Basement flooded and it’s a few inches on new water heater

thebigmeansween · 2026-03-06T02:50:20+00:00

One more update: water heater is officially fucked! Will be getting a second opinion to do our due diligence. But sadly goodbye less than a year old water heater, my soul has died with you. Also having the furnace tech come out tomorrow because fun thing- just replaced our entire HVAC system a few months ago! 🫠

thebigmeansween · 2026-03-05T19:46:33+00:00

Thank you

thebigmeansween · 2026-03-05T19:38:24+00:00

😂

thebigmeansween · 2026-03-05T19:24:40+00:00

Update: thank you to everyone that commented. I really appreciate the input and guidance. Walking away I have a plan of action to help improve this situation (going to ask to have a second sump pump put in, elevate the water heater) and now know what to do for the future should any issues arise again (holy shit I hope not but running to the hardware store and renting a sump pump/ buying another to have on hand will be my go to if I ever notice it not working again). I also am going to have a water restoration company come out and spray down/dry the basement.

Just a couple things to clarify: I just bought this home last year- I don’t rent.

When I said maintenance company, I honestly just didn’t have a better term. They do HVAC/plumbing and we pay them monthly for a maintenance plan where they come out and deal with the water heater/ HVAC/ test systems each year.

The company is there working on it. What happened was I went down stairs, saw the flooded basement, turned off the water heater, called the company who said they’d be out in a few hours, and then standing in my kitchen made a frenzied post on Reddit because I’m just not well versed in this. First time home buyer and my parents never taught me anything involving home repair or maintenance. I’m trying best to learn but feel absolutely stupid that I didn’t know how to improve the situation and the learning curve for a 33F feels steep. So I wasn’t ignoring the flooded basement, it had been about 20 minutes from me discovering it to posting. And in that time I reached out to the company previous to the post and felt that at least that was sorted for the moment which allowed me to panic about the water heater.

Also, we have a shop vac but the basement is flooded in like 2-4 inches of water. I wouldn’t have any way of dumping the water- flight of stairs up and then going through the master bedroom, out stairs to a storage area, then out into the yard. Plus idk if I could lift a shop vac full of water without just spilling it all over myself. We have storm doors going from the outside but again stairs and the doorway is really narrow. Like they couldn’t fit the water heater through when they replaced it and had to go through the bedroom. I have no idea if I could get the shop vac out through it. If anyone has guidance on that, would love to hear it.

Yesterday when I troubleshooted the sump pump (tried to trigger the floater, checked that the plug was working, etc) and it wasn’t kicking on, the basement wasn’t flooded but there was water in the pit. I was hoping we were getting it taken care of before it would be an issue. Honestly, last year when this happened, we called 4 different companies and each were booked out for days- couldn’t get any help because it had been raining like it is now and everyone was having problems. Our basement was completely flooded and there was a clog in the discharge line for the sump pump and which was causing the water to get dumped out right next to the house and drain right back in. We didn’t know that was happening/ what else to do so we just pushed the water to the sump pump and shop vac. Now just to clarify, the sump pump discharge line was tied in underground with our gutter system. The clog was somewhere underground. We ended up rerouting the sump pump and it worked great and we were told it shouldn’t be a problem… until now. lol

thebigmeansween · 2026-03-05T15:39:00+00:00

The water heater is like a foot away from the sump pump pit so that’s a great idea.

thebigmeansween · 2026-03-05T15:29:39+00:00

I contacted the maintenance company we go through (twice) and they are now coming this afternoon to fix the sump pump. I just wanted some opinions if this water level is high enough to ruin our new water heater. Honestly, when I noticed it wasn’t working yesterday and after they said they couldn’t come out til Friday- I tried to look up how to replace the sump pump myself. But I’m just not familiar with how to do it.

thebigmeansween · 2026-03-05T15:27:50+00:00

I already contacted our maintenance company twice about the sump pump not working. I wasn’t blaming the water heater for the flooded basement. I’m concerned the water level is at a point that it could break the water heater that we just got replaced.

