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safe as houses
Aug. 23rd, 2026 07:39 amLast Thursday, August 20, there were torrential rains all over the NYC area, and a tornado touched down in the Rockaways. The TV news showed scenes of people wading through subway stations, cars and buses kicking up wakes as they drove, and hip-deep standing water on the streets in some parts of Queens, but we live on a sloped street just below a glacial moraine, and we didn't have any of that. And Friday dawned beautiful and sunny.
But some time on Friday we walked into the basement and immediately smelled mildew that we hadn't smelled the day before. I didn't see any standing water, but I started picking up vulnerable things off the floor and checking whether they were wet. I found a few square feet of floor noticeably damp to the touch, a few cardboard boxes wet but not yet completely lacking in structural integrity, a few wads of wet dryer lint, and a T-shirt that had fallen behind the chest freezer and was completely soaked. We threw the T-shirt into the laundry, along with a few other fabric things that didn't seem wet but had been piled up on the floor for too long, I emptied the dehumidifier that we normally have running 24/7 in the basement all summer, and I went back to ${EMPLOYER} work.
Saturday was also beautiful and sunny, and I spent some more time picking things up for inspection. There's a storage area under the basement steps that holds bottles of various kinds of alcohol, glass and plastic storage jars, and rarely-used kitchen appliances (waffle irons, wafer irons, sandwich presses, ice cream makers, etc.), and the floor there had clearly been wet, although it no longer was (thanks, dehumidifier!). So I removed a bunch of things and swept up more dryer lint, miscellaneous grit, and something that felt like sand at the base of the walls. There had clearly been some kind of leak, but I couldn't tell where.
Twenty-mumble years ago, in responding to standing water in the basement, I found a particular patch of wall that squirted water, landing several inches from the wall, whenever it rained hard. I patched that section of concrete wall and painted it with waterproofing compound, and that has seemed to work for years, but it appears to be time to do it again.
Sunday morning I awoke from a dream in which I was running around the house putting pots and pans under drips from the ceiling. On waking, I found it was raining again, so I took the opportunity to go to the basement and look for evidence of specific leaks. The space under the stairs had perhaps half an inch of standing water, while the floor around the hot-water heater and the baker's rack of backup dry and canned goods had less. Perceptible dampness, but no standing water, behind the deep freeze. I took some pictures and mopped up a few gallons. Still haven't found a specific leak, but there are damp spots on the walls that coincide with degraded and spalled concrete, so that's a place to start.
The wall between the stairs and the baker's rack houses the washer and dryer (cleverly raised 2" off the concrete by a wooden platform), and some previous owner of the house installed a half-height wooden or plastic wall between the concrete and the laundry zone, which makes things look more "finished" but also makes it harder to get to the concrete wall to see whether it's leaking. That part may require professionals.
Although most of the stuff stored in the basement is on metal racks off the floor, there are still a number of cardboard boxes directly on the floor that we need to pick up, inspect, and triage. Perhaps this is a sign from heaven to make us get rid of some stuff we haven't used in decades.
But some time on Friday we walked into the basement and immediately smelled mildew that we hadn't smelled the day before. I didn't see any standing water, but I started picking up vulnerable things off the floor and checking whether they were wet. I found a few square feet of floor noticeably damp to the touch, a few cardboard boxes wet but not yet completely lacking in structural integrity, a few wads of wet dryer lint, and a T-shirt that had fallen behind the chest freezer and was completely soaked. We threw the T-shirt into the laundry, along with a few other fabric things that didn't seem wet but had been piled up on the floor for too long, I emptied the dehumidifier that we normally have running 24/7 in the basement all summer, and I went back to ${EMPLOYER} work.
Saturday was also beautiful and sunny, and I spent some more time picking things up for inspection. There's a storage area under the basement steps that holds bottles of various kinds of alcohol, glass and plastic storage jars, and rarely-used kitchen appliances (waffle irons, wafer irons, sandwich presses, ice cream makers, etc.), and the floor there had clearly been wet, although it no longer was (thanks, dehumidifier!). So I removed a bunch of things and swept up more dryer lint, miscellaneous grit, and something that felt like sand at the base of the walls. There had clearly been some kind of leak, but I couldn't tell where.
Twenty-mumble years ago, in responding to standing water in the basement, I found a particular patch of wall that squirted water, landing several inches from the wall, whenever it rained hard. I patched that section of concrete wall and painted it with waterproofing compound, and that has seemed to work for years, but it appears to be time to do it again.
Sunday morning I awoke from a dream in which I was running around the house putting pots and pans under drips from the ceiling. On waking, I found it was raining again, so I took the opportunity to go to the basement and look for evidence of specific leaks. The space under the stairs had perhaps half an inch of standing water, while the floor around the hot-water heater and the baker's rack of backup dry and canned goods had less. Perceptible dampness, but no standing water, behind the deep freeze. I took some pictures and mopped up a few gallons. Still haven't found a specific leak, but there are damp spots on the walls that coincide with degraded and spalled concrete, so that's a place to start.
The wall between the stairs and the baker's rack houses the washer and dryer (cleverly raised 2" off the concrete by a wooden platform), and some previous owner of the house installed a half-height wooden or plastic wall between the concrete and the laundry zone, which makes things look more "finished" but also makes it harder to get to the concrete wall to see whether it's leaking. That part may require professionals.
Although most of the stuff stored in the basement is on metal racks off the floor, there are still a number of cardboard boxes directly on the floor that we need to pick up, inspect, and triage. Perhaps this is a sign from heaven to make us get rid of some stuff we haven't used in decades.
