Worksheets for sorting out a wet basement
Practical worksheets to print or keep open on a phone: a decision guide for telling seepage from sewer water, a room-by-room inventory for a finished basement, a window well checklist, a sump pump test, a month-by-month drainage calendar, a glossary of the terms on estimates, and questions to ask before anyone starts tearing out walls.
- Where is the water coming from? A decision guide for a wet basement Use this guide while the water is still there. Where it shows up, what it looks like and what the weather was doing usually point to one of a handful of sources, and each source has a different first call.
- Room-by-room inventory for a flooded finished basement A finished basement holds walls, floors, built-ins and years of stored belongings. This worksheet helps you record all of it before cleanup removes the evidence, one room at a time.
- Window well inspection checklist for spring Walk around the house with this list in April or May, before thunderstorm season. It takes under an hour for most Englewood homes and catches the problems that turn a summer storm into a wet basement bedroom.
- Testing a sump pump and choosing a backup Sump pumps fail most often exactly when they are needed: during a storm that also knocks out the power. A quick monthly test and a backup plan cover both risks.
- Glossary: basement flood and waterproofing terms in plain language Estimates, drying logs and waterproofing quotes use a vocabulary of their own. These definitions focus on the words that come up specifically with basements, foundations and below-grade drainage.
- Questions to ask before anyone starts on your flooded basement When the basement is under water it is tempting to say yes to the first truck that shows up. A few minutes of questions protects your claim, your house and your wallet.
- A basement drainage calendar for the Front Range year Basement water problems follow the seasons here: wet spring snow, summer thunderstorms with hail, falling leaves and winter freezes. This calendar lines up the right task with the month it matters.
- What drives the size of a basement flood cleanup Two flooded basements of the same size can need very different amounts of work. This worksheet lists the factors that usually drive scope, so you can understand an estimate and compare two of them fairly.
- Before tearing out a flooded pre-1980 basement: asbestos and lead checks Most Englewood homes were built long before 1980, and their basements often hold materials from several remodels. Some of those can contain asbestos or lead, and a flood is exactly when they get disturbed.