Swamping out the darkroom, or: AW CRAP!!

[Rick A]

Friday evening, just settled down to a snack before heading down to the darkroom, which as many may know, hasn't seen much use due to my health. My step son pops up the stairs and says "there's water coming up through the floor drain!" I mosey on down to the basement to see a geyser shooting up out of the drain (he's doing laundry). HOLY $h!t Batman!! The sewer backed up and the floor was flooding faster than we could push the smelly stuff to the sump pit (which by the way is higher than the floor drain)Karen and I pushed water for nearly four hours until it was barely seeping up through the drain. Diagnosis: the grinder pump on our septic system failed and several hundred gallons of sewage backed up into the basement. We spent most of the weekend cleaning up the basement and I got to clean my darkroom today. I pulled all my rubber matting up and disinfected the pieces and mopped the floor with disinfectant. Tomorrow I get to spray everything with fungicide(if it's dry). No printing this week. I spent nearly $600 on a new macerating pump and assorted supplies(including a small trash pump to clear out the sump pit to even see what we needed). Well, how was everyone else's weekend? Ours was pretty crappy. Oh yeah, mid 30's and pouring down rain all day Saturday and snow Sunday while we worked outside to replace the pump.

[Michael Wellman]

Brings a whole new definition to "Shit Happens". Seriously, sorry to hear this and hopefully some good will come out all of this.

[Fred L]

ugh x10000 Hope you can get things back to Before Flood. I like Spray 9 for cleaning nasty stuff if you can find that down there.

Also not sure about the code where you are, but backflow preventers are popular up here.

[John Layton]

Oh...I do feel your pain! I had a flooding incident a few years back...right into the darkroom through a window well (since sealed off), and had to remove/replace flooring, let the cement floor dry out, then applied anti-mold solution before replacing flooring. Then again...this was "just" water - whereas you've got much nastier stuff to deal with. But...you will get beyond this!

[Rick A]

ugh x10000 Hope you can get things back to Before Flood. I like Spray 9 for cleaning nasty stuff if you can find that down there.

Also not sure about the code where you are, but backflow preventers are popular up here.

I bought a back flow preventer but my step son was concerned it would freeze and we would have the same issue with flooding.
We went to bed around one in the morning with the heat cranked up and all the windows open, it didn't make for a good nights rest.

[Serge S]

I bought a back flow preventer but my step son was concerned it would freeze and we would have the same issue with flooding.
We went to bed around one in the morning with the heat cranked up and all the windows open, it didn't make for a good nights rest.

Back flow preventer is a good idea.
Sorry you had the mishap !

[xkaes]

Years ago I went on a week's vacation in January. I came home to find a burst water pipe in the ceiling of the darkroom. It had frozen, expanded, burst, and thawed. Who knew how long the water had been coming out. The jet of water ate through the drywall on the darkroom ceiling, and fortunately sprayed straight into the darkroom sink below -- which emptied into a sump pump. The enlargers were far enough away to avoid damage from all the spray, but the floor did flood -- which drained into the sump pump, which worked OK. I still had a soaked floor for quite a while, but it could have been SO MUCH WORSE.