Water Heater Flooded basement.

So wake up to no hot water. Go into basement. Rushing water from the center flue stack or whatever of the hot water heater. Killed the water. Utility room is bare concrete with a drain that doesnt seem to hardly drain for shit, was a little clogged with lint from A/C line I never saw since the pipe obscured.

So In surrounding area I've got some painted walls that are showing bunching/wrinkling of the paint, then the carpet on other side of walls are a swamp. Oh and as I type this I guess I should turn off the gas, though letting it heat whats in there might be nice for one last shower before starting to deal with this shit.



Freak out restoration company or should I just start with wet vac and a carpet shampoo-er to sop up the carpets? Going to shop for a new water heater I guess, will Home depot etc delivery usually offer haul away? Things going to be heavy I'm guessing even if I'm able to drain it?

That blows! Shitty was to start the day. I believe Lowe’s and Home Depot will haul the old unit away if you pay for them to install it.


I’d wet vac as much as possible and get some fans for air flow. Then evaluate the damage.

Should I space heater the room for warmth and the fans. Or am I better off despite the cold opening basement windows w/ fans to allow the cold but dry outside air in/out?


Awesome part is I have to report to work in greeley for like 15mins until relief arrives then come back home. Irks me I can get an emergency call and be somewhere with 10 mins prep + travel vs others seem to need like 3 hours to get their asses in gear.

If you're going to make a claim, insurance should pay for mitigation company. Even if you do all the restoration yourself, having it properly dried out and wet materials removed is a big deal and a big help.

Extract the carpet, rent a rug doctor. Roll it back and trash the pad. Put carpet fans under the carpet so it billows. This will also dry the cement. Rent at least 2 dehumidifiers. Any walls that are completely soaked cut a hole in them low and high and put a carpet fan on the lower hole. Turn the heat up and run your a/c. If you can't do both at once cycle back and forth. If you have vinyl just strip it out, ceramic should be ok.

You can check sheet rock with a moisture sensor which is actually a continuity tester so if you have that setting on a multimeter you can skip buying it.

You have 72 hours from first water before mold sets in to get it completely dry. Don't skip steps, if it seems daunting claim insurance and get a restoration company in today before they get busy

Forgot to mention pull all baseboard from the effected areas. If you have a free floating slab you can skip cutting holes into the stud cavity. If you pull the baseboard and there's a gap between the slab and the lowest 2x4 you have free floating.

If not every other stud cavity should be ventilated in a saturated wall. There's special equipment for that but I'm not sure what you can actually get a hold of.

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Originally Posted by Wulf202

Extract the carpet, rent a rug doctor. Roll it back and trash the pad. Put carpet fans under the carpet so it billows. This will also dry the cement. Rent at least 2 dehumidifiers. Any walls that are completely soaked cut a hole in them low and high and put a carpet fan on the lower hole. Turn the heat up and run your a/c. If you can't do both at once cycle back and forth. If you have vinyl just strip it out, ceramic should be ok.

You can check sheet rock with a moisture sensor which is actually a continuity tester so if you have that setting on a multimeter you can skip buying it.

You have 72 hours from first water before mold sets in to get it completely dry. Don't skip steps, if it seems daunting claim insurance and get a restoration company in today before they get busy

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Excellent advice from a man of experience.

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Originally Posted by Wulf202

Extract the carpet, rent a rug doctor. Roll it back and trash the pad. Put carpet fans under the carpet so it billows. This will also dry the cement. Rent at least 2 dehumidifiers. Any walls that are completely soaked cut a hole in them low and high and put a carpet fan on the lower hole. Turn the heat up and run your a/c. If you can't do both at once cycle back and forth. If you have vinyl just strip it out, ceramic should be ok.

You can check sheet rock with a moisture sensor which is actually a continuity tester so if you have that setting on a multimeter you can skip buying it.

You have 72 hours from first water before mold sets in to get it completely dry. Don't skip steps, if it seems daunting claim insurance and get a restoration company in today before they get busy

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Spot on. [emoji106]


If you're unarmed, you are a victim

I also got this advice.

You can actually use the cold outside air to your advantage. If you open the window and pump the room full of the cold dry air, then close the windows and heat the area with a space heater, the cold dry air become even dryer. So you may have to do a few cycles like that to exchange the air, heat it up, then swap it out for fresh air again. Warm air holds more moisture than cold air.


Any good? I have a large window overlooking flooded carpet. Will be getting an extra home Depot fan and dehumidifier but well-versed if that strategy night be good for dinner a good chunk of ambient humidity quick before buttoning up and letting the tools so their work.

I have a shop vac, a floor mounted column shaped space heater that oscilates you can borrow if you want. I'm in Longmont.

Dehumidifier a couple days likely with the 30g/day dehumidifiers or plan on like a week of running them?

Thanks, think I've got stuff on have except for the fancy dehumidifier and specially fans.

