Flood In The Crawlspace

We had a lot of water this past year, and lots of snow this winter.  In February the weather began to warm up and there was all kinds of muddy floods in the neighborhood, our front yard also had standing water beneath the snow that was melting.   Around then, our toilets were flushing funny. If you flushed one toilet, the other one would empty. So, I called my neighbor, Lloyd, an ex-plumber, and he said he'd bring his boy by after school and see if they could help. 

You may remember Lloyd because he's our angel that helped us get our yard all nice. He has a bad back, so he couldn't investigate, but his boy could, and did.  Well, we discovered that the sewer pump was floating in our crawlspace which caused our main drain pipe to angle upward, thus causing our flushing issues. 

That pipe in the picture above should be resting in that strap hanging from the joists. 

So our plan of attack was to pump the water out of the hole the sewer pump sits in, then anchor it down by shoving a board from the floor above onto the sewer pump below. 

We borrowed a pump from Debbie, one of the sisters I visit teach. We pumped and pumped, about an hour and a half later, Lloyd's son took a shovel and went to work removing and maneuvering mud so the pump was at the right level.

In the meantime, the main sewer pipe busted from all the pressure on it. So, we tried not to use water in the house while we got that mini crisis fixed, which Lloyd's son handled practically on his own, mind you he's doing this all for free and he's only a young teen. I can't tell you how thoroughly impressed I am with him!  And I'm so grateful for all the help and expertise offered to us from everyone. 

Eventually, we got the sewer pump in place and anchored down. The only thing left to do was to pump and pump until the ground water got low enough that we could install a sump pump.  

Below you'll see the water level on April, the highest we have seen it. 

And below is a picture from April 10, the water level much improved. 


Here we are months later and we are still waiting for that day, although it does seem that it is coming nearer, since we haven't had a rain storm for over a week now. Yes, we're still using that borrowed pump everyday to pump out the pit. 

I've been trying to stay really positive through this entire ordeal because there's no need to make a bad situation worse with your own misery, and I even set up some lawn chairs next to our mini underground ponds so I could comfortably wait for the pump to drain the pit. Amara even joined me one morning and we did her math lakeside with the roaring hum of the pump in the background.

I'm happy to report that things are looking up for us and we even have a couple neighbors who offered to help us install the sump pump when the time comes. 

We haven't investigated damages yet, but we will cross that bridge when the time comes. Until then, wish us happy pumping!