Building an ark...

Expensive Sump Pump
Pit of Despair
Idiotic steps to the pit
What was under the grate
Grate cover with microscopic holes

Well today sucked donkey balls big time. Some background - we moved into this house three years ago. The winter that Cooper was born, 2006, our basement flooded. I came home at lunch and smelled something odd, which turned out to be the furnace objecting to being flooded. This past spring we decided to pay $2100 to install a sump pump system. The water comes in in one place. There is this demented set up outside our basement door, which ideally would be covered by a bulk head or hatch way, but it isn't. There are steps leading down to a pit just outside the door. Water collects in the pit during torrential down pours. If enough water collects, it runs in under the door and eventually floods the basement.

The company who shall currently remain nameless that installed the pump system installed a sump pump which you can see in the picture above, which is supposed to be able to pump out 36,000 gallons of water an hour. That would be MORE than sufficient, provided the water ever GETS INTO THE SUMP PUMP CHAMBER. They installed a grate just inside the door, that ostensibly was to catch the water as it came in, and would direct it to the pump. Except the manufacturer thinks that the grate should be made with TINY LITTLE HOLES that would channel the water to the pump, rather than holes the size of the Grand Canyon.

I called yesterday to say we needed someone to come look at it because the Bob called me to inform me that flooding was occuring but he managed to catch it early. With our $100 sump pump I might add. This morning as the heavens opened and I was contemplating the need to know how big a cubit is so I could begin building an ark, I called again to say someone needed to get to our house TODAY. Not tomorrow, not Saturday, TODAY. And then this really nice guy showed up, saw the problem, pulled the stupid grate out, tested the system without the grate in place and shablazam, the water goes right into the pump. No flooding. Now someone else has to come and install a bigger grate, but for now there is a solution.

So I appreciate the dude who came out today, but now my treadmill is dead. AGAIN. The first time we flooded I lost a treadmill. This time the Bob found it shorting out - it was running, at top speed, all by itself down there. So I think it is dead.

Cooper fortunately could go to school while we stayed home to deal with this. I almost needed the batmobile though to get there. There was flooding everywhere. I had to turn around at one point because the road was flooded and a car was stuck in the middle of it up to the windows. I did not just abandon the person to drowning in their car. The police were already there. I leave that kind of rescuing to the professionals. Besides my superhero outfit wasn't in the car.