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Originally Posted by fitz19d

I also got this advice.

You can actually use the cold outside air to your advantage. If you open the window and pump the room full of the cold dry air, then close the windows and heat the area with a space heater, the cold dry air become even dryer. So you may have to do a few cycles like that to exchange the air, heat it up, then swap it out for fresh air again. Warm air holds more moisture than cold air.


Any good? I have a large window overlooking flooded carpet. Will be getting an extra home Depot fan and dehumidifier but well-versed if that strategy night be good for dinner a good chunk of ambient humidity quick before buttoning up and letting the tools so their work.

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The current humidity is listed at 50%. With typical 'dry' humidity being 15% so as of this time it's absolutely the wrong thing to do.

I'm not trying to be a jerk but, follow my advice from many years experience or pay someone lots of money to do exactly what I've listed or risk a moldy basement. At one time I ran crews doing multiple floods and trained many of them myself.

I should have some time tomorrow to stop by if you want me to.

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Originally Posted by fitz19d

Dehumidifier a couple days likely with the 30g/day dehumidifiers or plan on like a week of running them?

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You should plan on 3 days if you don't have hygrometers. Continually check with a moisture meter and move fans to the area also reduce the square footage to only the effected areas even tent it off it it's one wall of a big room. Electric heaters or forced air. Do not use fuel based heaters, their byproducts are humidity.

After three days there's no point and you're into mold remediation where dehumidifier will spread spores.

You're on the clock...

If you get a moisture meter, use the reading on a dry wall in the basement that is as far from the water as possible as a baseline to see what your moisture goal will be.

Wulf is giving you good advice for mitigation.

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Originally Posted by fitz19d

Should I space heater the room for warmth and the fans. Or am I better off despite the cold opening basement windows w/ fans to allow the cold but dry outside air in/out?


Awesome part is I have to report to work in greeley for like 15mins until relief arrives then come back home. Irks me I can get an emergency call and be somewhere with 10 mins prep + travel vs others seem to need like 3 hours to get their asses in gear.

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Dehumidifier and Fans, high volume ones. Space heater creates condensation

When I mentioned a heater, it's a higher amp big 5 foot like floor heater. So not fuel based. So I'll run that(?) and crank the heat up and then what just cycle the a/c down to 60 and run it cycles of that back and forth since mine isn't fancy enough to do both?

Wulf, I knew you had the best laid out reply and always in other threads had some of the best info, and I'm aiming to stick to that as best I can. Just some of these smaller questions pop up from not understanding some of the underlying science etc. I'm not sure you really want to come down to hwy 52 and i25 or not from Greeley. I get off work in Greeley early tommorow at 330 and home at 430 ish.

ewwww, Hwy 52 is the debil

Removing as much wet material as possible will help as well. For example, the carpet pad is done, so get it all the way out of the basement, and not just in another room. If you can tell that the bottom of your drywall has wicked up enough water to be beyond repair, might as well flood cut the affected area asap. All that is just less and less that you have to dry out in the end.

As Wulf says, time is critical. Our disaster restoration crew is all hands on deck the first 24 hours to get water out and drying started. They keep adding equipment until absolutely sure will be "dry" before 72hrs.

If you're unarmed, you are a victim

I'm aiming to stick to that as best I can. Just some of these smaller questions pop up from not understanding some of the underlying science etc. I'm not sure you really want to come down to hwy 52 and i25 or not from Greeley. I get off work in Greeley early tommorow at 330 and home at 430 ish.[/QUOTE]
If you want to talk yourself out of free professional consulting be my guest... my offer stands. I need to be in greeley at 6pm and have a motorcycle with temp tags I've only managed 100 miles on so far

* i take no responsibility for the job damages or anything else because lawyers suck.

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Originally Posted by thedave1164

ewwww, Hwy 52 is the debil

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Lol I guess I don't get it, though going westbound into boulder sucks when one tard makes miles of traffic on the single lane portions.

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Originally Posted by Wulf202

I'm aiming to stick to that as best I can. Just some of these smaller questions pop up from not understanding some of the underlying science etc. I'm not sure you really want to come down to hwy 52 and i25 or not from Greeley. I get off work in Greeley early tommorow at 330 and home at 430 ish.

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If you want to talk yourself out of free professional consulting be my guest... my offer stands. I need to be in greeley at 6pm and have a motorcycle with temp tags I've only managed 100 miles on so far.[/QUOTE]

Oh so you want to come look at my hot vulcan for sale too? ;p

Wife while I was still getting home from work (took forever for relief) called stanley out to come suck up stuff on top of the few hours with the rug doctor. Currently fighting w/ her about pulling carpet all the way and ditching pad vs just a corner and the home depot snail fans. By touch the water is about half the rooms carpet, but I'm sure that water extends out further in the pad.

