Need help -rental property and basement water.

[Tom Coakley]

Looking for some advice. My wife and I have a rental property with tenants in it. After years of no water in the finished basement and laminate flooring, we recently replaced the flooring with vinyl flooring. Sure enough,  we had a nor’easter here in New Jersey over the last few days. Of course, there is now water in the basement. It’s not a ton of water but I can tell it is all underneath the vinyl flooring but there is no damage (at least visible) to the sheet rock or floor moldings. My plan at this point is to bring in a water company to remediate. They will pull up the vinyl flooring and dry out the basement. My question is what do I do next? We’ve never had water and I’m not even sure where it is coming in from now. How do I find out where and why we had this issue? Because of the finished walls, I can’t see much of the cinderblock walls. After it’s dry, do I just have the vinyl flooring Re-laid ? …. Or am I just asking for more problems since we now have had water in the basement once, should I expect to have to deal with water under the vinyl floor again? should I hold off on having the vinyl flooring reinstalled?

[Scott M.]

I think it is important to be realistic.  if you never had flooding issues before and it was a catastrophic event that caused an issue I think calling a waterproofing company may be a waste of $$, at least as the first step.  They are not cheap.  Sounds like you avoided Ida, or Ida simply laid the groundwork for what you are experiencing today.  Ground was already saturated and this NorEaaster simple pushed your system to the limit.  If this level of rain is going to be your new normal then you may have an issue.  If after the ground freezes in a few months and thaws out in the sprig you are going to be back to your normal weather patterns it is likely to not be an issue again.  

Around 2015 in St. Clair Shores Mi we had historic flooding.  Hundreds of homes that never had water in them before did.  Water proofing was a big business after that.  We took a wait and see approach and have never had an issue since.  It was a major storm that caused major flooding but those basements that never took on water before haven't since.  I am talking about those we own or manage, clearly I don't know about others.

Make sure the grading is still flowing away from the home. Make sure the gutters are clean.  Make sure the downspouts have extensions on them and carry the water away from the foundation and see what happens after the ground has a chance to dry out.  Your tenant may not be happy w/o a nice new floor so you will have to manage that.

I would wait on hiring a water proofing company.  You can call them and hear the faint inducing estimates so you know what you are up against but if you never had issues before this is probably an oversaturation issue that will go away in time.