# MIA for a whiile



## AFGP9 (Apr 8, 2015)

I have not been posting much since I have been working on my house which I stated a while back. That has come to a halt. After a 2 day total of 8 " of rain, I took on water. First time in 10 years since I sealed the basement walls and floor. No idea where the water came from. No wall or floor cracks. Down spouts are extended out 10 feet. I just know I have been moping up 3" of water. I have a wall down the middle of my basement. One half is a shop area, other side is mostly train room. The water can't drain to the shop side where the sump pump is. This water cleanup had to be done when I wasn't at the store which I have since left. 100% retired--I think. At night as a way to forget the mess, I was on eBay. I have bought 10 NIB cars. Since I had to move EVERTHING out to mop up the water and disinfect the floor, I had a chance to inspect all of the totes. One of those totes was shoved as far back as it would go and behind mostly train totes. What to my wondering eyes should appear but a tote containing Christmas stuff. In that tote were 3 Christmas box cars. I have several Christmas totes in another room. How or why this tote got there I got no idea. Now that everything is back to normal I can now get pictures of my additions. As a tease, one of those cars is an Angela Trotter Thomas Fantasy car #6-48389.
Mopac, did you get any of that heavy rain? This would have been 2 weekends ago.....I think. All of a sudden it rains just about every day. Florida? Raining right now and forecast for the next 4 days/nights. Not supposed to heavy down pour like we had just steady rain. 

Kenny


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## flyernut (Oct 31, 2010)

I've had a flooded basement several times due to power outages, and I know you're pain. Best of luck to you.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Hi Kenny. You have been MIA lately. Good to see you on. If you have a basement and you get
enough rain you will have a wet basement. Kenny I have a wall also that separates basement
and train room. Floor drain is in basement. I was getting water in the train room. Right where
my floor layout was. I sealed all the places (mainly a corner) that water was coming in. Yes I got
all that rain you got. No water in train room but did get some in basement. Seems it has rained
every day or two for weeks now. We had wind a couple nights ago. Seems I heard 70 MPH. I have
not messed with trains for awhile. Not doing repairs, no running, no buying, nothing.

Hi flyernut. how you doing? How are the eyes. Are your new lens from cadavers? How are the car
shows this year? Are they back in full swing? Take care of yourself.

Hi Tom, how are you doing? One of those Christmas sets sold. Seems it was around 239.00
plus 30.00 shipping. I really thought about it but I don't do Christmas cars and not a big fan
of the docksiders. Almost bought another FlyerChief steamer. I like them. I don't know how
they will do in the test of time.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

AFGP9 said:


> I have not been posting much since I have been working on my house which I stated a while back. That has come to a halt. After a 2 day total of 8 " of rain, I took on water. First time in 10 years since I sealed the basement walls and floor. No idea where the water came from. No wall or floor cracks. Down spouts are extended out 10 feet. I just know I have been moping up 3" of water. I have a wall down the middle of my basement. One half is a shop area, other side is mostly train room. The water can't drain to the shop side where the sump pump is. This water cleanup had to be done when I wasn't at the store which I have since left. 100% retired--I think. At night as a way to forget the mess, I was on eBay. I have bought 10 NIB cars. Since I had to move EVERTHING out to mop up the water and disinfect the floor, I had a chance to inspect all of the totes. One of those totes was shoved as far back as it would go and behind mostly train totes. What to my wondering eyes should appear but a tote containing Christmas stuff. In that tote were 3 Christmas box cars. I have several Christmas totes in another room. How or why this tote got there I got no idea. Now that everything is back to normal I can now get pictures of my additions. As a tease, one of those cars is an Angela Trotter Thomas Fantasy car #6-48389.
> Mopac, did you get any of that heavy rain? This would have been 2 weekends ago.....I think. All of a sudden it rains just about every day. Florida? Raining right now and forecast for the next 4 days/nights. Not supposed to heavy down pour like we had just steady rain.
> 
> Kenny


How old is the house is my first question?
About the only way to find the entry source is to sit down there on a real rainy day and watch.
My cellar has no sump pump or the trench around the wall. It was never put in when the house was built around 70 years ago.
One hurricane we got around 8" of rain n 4/5 hours and I got water in from hairline cracks in the floor. It was bubbling/seeping in, we got so much water it made it's way under the floor.
If not for the bubbles you couldn't see any cracks when it was dry. Only happened one time in 25 years, and luckily it subsided not too long after it started.
When I moved in I was getting water at 3 corners in real heavy rain. I had to dig up around each corner and redo the parge coat, it is the thin layer of cement over the cinder blocks, it was deteriorating and falling off. I put a new coat on.
About the only way you will find it is to sit down there in a heavy rain and watch.
Work on the trains when you do? 