If you have filed an insurance claim, they should be doing all of this.

If not, you might still want to. Flue stack failures in water heaters is not uncommon. I have probably done close to 500 of those working for insurance companies. If you did not change the anode rods and the WH is old enough to have required such, the manufacturer will deny responsibility. If the failure is at a weld seam (common) then that is an easier one for your carrier to get some money back, and you might get the deductible back if they prevail. But tossing the old water heater is not a good idea unless you are 100% you won't file a claim directly with the manufacturer or your insurance carrier. No evidence, no claim. If you need help on that side, feel free to ask.

Take Wulf up on his offer, his advice is all spot on.

Any major suggestions re water heaters? Basically looking at like 600/650 ish for a 50 gallon, 40k btu. $50 extra is apparently difference for a 9 vs 12 yeah limited. Looked at some lowes 40g since it's just two of us, but for saving $100 @$500 one of the issues is having filter cleaning or something like that needed.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rheem-Pe...40U0/204298980

Or are there other businesses that is going to have better quality for the money. Don't want to jump to a grand for some wifi enabled silliness.

When you replace the water heater, you might want to replace the water pressure regulator too. If you have a water pressure regulator, that is. If you don't have one, you might want to consider one. Pic below of a typical "pressure regulator". It keeps excess water pressure from damaging your plumbing. Just my 2 pennies...

Attachment 73641

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Originally Posted by fitz19d

Any major suggestions re water heaters? .

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https://www.ar-15.co/threads/164786-...t=water+heater

While on the topic of waterheaters. Any recomendation for how often to change the anode? Aluminum or magnesium?

I believe the anode changes are an annual thing. Depends on the mineral content of the water. Most questions answered here...

http://www.home-repair-central.com/a...tal-types.html

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Originally Posted by Erni

While on the topic of waterheaters. Any recomendation for how often to change the anode? Aluminum or magnesium?

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In most places in CO, if you do an annual flush, you should be able to go at least 7 years on an anode. I tell folks to check at 5 and if it is less than half used up, go another 5. As long as you don't have the bare stainless wire the sacrificial material is bonded to, replace it, write the date on the tank with a sharpie and replace at 7. I only recommend Magnesium, which will get used up a little faster than Aluminum, which is likely what comes in the tank originally. If using soft water, might want to check at 5 years.

Annual flush is operating the T&P Relief valve and let about 1 or 2 gallons out, then open the drain at the base fully and let flow for at least 2 gallons, longer if you are still seeing debris. If you did not operate the T&P annually, I don't suggest you start if your WH is older than 2 years, but you should still drain. If the T&P starts to weep, or does not fully re-seat, just replace it.

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Originally Posted by BushMasterBoy

When you replace the water heater, you might want to replace the water pressure regulator too. If you have a water pressure regulator, that is. If you don't have one, you might want to consider one. Pic below of a typical "pressure regulator". It keeps excess water pressure from damaging your plumbing. Just my 2 pennies...

Attachment 73641

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Pretty sure theres one at the main line into house. Those prone to dying too then? At least in there is next to the real drains.

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Originally Posted by fitz19d

Pretty sure theres one at the main line into house. Those prone to dying too then? At least in there is next to the real drains.

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No, they are pretty good for the most part. No idea why he thinks that is a good idea, or where he got the idea to replace anodes annually.

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Originally Posted by fitz19d

Pretty sure theres one at the main line into house. Those prone to dying too then? At least in there is next to the real drains.

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Mine lasted 7 years in this brand new house. Ate right through the housing. Couple years ago, friends water heater T&P kept blowing out water, flooding below the house. Had to change the pressure regulator. Took 20 minutes to do hers. Mine was in the wall. Ridiculous idea. I had to cut the panel out and reroute the plumbing to reinstall a new one. I was lucky it was a pinhole leak and only made a few square yards lightly damp. This just my opinion. BMB out.

So what's going on with this?

I think it helped that i think we caught it within a couple hours. Initially it was in like 1/4 of the adjacent room and was interesting feeling it wick to the far end of the room even after wife had Stanley steemer vacuum truck plus rug Doctor. Once i got home after assessing, i pulled the carpet up which was easy with one tiny corner already up, so came off tack strip no problem. Pulled the pad which weighed a ton still outside.

Rented dehumidifier, 2 industrial fans plus several house fans and cranked heat. By second night was pretty bone dry, but kept everything running thru the third day. Fortunately with floating walls, nothing else was really wet. Only other thing was dry wall that was getting splatter from top of heater rather than wicking from floor. First evening i was able to rub my hand in circles on the bubble and pinch/fold in paint and actually got it to settle back into place leaving no sign. Was kinda shocked.


Right now waiting a week to get a Longmont carpet guy to come put the carpet back down right since I'm sure id mess it up.

$700 heater and $300 in rentals hasn't been the worst.

Sounds like it's going well then.