Sorry to hear about your dilemma. This happened to my brother in law last year. They had to remove all the wood paneling and rugs in his train room which meant everything had to be taken out. The contractors cleaned it up pretty good and he did get new carpeting, but I spent a week there recently and I could smell mold although he says they really did a thorough job.
Sounds like you had bad luck! Sorry to hear that your basement flooded, at least your trains are safe!
To keep your basement from flooding again you should consider installing a sump pump with a water level switch so that after two inches of water it starts pumping the water out through a basement window. This won't keep all water out but should keep the level really low.
I lived in Reading PA in a two story house that had a basement and we had similar problems with water coming in, we didn't have a pump so it was a lot of scouping up water by hand and dumping buckets outside in the backyard. Had a basemnent stairway to the backyard, about a half flight of stairs and was easier than going up the main basement staircase in the house.
After a hurricane in 1972 went up the east coast my parents had to get the fire department to pump out our basement. Some of my dad's pre-war trains get wet and I dried them out and oiled them afterward. The water was up to my train table's heigth, about three feet.
Lee F.
I've dealt with insurance companies a couple of times. Both mine on a house fire and that of the driver that hit my house.
The clean up company recommended by my insurance agent was doing a half a**ed job. All I had to do was tell them do it right or I would replace them.
The contractor hired by the automobile insurance company was doing poor quality work. In that case I had to threaten legal action to the adjuster. It took a couple of days longer but the repairs were done correctly.
Depending on your coverage you sholdn't have to lift a finger. Make sure they do it right.
Banks, Proud member of the OTTS TCA 12-67310
I took all the trains out of the basement and the Insurance sent guys over clean all the wet stuff out. Now they put two big dehumidifiers in there and it sounds like a jet plane is taxing down the runway.
Joseph,
Sorry to hear about the disaster, but think thats a good plan about lifting the layout. Good Luck !!
Don
Even though they were not in the water, you may want to take your rolling stock/engines out of the boxes and keep them in a dry place after a good lube and cleaning. If they were in a damp enough area, they may still rust. I have had this happen to metal items in similar situations. Good luck and glad the damage was not as bad as it could have been.
dennis
TCA#09-63805
Tempting fate. Those old Samsonite (or was it American Tourister?) commercials come to mind....
The layout did not get wet. Luckily I mounted it on wheels so no wood got wet. I was thinking of taking the mountain off and then it would only be 5 inches tall at the highest point and the hanging it from the ceiling with eye bolts. It would be out of the way and the workers would just have to watch there heads.
Perhaps going to the insurance company and say if the layout needs to be removed and the only way to remove it is to in essence destroy it, the damage estimate would need to be re-visited due an increase in the loss of personel property due to the water damage. At worse they may up the claim and you rebuild, at best they figure a way to work around it.
Jim
Rotten luck there, PK. From time to time, I get some water in the basement (deluge rain, overflowing stationary tub...). Keeping that in mind, I actually use 4x4 pressure treated lumber for the risers, and place them on top of decking cleets. Then, I keep the layout above 40 inches to allow for access underneath.
Went away for the weekend and came home to a soaked basement. I lucked out, I keep the trains off of the floor and it looks like that saved them. A couple of the boxes got ruined but the engines did not get hurt. Now the Insurance clean up crew says everything has to come out of the basement so they can clean it. How do I get a 5x13 layout out of a row home? Looks like I have to get the saw.
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