It's dry in the summer now, but when the rains come do you know how to handle a flooded basement?

I am doing a little research on well testing for a client and, while cruising around the King County Department of Health website, I came across this interesting article on recommendations for how to handle and clean a flooded basement. Considering how frequently various areas of Washington State have problems with flooding because of the snow runoff in the mountain ranges as well as because of our, oh, so famous rains, I thought this would be good information to share.

Making sure that water that infiltrates a house is taken care of properly is a big deal. Mold and mildew can cause health problems, not to mention insurance issues, and disclosure requirements for sellers depending on if, when and how a flooding issue was handled. Insurance companies want to know that ANY water related damage to a property is handled properly and if it hasn’t been, then a buyer trying to buy a home may be denied coverage, thus making it hard to sell the home. CLUE (comprehensive loss underwriting exchange) reports, similar to the more well-known CarFax system, from the past 15 or so years should help determine if a claim has been made when a buyer is calling around getting insurance quotes in the early phase of a purchase. Be sure to ask if your insurance agent will be pulling a CLUE report as part of your quote/binder request. Most people don’t realize that insurance underwriting takes longer than loan/financing underwriting processes so it is possible to lose coverage after the purchase of your home completes.

If a seller didn’t make a claim, but did have a water problem, then it’s important that they disclose issues in the WA State required Seller’s Disclosure Form when selling. And even more important, lay out what was done to mitigate the problem and prevent it from happening again, if possible. This can mean plumbing issues, or natural disasters.

Not only does this website tell you how to handle pumping out water in the event of a flood, but it also gives tips on how to deal with issues of clean up. This is useful for both large flooding problems and the occasional water seepage that many older homes in Seattle experience when we have long period of wet weather. I also loved the idea of the use of a piece of dry charcoal to absorb odors. I wonder if this also works for cat pee smells. We had a house recently that we were in where I’d suggested to the agent that perhaps bringing in large bowls of baking soda might help. Perhaps this would have worked better. Anyone know if either of these might do the trick?

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It's dry in the summer now, but when the rains come do you know how to handle a flooded basement?

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It's dry in the summer now, but when the rains come do you know how to handle a flooded basement?

Related Posts

Need help? Call our award-winning team at (206) 457-2984.

Our Resources

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