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Apartment Rain Flooding/Repairs
Septus
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm hoping to draw on some homeowner knowledge here: My apartment has had yet another flood problem(sewage backing up beneath the toilet), when we had a really heavy rain last week, and about a foot of carpet out from two walls of my bedroom was soaked due to improper drainage outside. If I don't just want to just use this as an excuse to get out of my lease right now(the manager offered), and I want to try to yet again overlook a problem, I'd want to know that this can be completely fixed.
So the foundation of my building is pretty clearly F-ed, and the bedroom has a noticeable slope, which I take as a contributing factor to the flooding, but maybe it's not, and maybe any properly made building would still get interior flooding if enough water on the outside sat against the building. Yes/no?
But the complex is trying to use landscaping changes to solve the problem.
This is right after the flood:
The roof, and how far out it extends:
Work done so far:
The complex thinks that the hose that was run from the gutter was the problem, in that where it opened up, was too flat, or uphill, so the water stayed on that grassy area and could run back to the side of the building. That seems right to me, but I don't know if that's the only problem.
I assume their ditch method can adequately direct the gutter water away. What I'm less sure of, is whether the direct rainfall(not from roof-to-gutter) might be enough to cause future floods. In the 3rd pic you can see a depressed area extending further away from the ditch that could still collect water.
Any thoughts on whether landscaping could totally solve this issue? As much as I hate the feeling of not being secure in my apartment, I also really hate moving, especially so soon after I moved in.
So the foundation of my building is pretty clearly F-ed, and the bedroom has a noticeable slope, which I take as a contributing factor to the flooding, but maybe it's not, and maybe any properly made building would still get interior flooding if enough water on the outside sat against the building. Yes/no?
But the complex is trying to use landscaping changes to solve the problem.
This is right after the flood:
The roof, and how far out it extends:
Work done so far:
The complex thinks that the hose that was run from the gutter was the problem, in that where it opened up, was too flat, or uphill, so the water stayed on that grassy area and could run back to the side of the building. That seems right to me, but I don't know if that's the only problem.
I assume their ditch method can adequately direct the gutter water away. What I'm less sure of, is whether the direct rainfall(not from roof-to-gutter) might be enough to cause future floods. In the 3rd pic you can see a depressed area extending further away from the ditch that could still collect water.
Any thoughts on whether landscaping could totally solve this issue? As much as I hate the feeling of not being secure in my apartment, I also really hate moving, especially so soon after I moved in.
PSN: Kurahoshi1
Septus on
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Also, make sure you add sewage/flood protection to your renters policy.
I fail to see, though, how the gutter issue could contribute to sewage backup. Or is that just another result of the heavy rain and your landlord is going to do something else about that? Sounds like improper plumbing.
Yeah this. They probably don't have backflow valves installed so all that shit just gets pushed back in.
But this recent problem was all rainwater.
Edit: There's some sort of access valve in the sewer line immediately outside our door, and opening it does stop the flow into our apartment, but we can't leave it open all the time, and we can't always be at home to notice a backup problem in a timely manner.
Fixing the grading and the downspout are a start, but you've still got major structural problems to deal with. I doubt the landlord is prepared to pay for that. He'd probably much rather just pay for new carpet every now and then.
The foundation problems were apparent as soon as I moved in, but I assumed they would just affect the unit on the longer term. So aside from the water stuff, I know I'd be taking a risk, though seemingly a very small one, from the foundation issues.
But particularly if we have a hard time finding another apartment that is acceptable in terms of price and location, I want to know whether the rain issue at least can be solved. I don't know if the grading is on the agenda for repairs, presumably it would involve really hardpacking in some dirt and top it with grass, starting at the wall and angling it down? I don't know how that thing usually goes. I certainly don't expect them to somehow fix the foundation, and what looks like that big exposure in the first picture.
If it were me I'd see if they can't knock off like 15% of your rent to help cover any potential damages/increase in renters.
It looks like their plan might be to dig ditches close to both walls, the length of the apartment on both walls, presumably that meet up to the ditch coming directly out from the gutter. I don't know, maybe that kind of addresses it?
Fixing the grading would involve literally tonnes of dirt and re-sodding. When we had our house re-done, they used those giant rolling things as well as a machine that pounded the dirt down. It's not hard to do, and the landlord could certainly do it himself with a couple buddies to save a grand.
They dug the trenches, and the hoses from the gutters are underneath the ground. But beyond that, they have trenches running the length of the walls, and they seem close enough to the wall to capture most rain that would fall directly on the ground, as opposed to the roof.
I'd been worried about the trenches degrading, but I wonder if the gravel they put in them, will be sufficient to keep them in tact.
This last picture, depending on how well the dirt is packed and when it'll have grass on it, seems like some sort of improvement in slope over what was there previously.
Do these measures bring up any new issues, or leave others glaringly unresolved?
I wouldn't be optimistic that what they've done is going to solve the sewage problem.
Bowen, by longterm do you mean a bunch of successive rainfalls, or one big one? If it's the former, I guess I could try to be watchful and see whether any of the gravel gets washed away etc, or other movement of the soil.
Even if it isn't cracked, you don't want water sitting against it. Right now, water is going to pool and collect in that gravel instead of running down a properly graded slope.
Yeah I was assuming it was the second.
Even if they're being dumb and this will add more erosion of the foundation, how fast are we talking? It doesn't actually rain that much here, and I'd be out of there no later than September.
If the guy did this himself okay. I can't see a construction company digging out a hole and filling it with gravel, that's just going to make it worse.
What they did will not stop future flooding.
Maybe just a tiny bit as there's a huge space next to the foundation!
I guess it's better than nothing, but so would have been laying down tarp.
You think the mitigation really is tiny?
I feel sorry for the poor sod who will take over my unit.
And I really appreciate all the advice.
Good news! Good luck with the move.
Hopefully the landlord will realize it makes more sense ethically and financially to fix this place properly, rather than deal with major issues in a few years.
I usually look at apartmentratings.com. However I never see complaints listed there about specific unit numbers, so I assume there's a reason, and I'd feel hesitant to call it out specifically. Moreso, since I'm going to still be with the same overall management company. I'll certainly list the maintenance problems though and the questionable measures taken to address them.