Edit, Also I would find a way to let the water from the wet side get to your pump?
Do you have a trench around the basement?
A good wet/dry vacuum would help mopping it up too.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

Hi Kenny, sorry to hear about the wet basement challenge. I do not have a basement here in SoCal, so in a way I am envious. During my tenure in Chicago I owned two houses in the western suburbs, both had basements. The first was at the end of a cul-de-sac and had a street behind it. The water could drain off the lot in both directions. That basement was always dry and the french drain sump rarely ran. The sanitary sump ran several times/week because of the backwash from the water softener system.
The second house was more typical of the area. Our lot backed up to another house, there was a swale that ran between the properties to serve as a groundwater recharge area. All the french drain sumps pumped to the rear of the houses. During a hard rain like you recently had, about a foot of water would accumulate in the swale area, it was about 10' wide and the length of the street, maybe 800'. It would take several days for that water to percolate into the ground or evaporate. All the soil was saturated. I did not get water on the basement floor but the sump would run continuously for over 24 hours. Fortunately we never had a power outage during one of those heavy rains. I only owned that house for three years, backup power for the sump would have been necessary had I not sold the house.
Both of those houses were built new for us so the french drains and exterior wall waterproofing met all the new standards. The risk with an older house is the french drain plugs with soil due to incorrect backfill material and/or the waterproofing fails. There are companies who specialize in reapplying exterior waterproofing without a complete excavation of the soil against the basement wall.
We look forward to some new item pictures.


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## AFGP9 (Apr 8, 2015)

Big Ed, my house was built in 1963. I am the second owner. A drain tile surrounds the house and drains into the sump hole in the basement. Hasn't caused a problem. Before I built my around the walls layout, I sealed everything. The walls are sealed to the floor and I ran sealer 3 feet up the cinder block walls. There are 3 hairline surface cracks but don't leak. I did a lot of concrete work when I was in construction. The expansion joint down the middle of the floor doesn't leak. The train room side has about a 2" slope in 8 feet to the wall. The floor isn't completely level as evidenced by standing water spots. The water could never drain to the sump pump side. This is the first time I've had water in 10 years. It's been raining the last 3 days. A thunder storm just went through about and hour ago. A bunch more rain. In fact I let my dog out a while ago. He was just barking so I went to let him in and what do you think I saw? It's raining again!! Need to get another rain gauge since mine got broken. Rain is forecast up to Wednesday. I just think 8" of rain in a 48 hours, mostly non stop, was way too much thus the water in the basement. I just don't know how it got there Then there was the high wind as mopac mentioned. Seems like it has rained for 2 weeks with a day or two off here and there. I forget how much over the normal amount we have gotten according to the TV weather man. It's a lot. There is a lot of standing field water too. Got a lot of corn and bean fields with large areas flooded.

Tom I am going to look into outer wall sealing. In fact I saw a TV commercial about foundation sealing last night and wrote the phone number down. I'll get pictures of my new to me cars as soon as I can.

Flyernut, how did your cataract procedure go? Hope all is fine.

Mopac. if you can, see about turning off the rain spigot or at the very least get the the upper air flow pattern changed. Please. 

Kenny


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Kenny, I will see what I can do about the weather. Its been something. I believe any basement will leak with enough water around it. Our corn and bean fields are flooded also. We had a high of 70 some degrees today. I like that. Very unusual for middle of July in Missouri. Being on the middle of this hill I live on I do not get any standing water. It runs off, but I still get water in the basement once in awhile. I keep most things up on pallets down there.
I only got bits and pieces of this story. We had a little girl swept away in rain water in past week here. She was in a car with her mother. Car stopped for some reason. They got out of car to
walk away. Water was only 2 feet deep but very swift.. It swept her away. Some people have no luck. I think she was 12 years old. They found her but too late.


