Chicago: Flooding and In-law/Garden units

[John Huynh]

I notice in Chicago that there are a lot of mult-units with garden units and in-law units. It also seems like the rain storms are getting worse, If you own a building with a garden unit or in-law unit, has yours ever flooded? What are some devices/systems that you would recommend to mitigate/stop flood damage? Are those devices/systems typical in those garden/in-law units? Are there any things that I can look for when viewing properties in order to see if there was past flood damage?

[Tom Casey]

Hey John!

Good insight from @Brennan Crick. I think having water come up from the drains is much more common than actual leaking/flooding. A lot of times it can happen neighborhood-by-neighborhood because if the city's pipes are backed up on certain streets many people will be experiencing water in their basements. This actually just happened at one of my listings during that super heavy Sunday rainstorm a couple weeks ago and I only discovered it when I came for a showing that morning, super bad timing! lol

After it happened, I had a plumber come to assess the situation and he said that it's just water backing up in the clogged city sewer system and making its way up through the drains in the basement. He said that there is a clear and definite way to fix this and it would be adding or replacing the big clapper valve in front of the house that will stop water from coming in through the city pipes even if it's backed up. I'm not a plumber, so someone correct me if anything here is wrong, but that was my understanding of what he told me the solution is.

As for knowing if this has been done at a property, I would definitely ask the current owner if they've had any of that work done. If you don't trust the owner's word for whatever reason, I would also ask an inspector to take a look and see if they recognize any signs/patterns that would identify water entry and whether any work has been done or not.

Hope this helps. Cheers!