Putting Things Back Together & Getting On With Life
After the flood passed and the waters drained away, I decided that the basement should be rebuilt into a functional area of the house once again. I came up with plans and started to set them in motion over this weekend (08/08/04). I am far from finished, but I've made some pretty nice preparations for mother nature's worst or another sewer problem.
This page has pictures and an explanation of what I did to ready the basement for the next flood should it happen again.
1st Picture -- this is looking at my new setup from across the room. You can see that the table is on bricks that place it well above the flood line that is faintly visible on all the walls in "The Lab". You can also see the raised shelf that the computer sits on. Also visible is the shelf for the new Wi-Fi printer and fax machine. This was already present before the flood, but it was moved up and closer to the window. For comparison's sake, take a look at an old picture of this area.
2nd Picture -- this is looking face first at my new computer. You can see the shelf I placed it on. It would take one really bad flood to reach this thing...but I'm not of the impression that we'll have such a flood here. In any event, no more computers will be going on the floor.
3rd Picture -- these are the new outlets I installed. The ones that were down here suffered rather badly in the flood. I took one of the ones that was installed in the wall apart and discovered that just like other electrical devices that had been on it was badly corroded. These new outlets are of the GFCI type. The theory behind their use is that power will cut off if excessive moisture (in the form of a flood) causes a ground fault to occur. This room had been rewired just before the flood and the newly installed circuit breakers did trip, but probably not before substantial damage had been done to equipment on the floor. Not only do I hope that these outlets will protect equipment by cutting the power shortly after it gets wet, but they are also mounted just shy of the ceiling so they will not get wet.
4th Picture -- Wi-Fi printer. Not really flood related, but I took this while I was down here taking pictures anyway. I lost quite a few printers in the flood.
5th Picture -- This is a view of the back of my new computer. You can kind of see how nicely it sits on the shelf. You might also be able to see the cables running down behind the shelf where I cut a hole for them.
6th Picture -- This is a picture of the wall plate I used to cover up the old junction box where the original outlet had been. I removed the outlet and wiring from the box entirely. You can see that I actually had to peel off the bubbled up outer layers of the wall before the plate would go on properly.
7th Picture -- Finally, here's a look at the underside of the computer shelf. You can see where I cut out the hole for the cables.
