks, Walleroo. Why is the Y closed all week? Perhaps another local Y (or health club) will let you use their showers? There’s the JCC in West Orange, too. Good luck and I hope your hot water is back on soon.
I think we’re going to look into a generator (when they’re back in stock!) Like I said, you really can’t do anything if you can’t use electricity.
Martta take a look at the slope of your property. Does it slope away from the house?
We usually get no water even though neighbors on both sides do. One neighbor cut down all of the bushes next to her house and had the large tree removed from the front and then complained about taking in water. The other one has also removed some trees from the back of her property and not when there is a heavy rain her basement get ater in it.
The last time we got water in the basement was Floyd in 1999.
Our front yard is flat, the back slopes away from the house. Of course, it could be runoff from a neighbor’s yard that slopes into ours.
We had some trees cut down (stumps were not removed) but they are so far away from the house in the back so I don’t think that’s the problem.
Don’t expect that you can keep ALL water out of your basement. The best to hope for is to be able to get rid of it quickly. Start by making sure your gutters and downspouts are working to take water away from your foundation. French drains and a sump pump have served us well. Yesterday and today I have squeegeed and wet-vacced.
If you accept that the basement is close to where the water tends to go, and don’t try to build a playroom or man-cave down there, you should be all right.
And garbage collection is back!
MM.
We have a “wet” basement. You can get it finished with a special interior wall which allows a french drain to work behind the will. It works well so long as you don’t lose power. I agree with your husband about the sealant. It’s best, IMHO, to put a french drain in, and a sump pump and have a generator to run the pump.
But if you only flood with hurricane type events, maybe you don’t need to do anything. Our basement gets water anytime there is a large rain.
No, our basement is unfinished and we plan to keep it that way. We just use it for storage and laundry. Plus my husband’s workshop is down there. We also try to keep everything off the floor so thankfully, we never had damage to anything of value.
Our biggest concern that that the water never rises to the level of any electric sockets or gets into the workings of the furnace or the laundry machines. So far, we’ve been fortunate.
But of course, that smell! As soon as everything is bone dry, I’ll go over the floor with some bleach cleaner. For now, we have the windows open to air it out and will keep a fan blowing.
All is well, no trees fell on my property (an active brook bed) or flooding in the house during the night. Power stayed on. The volume of water outside was AMAZING, the ground began to percolate water. I watched the huge trees over my roof, the brook and the news watch vigilantly all night, never slept. Big old trees in a forest are more resistant to wind because they can embrace each other. The phone rang at 6:30am. An Emergency, I had to go to get my mother IMMEDIATELY in Morris County, The house where she was staying to ride out the storm began to take on water from the foundations and the electrical wires caught fire, fortunately no injuries but they had to evacuate. (it seems like most of the water was coming directly from the water tables because the ground is so saturated) At 7am Sunday, highway 280 west was fine. Few cars , but there were police and crews removing fallen trees. Once home again all was fine. My grandmother’s assisted living director called to ask my help (I had offered) none of the daytime staff could get there to work so many stayed from the night shift. My friend’s concert was canceled at the Highline Ballroom in Chelsea and Mayor Bloomberg revolked all permits for cultural events. Friends and relatives had to evacuate Spring Lake. The flooding apparently wasnt too bad but lots of debris, broken trees, sand and sea foam. Most of the time I was glued to the CBS Irene Storm Watch and 1010WINS. I was so worried that downtown NYC would go underwater.
The Y closes every year this week for maintenance.
‘Roo, that’s awful about the showers, etc. You have my sympathies.
One suggestion — if I’m not mistaken, the quarterly tax bills will be out soon. Why not make your way over the ROC’s house and rinse off under the copious tears that will follow his perusal of same.
Salty yes, but…
MM — if you have downspouts, you can get some plastic extensions, or even handsome stone troughs that divert water away from the foundation. If there are windows in the basement, check them out — they are often sources of water intrusion. Home Depot has inexpensive plastic ones, or you can get more expensive plexiglass models. Or, you could move to Texas. Hasn’t rained there since the spring o ’07.
Roo — join one of the inexpensive health clubs that have no annual comittments. Platinum Fitness in Verona (by King’s) is $10 a month. Bring anti-athlete’s feet medicine for your paws — even though that place is very clean, AF is everywhere in a gym.
Thanks, Conan, we have those. And windows are sealed.
From reading eveyone’s comments, I think a French drain is the way to go, plus investing in a generator…thanks to everyone for their suggestions.
Downed live wires at the end of Grandview bordering on Brookdale Park. Power went out at 3:20 AM Sunday. Residents of Grandview, Dryden and Argyle (among the affected homes)have called three and four times to report live wires and power outage. PSE&G response: (1) PSE&G customer service says they have no record of outage. (2) PSE&G automated message says “power has been restored to your area.” (3) PSE&G rep “stationed” at end of Grandview tells people not to walk near wires. (4) PSE&G interview on 1010 WINS @ 11 AM August 29 — “all outages in our service area, except in flooded locations, have been restored.”