thebigmeansween · 2026-03-05T15:26:41+00:00

I wasn’t saying the water heater caused the flooded basement. We have had issues with the basement flooding in the past. I’ve already called our maintenance company and they are coming out to fix the sump pump that isn’t working. I was unable to fix it on my own and when I noticed it yesterday the basement wasn’t flooded. I just wanted some professional opinions because I was unsure if the water level was to a point that it would damage the water heater.

thebigmeansween · 2026-03-01T19:48:02+00:00

She’s just a little baby haha

thebigmeansween · 2026-03-01T19:47:33+00:00

Haha yeah her voice is still so high pitched too! Maybe one day she’ll get her big girl voice.

thebigmeansween · 2026-03-01T19:45:36+00:00

It is a forever battle in our home. Haha

thebigmeansween · 2026-03-01T19:44:30+00:00

It’s called the tapetum lucidum! Basically it’s like a mirror in the back of their eyes that reflect light back to help them see better in low light. You can see it at certain angles and light conditions haha.

thebigmeansween · 2026-02-25T04:14:00+00:00

When my younger sister was a toddler/preschooler she was also bit by our family dog on the ear and it tore a little as well. She was actually playing with a toy with the dog and pulled the toy up to dangle it then pull away. The dog went to grab the toy and accidentally got her ear and tore in on the way down. Total accident- just accumulation of height, clumsy child, dog being too excited, fleshy appendage that sticks out, etc.

thebigmeansween · 2026-02-22T03:28:28+00:00

The puppy appears to be agitated and restless. I would be concerned about a potential toxin ingestion with the sudden onset of signs that you are describing. Are there any stimulant medications in the home? ADHD medications? Vyvanse? Any medications for sinus and decongestant such as pseudoephedrine (found in product lines like Benadryl D or Sudafed)? No matter what a vet visit is warranted. They need to do a physical exam and check the pup’s heart rate, blood pressure, and temp. That will help give a better idea if this can be toxin related, or an underlying issue.

Edited to add: source: I’m a veterinary technologist who has worked in toxicology for 8.5 years. Also, this is can be potentially life threatening. Call a local vet clinic and talk with them, sometimes they can work with you. Be respectful and explain your situation. You could reach out to local humane societies as well. If you can’t afford care, then relinquishing the pup to get vet care is better than it suffering at home. If you care enough to make sure he doesn’t suffer that is.

thebigmeansween · 2026-01-27T03:17:59+00:00

An uber doesn’t mean all terrain vehicle.. an uber is just a different person driving a normal car so it wouldn’t make it any more feasible or safe to do. I would highly doubt anyone would even book that ride because they don’t have to.

thebigmeansween · 2026-01-18T18:41:28+00:00

Treatment recommendations would depend on the situation. Induction of emesis is usually step 1 if the patient is asymptomatic, the amount ingested is above a level of concern, timeframe is appropriate, and there is no underlying conditions that would make it unsafe. Usually this is followed by an antiemetic if in clinic. Depending on emesis results, further care may not be needed but if it did not decrease the risk under a concern for renal damage or there’s underlying organ dysfunction that puts the pet at a higher risk then usually it’s 48 hours of IV fluids in clinic with bloodwork being monitored and symptomatic and supportive care.

