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Property/DIY

Flooded cellar

5 replies

LadyKooKoo · 22/02/2013 20:28

Will try and keep this short! House is a terrace built in 1888 with an old coal cellar. It has brick walls and floor and has never been used for anything but storing coal. We put it on the market two weeks ago today, accepted an offer on the Monday, came home on the Tuesday and were told by two doors up that they had water in their cellar. We went into ours and there was over a foot. Water board came out on Thursday and said it was not sewer water or fresh water but ground water so not their responsibility. We hired a pump last Friday and pumped virtually all day Saturday until it was empty but we could see water was still coming in so left it over night. DH had to go out Sunday and I was in with DD so he checked it when he got in about 4pm and there was about six inches. He pumped it out again. Surveyor came Tuesday and there was another six inches. Also, we had a note put through our door from another neighbour (4 doors in the other direction) saying their cellar had been flooded so they had contractors pump it. DH got home about 3 today and said there was four inches so we have got another pump and he has been pumping it since about 430. It was coming in at three points we could see but now only 2. Our buyer has not pulled out (yet) but obviously wants it sorted and so do we because if he disappears the next buyer will pick up on it. The buyer said he noticed some damaged guttering between us and our neighbour and suspects this is causing the flooding so I have arranged for someone to come and fix that on Tuesday. However, I cannot see that this could be the cause of it if neighbours several doors away are affected and so just want the buyer to see we are making efforts. Any suggestions on what could be causing it or what could stop it would be welcome!

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lalalonglegs · 22/02/2013 21:21

It's weird that it has never flooded before. How long have you lived there? The only time that I have heard of flooding when there hasn't been an obvious drain/environmental issue was a friend of my parents. Their Victorian house with coal cellar backed onto the garden of a very large house and the owners had built a vast basement (went under most of the garden) which was so huge it had disturbed the water table around it, forcing it up and meaning that the row of houses behind it started having water penetrating their (untanked) cellars. I don't think they flooded at that rate though.

Have you thought about clubbing together with your neighbours and getting independent drainage expert to survey? It seems a bit convenient for the water board to say it's nothing to do with them Hmm.

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Elliptic5 · 22/02/2013 21:46

I had this years ago in a house that sounds identical to yours, it turned out to be a water pipe leak just on the border of our neighbours property - eventually fixed by the water board.

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LadyKooKoo · 22/02/2013 22:35

We have owned the property since 2006, it has happened once before when the water board were doing work on the pipes under the car park (June 2012). If you imagine us as the middle line in a capital E with the other horizontal lines terraced houses too and the vertical line the car park so we are not on a main road as the road is past the car park. All of the houses are terraces so I can't imagine anything has happened to change the water table. I am sure it is the water board as up to last June we had been six years without any problems! Getting them to look at it though seems impossible!

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lalalonglegs · 22/02/2013 22:44

Seriously, go up and down the road signing up other neighbours and on Monday engage an independent expert to act on all your behalves. It's got to be a pipe or a drain to cause that much water - it's too easy for the water board to say it isn't their fault.

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LadyKooKoo · 24/02/2013 18:14

Neighbours are useless. The people who rent don't care and the people that own can't be bothered. Only other person speaking to Severn Trent is the lady who put a note through our door and she is trying to rent hers out. We called Drain Doctor out yesterday, they checked all the drains and said none of them are blocked, they also said that all of the mains stop cocks were dry. Severn Trent are coming back on Tuesday to check if it is fresh water. We are still pumping water out and it is still coming in though it is slower, last weekend we got four inches in the same amount of time we have had one today. I am hoping that is a good sign!

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