Neighbor's Basement Flood Becomes Ours Too
Any advice for dealing with repeated flooding of our brownstone basement because of water problems next door? Three times since this neighbor bought the house next door, we have had significant (inches) of water come through from this neighbor’s brownstone into our basement. Tonight I detected a smell at the top of our basement stairs…
Any advice for dealing with repeated flooding of our brownstone basement because of water problems next door? Three times since this neighbor bought the house next door, we have had significant (inches) of water come through from this neighbor’s brownstone into our basement. Tonight I detected a smell at the top of our basement stairs (even with door closed) and when I investigated (going into my basement) I found again there had been water only on that neighbor’s side of our basement, clearly coming through the wall from his house. This has happened twice before, and after the second time we installed a pump in our basement adjacent to the wall we share with him. I’m sure that pump saved us from even more water damage this time around, but one pump was not really enough to handle water coming in up and down most of the length of wall. We went next door to talk to him and learned his flood was actually several days ago (he never bothered to tell us). We have our dehumidifier on now and that should help things dry out, but in general, what can one do about water coming from a neighbor who seems not to be able to stop flooding his own basement (and therefore ours too).Is there a way to waterproof our shared wall (at least on our side)? I’m still fairly new to brownstone home ownership and I have no idea if there is anything we can do on our side to protect our property. This time he claimed the inches of water somehow came up from underground (he says there was no pipe leak). Maybe he has faulty drainage from his back garden, who knows. Previously he flooded us (twice) when he forgot to empty out and shut off the garden faucet for the winter. Both times the resulting inches of water on his side caused a smaller number of inches of water in our basement too, which took weeks to dry out properly. Any advice much appreciated. Is there a way to waterproof the walls to keep water out when neighbors have repeated floods? This is our third flood and I’m guessing it won’t be the last coming from this neighbor’s property.
UPDATE- our neighbor’s basement flooded again tonight with the heavy rain. This time he kindly informed us he had water in his basement, evidently shortly after he discovered it. It was interesting because when the rain got really intense and the hail started to fall, I wondered if my basement would get wet, and just before sitting down to dinner (after the worst of the hail) I checked and our basement was totally dry (or so it appeared). Twenty minutes later the doorbell rings and it is a friend of the neighbor telling us they have flooding next door in the basement, and neighbor had asked her to pass the message. I asked “how much” and she indicated not knee high, but some inches. At that point I checked my basement again, and this time there was half an inch of water on one side, over about 15 percent of my basement floor, in a semicircular region in the middle of my wall shared with that neighbor. At that point my husband and I could see water entering through the wall, about two inches off the ground in one place (between large stones), and four or five inches off the ground a little further along the wall (little streams of water coming in at quite a fast rate where the pointing was inadequate and no longer holding). These two openings appeared to be the source of our problem. Obviously neighbor has a serious problem with rain not draining properly (it seemed to be the heavy rain that brought about his basement flooding). I can’t quite imagine how he could have that much water in his basement though? Inches of water? But based on where it is coming in (up on my wall, not at ground level) that seems to be the case. Maybe his floor is raised above mine?
I was able to sweep most of the water on my floor into our sump pump some feet further back along the wall which was helpful. Clearly I need a proper French drain along that wall, but equally clearly, the problem at present is not in the front, nor in the back of my building (my storm drain works fine), it is in the MIDDLE where the water flows visibly through the wall from this neighbor’s basement, and not even at ground level, but some inches above ground.
I went next door to talk to the neighbor and to ask if I could see his basement (and offer to show mine) but he did not respond to his doorbell (probably was down in his basement doing whatever he could and perhaps did not hear the bell).
Beyond putting in protection along the base of this wall (French drain) , any more suggestions? My basement is unfinished and I had planned to repoint all the walls and fix up the floor (which is dirt in some places). I am willing to invest in doing a good job (and husband would love to have a wine cellar built down there eventually), but I want to make sure I set things up to minimize problems in the future. We had planned to build the wine storage along that same wall ( the wall shared with IB neighbor) but that seems at this point a bad idea.
Sorry for my long winded post, I’m tired!
By the way we have another large tree branch down on our block, really it is as large as an entire tree and it smashed two cars. The police have blocked off the street, as no cars could pass anyway. What wild weather we are having.
Everyone must be to a saturation point. I’m dealing with similar issues – this afternoon water started streaming in from the back corner of my basement. Didn’t rain that much today did it?! It’s happened before but only after days of major, major torrents so I guess the storm last week created a saturation point.
until your neighbor does something about the water buildup, you are lost…investment bankers are the most notoriously worst neighbors to deal with, since all they define their existence in quantity, not quality
A bit of waterproofing or repointing will not prevent this much water from entering your basement. Ask your mason.