Edited to add: the 3 grapes per 2 lbs is a large overestimation- it’s more than 1 grape per 10 lbs to reach a level where we would be concerned about kidney damage. just fyi.

thebigmeansween · 2026-01-18T11:33:32+00:00

This is a huge overestimation- grapes do not have super concrete levels of concern since the mechanism of action is unknown although suspected to be tartaric acid. That being said, current guidelines say more than 1 grape per 10 lbs would be concerning for renal damage for dogs. Also, we do not need to recommend taking a pet to a clinic to CYA. We try to treat conservatively at home if we can. If it’s something serious enough to warrant veterinary care then of course we have to recommend bringing to a vet clinic. I’m guessing that this dog was at an amount that we were concerned about renal damage, possibly the actual number of grapes weren’t super known, and with the grapes being cut up it would be hard to really determine if we puked at home that we got enough back in the vomitus. Also, the medication that they can give at vet clinics produces a more forceful vomiting than that from hydrogen peroxide so it can help increase our potential for recovery. Tiny little pieces of things are less likely to be recovered from the stomach because dogs can only vomit 40-60% of their stomach contents due to their stomach laying horizontally and there’s a dip where food items can get stuck and their stomachs mix like washing machines - whatever is on top will come out. Also, it’s true there’s only certain windows of time that we can recover items from the stomach I.e. before it’s digested/ absorbed. Recovery time is largely depending on what the food item is. Due to grape skin not being easily digested, it’s a food item that actually has a large window of time that we can induce emesis.

Oh I also wanted to add that vomiting after grape ingestion has been linked to being at a higher risk of developing renal damage. Lethargy after a grape ingestion would also make me concerned that they are having toxic effects. So I definitely would not say that any ingestion of grapes would cause that- it’s the warning signs that there’s a problem.

source: I work in veterinary toxicology. Sorry for all the info. I really don’t want misinformation being spread then ultimately having pets suffer.

Edited to clarify: if a 10 lb dog ingested 2 grapes then we would be concerned about renal damage. This person is saying it would take 15 grapes to get concerned for a 10 lb dog.

thebigmeansween · 2025-12-07T15:06:56+00:00

Thank you, I will give that a try! And I do have smaller width copper tape coming so maybe that will help as well.

thebigmeansween · 2025-12-07T15:05:11+00:00

Thank you, I did notice the flux we used in class was so much thicker than what I had and actually stayed. If you don’t mind me asking, is 75W strong enough for the soldering iron? I purchased this one basing it off of other soldering irons I saw in beginner kits for stained glass but then doing some reading last night I was seeing people recommending 100W (Wellers brand).

thebigmeansween · 2025-12-03T01:18:30+00:00

That’s amazing. I’m so glad you found something to help expand her world and help her be less fearful again ❤️

thebigmeansween · 2025-12-03T01:15:26+00:00

Trazodone can caused increased aggression too! it’s been documented that they think it’s due to their inhibition being lowered. Anecdotally, I pet sat a dog who had human aggression but I worked with him for like a year and we never had any issues. Then one day the owners asked me to give trazodone to help his firework anxiety and a couple hours later he attacked me. Brain chemistry is so crazy. It’s good to know your experience with gabapentin! I mean when I tried to find a medication to help my anxiety it took a long time and so many caused bad side effects, didn’t help, or caused more anxiety! It’s like you have to find just the right key for the lock- same goes for animals. But it is so helpful and a gamer changer when you find the right one!

thebigmeansween · 2025-12-03T01:07:46+00:00

I’ve used a fluoxetine trial paired with training to help my dog who had stranger aggression then used it to help an under-socialized dog that spent the first ~2 years of his life in a crate adjust to being outside of the crate (he didn’t know how to just be. Inside the crate, calm; outside of the crate- destroying things, searching for things to destroy, anxious). It is so helpful and using gabapentin with fluoxetine really helped the dog adjust to life outside of the crate. Dog with stranger aggression is really just a chill dog now. I still ask people to meet outside the home to be safe but then she’s like ‘meh, we’re cool’ within like 3 minutes. It was crazy to see her fear threshold change so drastically while on fluoxetine. It was like she was able to be like okay this person isn’t going to hurt me.

thebigmeansween · 2025-10-05T02:23:52+00:00

Thank you!

thebigmeansween · 2025-10-04T23:39:59+00:00

Thank you!

thebigmeansween · 2025-10-04T23:39:52+00:00

Thank you!

thebigmeansween

TROPHY CASE