Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2005 11:10 am
Hi,
Yesterday I had a plumber round to install a new radiator. When he lifted the floorboards, he discovered that there was a substantial amount of water (about 2ft) in the space underneath the floor (this was not far short of the floorboards).
I've had a quick look through some other threads that deal with similar problems, but there are a couple of features particular to this problem that may or may not make a difference.
1. Following heavy rain, there are often pools of water standing against the house (at the front and back) that take a few days to drain. When we pumped the water from under the floor, these pools rapidly drained, so I suspect that inadequate drainage is the problem.
2. We first attempted to pump the water down a drain that serves a path running in front of, and higher than, the front of the house, and, although it did drain, it was slow, and could not deal with the volume of water produced by the pump (we eventually resorted to pumping the water into an inspection chamber for our foul water drain).
3. The water did not return after we pumped it.
My questions are:
1. How serious is this problem? We have noticed the house to be quite damp but have solved this with a dehumidifier. Of more serious concern, many electrical cables were submerged in the water.
2. What is the likely cause? Could it be linked to the "sluggish" drain that I described?
3. Is it normal that the water pooling outside the house has such a rapid connection to the water inside (i.e. it drained so quickly upon pumping the water)?
Obviously I appreciate that without seeing the house you can only offer best guesses, however, any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Mark
Yesterday I had a plumber round to install a new radiator. When he lifted the floorboards, he discovered that there was a substantial amount of water (about 2ft) in the space underneath the floor (this was not far short of the floorboards).
I've had a quick look through some other threads that deal with similar problems, but there are a couple of features particular to this problem that may or may not make a difference.
1. Following heavy rain, there are often pools of water standing against the house (at the front and back) that take a few days to drain. When we pumped the water from under the floor, these pools rapidly drained, so I suspect that inadequate drainage is the problem.
2. We first attempted to pump the water down a drain that serves a path running in front of, and higher than, the front of the house, and, although it did drain, it was slow, and could not deal with the volume of water produced by the pump (we eventually resorted to pumping the water into an inspection chamber for our foul water drain).
3. The water did not return after we pumped it.
My questions are:
1. How serious is this problem? We have noticed the house to be quite damp but have solved this with a dehumidifier. Of more serious concern, many electrical cables were submerged in the water.
2. What is the likely cause? Could it be linked to the "sluggish" drain that I described?
3. Is it normal that the water pooling outside the house has such a rapid connection to the water inside (i.e. it drained so quickly upon pumping the water)?
Obviously I appreciate that without seeing the house you can only offer best guesses, however, any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Mark