MM. I also recommend a french drain with a pit and a pump. It really saved the day for us this time, getting around to installing the system, after years of bailing out our basement.
Anyone with basement damage: I highly recommend Quality 1st Basements. We had severe flooding from even minor storms and finally bit the bullet and had them install french drains and a “triple safe pump” – 2 sump pumps w/ an additional sump running on battery power if the first 2 fail. We do not have a finished basement but were so over pumping water out after every storm. My backyard looked like a lake yesterday but my basement was bone dry. My only affiliation w/ Quality 1st is as a customer and I can tell you that they were honest, reasonably priced, thorough, and fast. Good luck to everyone bailing out!
I had a sump pump installed in my basement last spring, and after this weekend, I must say it was a good investment.It stayed on top of the basement flooding really well, and all appliances down there and water heater are intact!
On the question of applying a “sealant” to basement walls to prevent or mitigate water intrusion, I would caution against this approach.
From what I have read and researched, applying a waterproofing treatment to basement walls could actually cause structural deterioration of the foundation walls over the long term. Unless you have a poured concrete foundation (which probably very few houses do), your basement walls are constructed of hollow concrete block. Normally when the ground around the foundation is saturated, the water will seep through the porous concrete blocks into the basement. However, if the water is stopped by a waterproof barrier applied to the interior of the wall, it will accumulate in the hollow center of the concrete blocks, which may cause them to disintegrate over time from the inside out. From my perspective, it’s better to deal with the occasional water cleanup than a structural issue.
Besides, I don’t know that any of the waterproofing treatments being hawked would be capable of stopping the volume of water we were faced with during Irene.
I think a better approach would be to remediate drainage issues from the outside. When I purchased my house here in Bloomfield back in 2006, there was evidence of long-term water intrusion through the rear basement wall indicated by peeling paint and efflorescence, the white powdery residue lefty behind by the evaporating water. Immediately behind my house was a paver patio with a small stone wall at the rear edge, and a wooded slope that ran up to my rear neighbor’s property about 20 feet above my patio. It was obvious that the water would runoff down towards the patio. Although the patio was slightly pitched away from the house it did not have any drains, allowing the water to accumulate on the patio, soak into the ground, and eventually seep into the basement through the rear walls.
I addressed this problem by installing drainage features that now divert this runoff around my house. I had the small loose stone wall replaced with a knee-high decorative concrete block wall. Buried behind the wall was a perforated drain pipe in a layer of gravel to permit drainage of the water that would run down the slope. This perforated pipe was connected to a solid underground drain pipe that runs along the side of my house and discharges in the front yard well away from the foundation. At the rear edge of the patio I had installed three drainage grates connected to a drainage pipe connected to the same discharge pipe, so that as the rain water flowed to the rear of the pitched patio it would spill into the drainage grates and eventually discharge in front of the house as well.
It wasn’t cheap, but until Irene hit my rear basement wall has been bone dry with no water intrusion whatsoever. After the hurricane I did have a few puddles that I cleaned up with a mop and a bucket, but I consider that unavoidable considering the amount of rainfall and degree of ground saturation.
So, I think that waterproofing treatments merely hide the problem with a potential huge long term cost in terms of structural integrity. It is far better to spend money on solutions that capture the water and divert it around the house altogether.
I hope that some of you find this information to be helpful.
Watch out, Hurricane Katia could be coming soon! :-O
Thanks, Pork Roll, for that information.
We’re in West Caldwell, with the northeast corner of the house in Fairfield. Only a tiny trickle of water got into the basement–small enough to wipe up by hand–and we never lost power. All our big old trees gave us enough kindling for most of the winter. The rest of our street seems to have fared just as well. At the north end of our street, however, Passaic Ave is closed. No way to get to Rte 80. No one needs the blow by blow of my noncommute this morning, but the water’s even higher than yesterday and even more stuff is blocked off than usually closes during flooding. After trying this, that, and the other option for over two hours, I gave up and came home. (My usual commute is via NJT from Willowbrook, which is part of the river right now. Rte 23 is also closed.) I think, since getting to the passable parts of 46 and then the MSU station would take me forever, my best option for getting in to NYC may be DeCamp. Yeah, I know. BUT, I wrote all that so I could ask you this: Does anyone have experience taking the 33 from West Caldwell? It leaves from the road next to the new Stop & Shop. I’m pretty sure they don’t offer day-long parking, and I have no idea if the supermarket sells bus tickets, but I’ll find out today. At least we can get to the store, if nowhere else. Yikes, this is long. Sorry.