How to get rid of 2 inches of water in my basement

Pump it out first, then find where it got in. For 2 inches of standing water, shut off any power to the basement, get a submersible pump or wet vac moving, and clear it before it soaks your stuff and starts to smell. Pumping is the easy part. Keeping it dry is the real fix, and that means stopping the water at the source with full-perimeter interior drainage and a sump pump.

Here is how we walk a homeowner through it.

Get the water out safely

Kill the power to the basement at the breaker if outlets or appliances are near the water. Standing water plus electricity is dangerous. Do not wade in until you know it is safe.

Then move the water. A submersible pump running to a floor drain or outside works fastest. A wet/dry vac handles the last shallow layer. Two inches across a basement is a lot of weight and a lot of gallons, so give it time.

Once the floor is clear, dry the air. Open windows if the weather is dry, run fans, and run a dehumidifier. Wet drywall, insulation, and stored cardboard hold water and grow mold. Pull anything soaked away from the walls.

Why the water showed up

Water pools at your foundation because the dirt around it is disturbed backfill. That is the looser soil that got put back when the house was built. It drains slow and holds water against the wall. When that water has nowhere to go, it finds the weakest path in: the floor wall joint where the slab meets the wall, a crack, or a tie-rod hole.

In New Hampshire, frost heave adds to it. Cold ground pushes on the walls through winter, and small gaps open up over the years. So a wet basement is rarely a one-time fluke. It comes back with the next big rain or snowmelt.

That is why mopping up and hoping does not hold. The water will come again unless you give it a place to go.

The fix that keeps it dry

For a basement that takes on water, the durable fix is interior drainage. We call ours the Forever Dry System. A channel goes in around the full perimeter under the slab, collects the water before it reaches your floor, and runs it to a sump pump that throws it back outside. We add a 12-mil wall vapor barrier and a dehumidifier so the space stays dry, not just water-free.

The sump is sized to the job, a 1/2 hp pump per 120 feet of drain. We also set you up with a battery backup, because the power tends to go out in the same storm that floods the basement. A charged backup battery can pump about 15,000 to 20,000 gallons, roughly a residential pool’s worth, before it needs a charge.

A note on what you do not need. You do not need exterior excavation to dig up the yard and tar the walls. In our field experience that kind of fix tends to fail in about two or three years as the coating breaks down. Interior drainage is the durable answer and a fraction of the dig.

Basement waterproofing with the Forever Dry System runs $3,000 to $30,000. What moves the number is the size of the perimeter, how many pumps you need, and whether there are cracks to seal along the way. If a wall crack is the leak, crack injection runs $1,000 to $3,000 and may be all you need. We will tell you which.

The Forever Dry System is 100% guaranteed to be dry for life, and the warranty transfers if you sell. See the 603 guarantee for what that covers.

If this is a crawl space taking on water instead of a finished basement, that is a different fix called crawl space encapsulation, priced at $3,000 to $25,000.

What we do next

We come out, look at where the water enters, and tell you the smallest fix that solves it. Sometimes that is one crack. Sometimes it is the full system. Either way the inspection and estimate are free, and you get a quote within 24 hours.

Start at basement waterproofing to see the full system, or call us and we will get someone scheduled.

Call 603-610-1770 or book your free inspection. We will get your basement dry and keep it that way!

Related questions

Will a sump pump alone stop my basement from flooding? Not by itself. A sump pump moves water that reaches the pit, but it needs the perimeter drain feeding it. The drain catches the water at the floor wall joint before it spreads. Pump plus drainage is the system that works.

Do I need a battery backup for my sump pump? Yes, if you want to stay dry in a storm. Power outages and flooding tend to happen together. A charged backup battery pumps about 15,000 to 20,000 gallons, roughly a residential pool’s worth, while the power is out.

Is the water from a crack or from under the floor? Could be either. A single wall crack shows a wet streak running down from one spot. Water across the whole floor usually comes up at the floor wall joint along the base. We find the source on the free inspection and match the fix to it.

Does homeowners insurance cover a flooded basement? Often not for groundwater or surface flooding, which is why the durable fix matters. Coverage varies by policy, so check yours. The Insurance Information Institute (iii.org) explains what standard policies do and do not cover.