Basement Flooding Cleanup in Cranston, RI
The rain started Friday night and the power went out around eleven. When you went down Saturday morning the sump pit was overflowing, the carpet in the family room squished under your slippers, and the water had reached the second step. We connect you by phone with an independent local provider who cleans up flooded basements in Cranston, Providence, and the towns around them.
What the crew does first
The crew figures out where the water came from before they touch it. Groundwater through a stone wall, a sump that quit, a storm drain that backed up, or a river over its banks all look the same on the floor, but they are not handled the same way. Then they pump and vacuum the standing water out, working from the low corner toward the stairs.
Once the floor is clear, they meter the walls and the floor, including behind any finished paneling or drywall and under any carpet. A finished basement hides most of its water. The readings tell them what has to come out and what can be dried in place.
What to do in the next hour
Stay out of the water if the power is on and any outlet, the panel, or the furnace is wet. If you can reach the breaker from a dry spot, turn off the basement circuits. If you cannot, wait for the crew. Do not run an extension cord across the floor to a borrowed pump.
If the water is clean groundwater and the power is safely off, carry up what you can lift. Photos come first: the water line on the wall, the pit, the furnace and water heater, the boxes. If the water smells or came up through a floor drain, keep children and pets upstairs and treat it as sewage cleanup until the crew says otherwise. Then call us.
What is usually saved and what is not
Concrete floors and stone or block walls dry. Framing and subfloor for a finished room usually dry if the crew reaches them within a couple of days. Carpet pad goes. Carpet itself may be cleaned and dried if the water was clean and shallow. The bottom foot or two of drywall or paneling on a wet wall comes out so the studs and insulation behind it can be dried or removed.
Cardboard, particleboard furniture, and anything upholstered that sat in the water usually go. The furnace and water heater need to be looked at by a heating contractor before they are turned back on. After the extraction, structural drying with dehumidifiers is what actually gets a below-grade room back to dry.
Providence County notes: why the basement is the room that floods
Cranston and Providence are built on old basements. The 1920s through 1950s capes and bungalows of Edgewood, Eden Park, and Garden City sit on stone or block foundations that were laid without a footing drain, and groundwater comes through the joints every wet spring. Owners added sump pumps over the years, and a sump pump that runs all March fails the night the power goes out. Triple-deckers in Providence have deep cellars with dirt floors that turn to mud. Split-levels in western Cranston have a lower level that is half below grade.
Then there are the rivers. On March 31, 2010, the Pawtuxet River crested at 20.79 feet at the Cranston gauge, about 13 feet above flood stage, after more than eight inches of rain fell in two days on ground already soaked. Basements along the river from Pawtuxet Village through Fiskeville filled, and wastewater plants failed, which meant that river water carried sewage. The Woonasquatucket did the same thing in Olneyville, Centredale, and Johnston the same week. Sandy pushed Narragansett Bay into low streets in Riverside and Edgewood on October 29, 2012.
Most homeowner policies exclude groundwater seepage and river flooding unless you carry a separate flood policy, and sewer or drain backup is often a rider you have to add. A sump pump failure may be covered by that rider and may not. Nobody on this site can tell you what your policy says. Ask the crew to photograph the water line and log the first readings so you have the record either way.
Calling about basement flooding cleanup
Tell us how deep the water is, whether it is still rising, and whether the sump pump is running. Say if the basement is finished, whether the furnace and water heater are in the water, and whether the water smells or came up through a drain. Call (401) 443-9638 now and tell us what you see.
