Flooded basement pump-out in Jersey City, day or night

Do not walk into a flooded basement if the water could be touching outlets, extension cords, a furnace or the electric panel. If the panel is in the basement and you cannot reach it from dry ground, stay out and call your utility to cut power to the house. Gas appliances that have been under water, such as a water heater or boiler, should not be relit until someone qualified has checked them.

Treat the water itself with care. If it came up through a floor drain, toilet or sink during heavy rain, it is likely sewage-contaminated, because Jersey City and Hoboken are served largely by combined sewers. Wear boots and gloves, keep children and pets out, and do not handle soaked items with bare hands. When you call us, tell us where the panel is and what the water looks and smells like.

Move what you can only once it is safe to do so. Lift valuables and papers off the floor from the stairs if you can reach them without wading, and leave anything floating where it is. Do not try to pump a deep basement with a shop vacuum plugged into a basement outlet. Shut off the water to a washer or any fixture that might be adding to the flood, then wait for help.

Our crew brings trash pumps and hoses that move water far faster than a household sump, and we discharge it away from the foundation so it does not run straight back in. On deep water we lower the level steadily rather than all at once, because emptying a basement fast while the soil outside is still saturated can put real strain on the walls. Once the floor shows, we start reading the evidence.

Water leaves clues. A tide line around a floor drain points to a sewer backup. Mud fanning out from a window points to a flooded window well. Wet walls with a drier middle floor point to seepage at the cove joint or through cracks. A full sump pit with a silent pump points to a failed motor, a stuck float or a power outage. Knowing which one it was decides both tonight's stopgap and the permanent repair.

It is often more than one source. During a big storm in Jersey City, a sewer backing up through the floor drain, a well overflowing at the side of the house and seepage at the cove joint can all happen in the same hour. Low, filled blocks downtown and in Hoboken also see groundwater rising under the slab after long rains. We note every entry point we find, because fixing only the most obvious one can leave you flooded again next season.

Some causes can be handled before we leave. We can set a temporary pump in a sump pit whose pump has died, clear a clogged floor drain or areaway drain, unclog a window well drain, or redirect a leader that is pouring water against the foundation. These are stopgaps, but they often keep the basement from refilling during the rest of the storm.

Other causes need a planned repair. A sewer backup calls for a backwater valve. A dead pump with no backup calls for a pump repair or replacement with a battery backup, since storms knock out power. Chronic wall seepage calls for an interior drain or crack repair. We explain what we saw, what we did that night and the permanent fix with a typical price, and you decide when to go ahead.

Make a few calls of your own once the water is out. If the furnace, boiler or water heater was under water, have a qualified heating technician check it before it runs again. If the panel or outlets were wet, have an electrician look before the basement circuits go back on. Those checks sit outside our work, and we will point out anything we notice that needs one, so nothing gets switched back on before it is safe.

We pump out the water, find the cause and fix the way it got in. If your basement was finished or the water was sewage, wet drywall, carpet and belongings need their own drying and cleanup plan, and we walk you through what that looks like before we leave.

If you are making an insurance claim, photograph the water level, the damage and anything you throw away before it leaves the house, and note when the water came in. Questions about flood or sewer backup coverage go to your insurance agent. Our after-a-flooded-basement checklist goes through the first days step by step, from safety to sorting out who handles what.