Making a waterproof basement (zaibatsu), 08/29/2019
------------------------------------------------------------
(I'll  correct myself  up-front:  there's no  such thing  as
water *proof*. The best I can hope for is highly resistant.)

We have  a basement. It is  clean, and it is  generally very
dry. There  is a  dehumidifier running  down there  24/7, to
keep the levels where we want them.

The floors and walls are concrete.  There is a door (it is a
"walk out"  basement, with steps  leading to the  yard), and
four windows.  There are  two drains  leading to  the city's
drainage system;  one inside  the basement, and  one outside
the door.

Summer has  been very  dry around here,  for the  most part.
We've  had a  few  storms, but  we've had  a  long spell  of
nothing at all.  The ground has gotten hard. A  few days ago
we had  a big rain, and  the ground didn't soak  it up well.
The water moved in just such a way that it hasn't done since
we moved here, and we got about 1cm of water in a portion of
the basement. The water came up through the drain.

This   happened  around   midnight  (when   else!),  and   I
immediately added bleach  and started on cleanup.  I have an
above grade sump pump that I  got to use. A simple broom did
the rest. In the morning  I went to Menards (hardware store)
and bought backwater prevention  systems, and installed them
in both drains.

Thankfully,  we  keep the  floor  mostly  clear. There  was,
however, a  50lb bag  of hard red  wheat, non-gmo,  that was
ruined (it was  sitting in the middle of  the floor, waiting
to be processed  into bins). Not a huge loss,  but I hate to
throw away  50lbs of food.  Ah well,  live and learn.  A few
cables and cords got wet too, and needed to be cleaned.

All  in all,  it was  a  learning experience,  but one  that
reminded  me exactly  why I  want to  make a  waterproof (as
possible) basement. I'm adding some walls, and they're built
with metal  studs. I haven't  hung any drywall yet,  but I'm
considering doing  cement board  on the bottom  3ft (though,
I'm not  concerned about making  it waterproof that  high, I
think). I don't want to finish  the floor at all, apart from
perhaps a concrete stain. Basically, I want it to not matter
a  whole lot  if  water  gets in.  Certainly  there will  be
cleanup, but I don't want to deal with tearing out walls and
that sort of nonsense.

We were up til 2a that evening cleaning up. I re-organized a
few things  (I have  some tables down  there that  I've been
doing projects on), and took  care of everything that needed
taking  care of.  In the  morning  I emailed  the city,  but
haven't  heard anything  back.  I'm glad  it  was minor. I'm
hoping to be prepared if anything worse comes along.