rain go down the sewers, not up it!

[bhd812]

this mourning at 4:30am water decided to travel up my sewer and all over the place. i was on the net when i heard some bubbling noise in back of me, when i turned around and seen water making its way past my door. i didn't know what to do, move my stuff to higher ground or try to stop the water. i ran to the to drains in the basement and seen a mini version of the Bellagio Fountain's only without the Bocelli (if Bocelli would of been playing at the same time it would of just confused me more..alot more). so what do i do stop the fountains or move my stuff? finally i did what Sean Connery would do on the Rect October..used Combat tatics...plug the drains! plug the drains! wait! no unplug the electrical equipment first then plug the drains!. by then my old room is three inches under, and yes all my stuff is still in the room (cleaning the new place, sleep here one day, sleep there the next). luckily my Dynaudio's where on risers as with most of the other stuff. rescued the computer off the ground as water was making it past the riser it was on..few

opps Dac1 was still on the floor though, i am going to give it a day to dry out. thank god the tube amps were on short amp stands, i did have to move them and most everything to higher ground as the water was still coming in.

after the water recided i started ripping out the carpet in the room, screw drying it and it was to go anyway when it started again. this time i plugged the drains quickly so it didn't do any much more damage.

now the really real bad news, there was all my Sinatra and Martin records along with all my new vinyl (new pressed stuff) on the floor that got damaged bad...really bad. in the time i had after i plugged the two drains up i had to get the amps/computer/b52/etc to higher ground, more important to daily life..

i have a vpi record cleaner, so can i clean the vinyl up? i know the covers are screwed though..

anyone else have a lake Billycaca from all this rain?

going to bed now..wake up at start cleaning the bar (it got 6 inches of water last night).

[boomana]

Sorry to hear that, Billy. That doesn't sound good at all.

[deepak]

Ouch sorry to hear about the damage to those helpless LPs

[Absorbine_Sr]

Man, that sucks big time. The album covers the most. We're south of you but luckily, no basement to flood. At least most of your gear stated dry.

[deepak]

Dry out the actual vinyl and they should be fine. Give them a cleaning if any mucky sleeves stuck to them.

[Salt Peanuts]

Sorry to hear that, Billy. We've had few flooding earlier this year, where it seriously threatened our furnace and water heater. Good luck with cleaning.

[Dusty Chalk]

Yes, a good thorough cleaning should undo the damage to the vinyl. And, as recommended elsewhere, dry those sleeves ASAP to avoid mold.

[kevin gilmore]

you should see the pictures of skylab's place. back yard 2 feet under water, basement

many feet under water. Pictures posted over there somewhere.

The records are absolutely cleanable. The sooner you get them into a bath tube with

room temperature water, the better.

[Currawong]

That sucks. I just lost a lot of personal possessions in storage in my house in Australia when a blocked sewer spewed up, twice, a heap of shit all over the floor. Unfortunately, because the room where it was happening was closed off, the (large) family living there didn't notice until it had left a couple of inches of shit across the floor and finally gone under the door on the other side.

[manaox2]

Ohhh no. Thats horrible Billy. I think I have never heard a better reason to put my gear on risers.

[bhjazz]

Gak. That really sucks. Get on the phone and call the city or the water company. No reason that should be happening. Do you have any insurance? We can vouch for the value of your fine vinyl collection! Good luck.

[bhd812]

thanks for all the good wishs and help with the vinyl, looked at some of it today and there is mold. i still have some work at the bar to finish up then its just piecing the room back together without carpet. the good news is the dac1 which was the only piece of gear under water with power going to it survived! it seems as though the Monster pc1000 took the electrical hit first and shut everything plugged into it down first before the dac1 got the water. i used compressed air to dry out the dac1 and plugged it in and all worked great, the pc1000 does not work even after i used compressed air inside and out (i remember these were the rage on hf years back when they were selling for 69$). the bad news as you all know is the great/good vinyl has mold and water damage, but i do have a vpi 16.5 record cleaner so with a little time and work the vinyl itself will be saved..sucks the outside cover will have to be thrown out though..maybe i will get some blank white outside covers and print the album art work on them...whatever.

the great news is the carpet is gone and the room is very open and airy, in other words this is going to be fun for "billy vs room acoustics round 82737", i tend to love the airy open sound lately anyway.

manaox, i had my speakers on wood cutting blocks ontop of clay bricks to get them away from the tile/concrete cause the concrete sucked up all the bass. basically the thought was to get the bass to move around the room more without being stuck around the speaker, one thing that sucks about basement floors. the computer was on small risers cause the power supple blew air from the bottom, so to keep the air moving i lifted it a bit. thank god i like to fight with room acoustics though as most of the gear would of been on the floor if not for this.

no flood insurance, actually no one i know in the neighborhood has it either. City says they will help out but you know how that works. not sure if it was luck i was up and in the room when it happened, cause my neighbor got 8 inches of water and when i finally seen the water coming in i plugged up the drains the best i could. either know water damage will happen with any amount of water i would of lost alot more then record covers if i had 8 inches of water for sure.

kg did skylab have anything in the basement? hope he just had crap down there! i believe most of his gear was upstairs when he had the meet at his place (beautiful house btw!)

[Aimless1]

It's possible but not likely that flood insurance would have covered the damage. Water backing up through the drains does not meet the definition of a "flood" by itself. However, here in Michigan it is possible to purchase coverage for water which backs up through sewers and drains or due to sump pump failure. That coverage would apply to both damage to the finished basement and to personal property. You might want to check with your homeowners insurer to see if you have the coverage (it's included in many of the package endorsements to the policy) or if it is available to purchase.

Nasty business, cleaning up after a backup. Glad it turned out as well as it did.

[jvlgato]

kg did skylab have anything in the basement? hope he just had crap down there! i believe most of his gear was upstairs when he had the meet at his place (beautiful house btw!)

I was communicating w/ skylab since I live so close to him and I because I got water in my office. He had his new secondary system downstairs and lost his new used (?) Epos and I think a Denon receiver, as well as most of their clothes which were just washed and folded ... luckily not the big B+W's and main electronics, but still sucks ...

[manaox2]

My grandmother had the city change the sewage system pipes (raising them) causing raw sewage to leak up through her drains as well in the basement. They ended up making more money off of it because they struck a deal with a plumbing company to sell $18,000 sewage pumps to the neighborhood. Once two or three people got those installed on the street, it pumped more sewage into my grandmothers basement. She ended up buying a pump for $10,000 elsewhere and the city never paid anyone anything AFAIK. Hope you have better luck.

[Dusty Chalk]

Once two or three people got those installed on the street, it pumped more sewage into my grandmothers basement.

Yeezh.

But it allows me to use the word I made up, based on a word from this page: bescumberment!

I have not yet decided on context, however, so I leave it contextless. I will at some point in the future refer to Beellee as "bescumberbun", which will, of course, refer to this thread. As well as sounding like one of our endearing insults to each other.