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## MichaelE (Mar 7, 2018)

They ran that story on St. Louis local news. Tragic event and very unfortunate. Good to see you around.

My basement is nearly always damp, but it's not much of a basement. At about 8x8, it's large enough for my furnace, hot water heater, sump pump, and access to the breaker box. The rest of the house sits on crawlspace. 

They had a heck of a time installing my new furnace last November.


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## flyernut (Oct 31, 2010)

My basement, thank the good Lord, is dry. I do run a dehumidifier though. And thank you Kenny and others for asking about my eyes. I really don't need them to drive anymore, but I can't see squat at 2 feet or closer. It's driving me crazy as I was near-sighted before, now I'm far-sighted as recommended by my eye doctor.I have readers but I'm about to launch them across the room. I can't wait to get my new prescription glasses. I'm having a real tough time working on my trains. I just finished a 300 Atlantic, and have 5 engines waiting to be sold. My truck is finally ready for the bone-yard, and I have a new cell-phone that's about to become a 50 yard touch-down pass.And I have 2 large feral cats that my wife insisted we feed during the winter hanging around. They are marking their territory and smelling things up!!!!!!! A .17HMR is too loud, a .22 short is also loud, but my .177 pellet rifle is quiet and deadly at just over 900' per second, actually faster than my .22 short.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

I would suspect a cellar drain. When the water table rises the drain backs up. They sell rubber plugs at your hardware store. Just measure out the pipe.


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## AFGP9 (Apr 8, 2015)

I watched that news story clear up here about the little girl. Even showed video. Sad. Water is the biggest disaster. Damage lingers. I finally got things dried up. At the moment I have under the layout totes moved out so I can sanitize with bleach and disinfectant. My dehumidifier has been running full time. I have saved the water from the dehumidifier to use in the disinfected step. Pretty much a disorganized mess. Gotta get back to trains!! Got a lot of pictures to take as well of new additions to my fleet of RR cars. It has been a long 2 weeks. Tried to mow last night because rain is predicted from Thursday through next Monday. Kinda hard mowing my diches with standing water in them. Then there are the weeds popping up with rain and high humidity. It never ends. Hate to say it but looking forward to fall and winter to kill those weeds. Yes I got farmer grade Round Up which works but you can't get it near any vegetation you want to save so that's out for flower beds. Just pull weeds even though I got matting under the mulch those weeds find away to get out. Okay I'm done whining. 

Oh and flyernut I have had to deal with 4 feral cats. I find a 45 works well in animal control. Yes it's loud but efficient. It sounds like you are having all sorts of vision issues. I didn't want to say this until after your procedure but after 5 years I am going in today for a cataract tune up. I have scar tissue growing over the lens. Doc says "simple" 5 minute procedure. It better work. I started out having long range vision problems while driving. I thought it was just a matter of a glasses prescription change. Nope. Now it is just plain seeing clearly at all. Forget reading. Doc says this happens in about 50% of cataract surgeries. I didn't want to alarm you before you had yours done. Of course after words new glasses are next. That's 600.00 of train money used up. 

Kenny


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

My son took in a feral kitten to his house. She had been dumped under a bush by her mother. This cat is now 7 years old
and only 8 lbs. She had to be the runt of the litter. She had to be bottle fed for a couple weeks so was pretty young. We
thought she was young enough to not have the feral problems. She adores my son, very affectionate to him, tolerates me, and hates everyone else. She will shred your arm if you try to pet her. My son has let his boss stay at his house for 5 years now. Much worse problem than the cat. Was suppose to be 3 or 4 months till he got on his feet after his wife left him. Any way he can not even pet the cat. She has torn his arm up several times even after being there 5 years. She hates him. This cat growls like a dog if he comes into same room. As far as my son is concerned she has been the perfect pet for him. The vet is scared to death of the cat. Thank god she is not a 20 lb cat. She would have killed someone by now. She is a very mean animal. So different with my son. She demands he picks her up every time he comes home. She only tolerates me because I baby sat her when she was young and my son was at work.


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