Last night’s heavy rains exposed two flaws in our gutter system. I was a little disappointed because I thought my audit of the gutters a few months back had showed them to be adequate enough to last until we have to re-roof. Sadly, water is much smarter than me, and has proved again that it can get anywhere it wants to. Including the basement.
Where all the water is coming from is unclear, but it’s not being shy. Last night it started creeping in on the south side of the house and dripping into the sink (luckily). I had kind of forgotten about one of the downspouts, so I went outside and tried to redirect the flow as best I could away from the foundation. The gutter along the west side of the house had also filled and was spilling over the side. I placed an unused section of gutter below it and directed that flow into another section so the water was routed to the yard instead of the window sills.
It seemed to have worked until this morning when a sudden cloud-burst loosed a torrent on the weakened gutters. Stepping out to investigate meant I was instantly soaked. I had to make some quick adjustments to my already Swiss Family Robinson irrigation system, but I eventually had to go to work. Now I’m thinking about moisture and quietly snarling at the report that the “moisture problems had been fixed” in the seller’s disclosure.