Friends of ours repeatedly experienced a flooded cellar when their neighbor refused to fix a broken pipe. Eventually, they called the city who came to turn off the water supply to the neighbor’s house. Only at that point did the neighbor undertake the necessary repairs. I realize the cause of your flooding problem is not as clear-cut as in this case, but it might help you to know that this is an option if you feel your neighbor isn’t taking your concerns seriously enough. Another thing to do is involve your insurance company. If you make a claim, they will go after your neighbor’s policy. This has the drawback of being likely to increase your premium but it is another worst-case scenario option.
Thank you for the comments and good suggestions. Fortunately the lines of communication are open and my neighbor seems to be a genuinely nice person, with good intentions, even if he has little time.
We have had many flooding problems too. Our neighbor’s roof was flooding over the side of his building and into our garden. It took a while but he finally fixed the situation.
But we still have water coming up through our rat slab as well. I am planning to install a french drain and have a new concrete floor done, 3-4 inches.
And we are planning 2 sump pumps.
If you can keep the lines of communication open with your neighbor and offer to help come up with a solution it might go a long way.
I can tell you from experince, that he doesn’t have the time or focus to deal with it if he works in investment banking. But if you are firm, and tell him he must do something and that you are willing to help somehow (if you can) perhaps a solution for both of you can be found. For instance, maybe he would be open to installing a french drain in his cellar, but doesn’t have the time to interview contractors.
Brownstone living can be difficult since we are all attached and therefore dependent on each other.
We had plenty rain before he moved in (previous owner knew a lot about brownstones) and the only water problems we had before came from our garden and we took care of that (and now there is no evidence of water in the rear of the basement). If the water is coming from rain, why is it not in the front or back of our basement, but limited to the wall we share with this newer owner, and in the middle of the wall? I have no interest at all in going after him for any financial damages, but really I don’t want to do work on my basement without taking into account water from his side, since it seems to be an ongoing problem. He already has a newly installed set of drains in his garden, I have no reason to think there is anything wrong with his garden drainage. The wet area begins about 12 feet from the back wall of our houses and ends somewhere before the front wall (it is impossible for me to tell exactly where since I have items stored in the front, luckily all of it elevated on planks which have managed to keep all of it dry). Again, he said he had “inches” of water on Friday. Also he complained he has no hot water, and says his tenant is upset about it. Something is going on over there.
Really the question is what can I do on my side (if anything) when I repoint etc. and perhaps put down a floor. Certainly whatever we do we will try to protect against water coming up from below. But is there anything else we can do as well? We would rather be proactive and protect our basement. My husband wants to install a wine storage in our basement at some point too, and it is worth it to us to do as good a job as possible when we repoint, etc.
His basement has a finished floor but mine does not, and in some places mine looks like a dirt floor. We had signed a contract to repoint the brick in our basement but the contractor got busy with other jobs and our project was delayed. We are wondering if there is some way when we repoint to protect ourselves since the water is clearly coming from the neighbor’s side. It covers only about 40 percent or less of our floor, entirely on that side of our building. One thing I wondered about, when we talked to the neighbor last night he at first said he had mud coming up from below, but then he talked about “inches” of water and seemed to indicate really something more like 4 inches or more (which was the case when the faucet burst). The first time that happened he did not know how to turn off his water, and we had to show him. There were quite a few inches of water in his basement then, and maybe about an inch of water on his side of our basement. The second time his faucet burst he was out of town and we had to call the fire department to climb over our garden fence and shut off his water, since it was flooding both our basements. This time I have no idea what happened. He says he has had many floods in his basement in addition to these three but my impression is it’s only when he has inches of water on his floor that it travels through to our house. We are looking to do work on our basement anyway (need new stairway, maybe add a pump, repoint all the brick, maybe put down some kind of floor). I wondered what we can do to protect against incidents like the ones we have had. My concern if we waterproof our wall (on his side), won’t that just trap water between our houses? Pardon my ignorance, intuitively that seems like it would be bad and could lead to more damage to our wall ultimately (but maybe I am wrong?). Maybe we could incorporate drainage holes along the bottom of the wall, and some kind of channel that feeds into a pump? Installing a second pump along that wall seems like a good idea. This owner is a young guy who does minimal maintenance. His parents come once a year from abroad and spend the summer doing work on the house. The rest of the year not much gets done since he works the usual 60 hour weeks (investment banker). He seems very nice but maintenance is not his thing, and really he seems like a kid in so many ways.