"Do as I say, Not as I do."

[Les]

Got back to the office just in time to take a couple of photos and watch the basement fill completely up with water.

I have two really good sump pumps and they ran for an hour or so to drain basement, parking lot and public ditch. Just doing my civic duty!

Wasn't as bad as last year when there was 7'9" of water in basement, but still managed to ruin furnace, water, softner and my PRIDE!

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[kurt]

Sue the home inspector; they should have told you about flooding bsmt's.

(For those that don't know, Les lives in that yellow truck.)

[hausdok]

Jeez, Les,

Sorry that happened to you...again. I was just wondering if you'd got hit when the news was talking about how there were so many tornadoes that set down in Michigan yesterday that they were having trouble counting them. Did you have the pump already installed and set to come on automatically, or did you need to turn it on after the fact.

That discharges awfully close to the foundation doesn't it? I had one like that a couple of years ago. The crawl was full of water and the pump hadn't come on because the GFCI on it had tripped. I was able to reach it and reset it from the hatch, but it was discharging right next to the foundation. The pump started, dropped the water level for about a minute. By then, the water being discharged to the ground next to the foundation had made it's way to the footing and was coming back in and the pump sat there treading water (pun intended), unable to keep up with what was coming back in.

Six feet from the foundation is all it takes, Good Buddy.

Have you got that truck set up as an office inside?

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Les]

The pumps are set on automatic and at that head will move abt 60gal per min. The discharge is 1 1/2" into a 3" for four feet down then into a 6" sewer line for freeze protection. Surface level of water in parking lot was higher than top of the 3" so I just pumped water out then in and out and in. It did undercut the foundation and blew out abt 15sq ft of block foundation wall.

That truck is set up with pumps etc for pre-treating termites. I bought two of them for $1500 after service as bread trucks. Tiny six cylinder engines (45mph) with 4sp transmissions. Painted them with a roller and had a crazy friend letter them. For large projects we use them to carry ladders and crap. They have an invertor for electrical. Extremely cheap advertising and cost me nothing after four years! Well actually $300 for insurance and $60 bucks for plates every year. Last year I didn't even use one tank of gas for both.

We were lucky here - a tornado 5mi west and another 5mi south - us, we just got flood water and another good story to tell and whine about! (seems like Randy N would send me something for free)

[hausdok]

Kewl!

What you say about the trucks being cheap advertising is interesting. Back in the late 1990's there was a cell phone company around here - Fox Digital, I think - that bought a bunch of used fleet vans and had them all decorated with digi-wrap advertising. They then parked them in parking lots of businesses near busy intersections all over the city and paid the business owners rent to use the spots. They managed to get around billboard zoning rules that way, were able to put them where they wanted them, and when folks were sitting at the light they could quickly jot down the number. Apparently, it worked for them but I haven't seen it emulated since.

I agree; since Randy is so danged rich, Randy should send you a contribution on behalf of all northwest inspectors. []

OT - OF!!!

M.

[randynavarro]

I inspect one mobile home for full price and now I'm rich!!??

Les, ask and ye shall receive. "Something" for free isn't specific enough.

[John Dirks Jr]

Hey Les, cut a window on the side of that thing. Then you can run it as a chuck wagon on the side. []

My wife and I used to paint our old mail jeeps with brushes and rollers. Oil base too as it would stick to just about anything. That was at least 15 years ago and there are still a few paint splatters on the concrete driveway.

Sorry to hear about your basement flood.

[MMustola]

The tornado touched down in my back yard. My neighbor's boat was lifted up and landed up side down in the lake. There are 250 houses with damage within a 2 mile radius of my house.

I lost my patio set, swim raft, and the canopy of my pontoon boat was mangled. All in all I was very lucky.

When the tornado's hit I was inspecting a house and we all had to take shelter in the basement. A large tree fell on a vehicle that was parked in front of my truck in the street. Again I was very lucky.