The week my basement flooded and my shop vac saved me $3,000

Last Tuesday during that freak storm in Cincinnati, I woke up to 4 inches of water in my basement and no pump in sight. I spent 8 hours hauling buckets before remembering my old shop vac could slurp it up in 2 hours flat. Has anyone else found a random tool that totally bailed them out of a mess?

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victor_butler503mo ago

8 hours hauling buckets?! Man I would have lost my mind after about 45 minutes of that. That shop vac probably saved your back AND your wallet from that water damage claim. I had a similar moment when my furnace died mid January and I dug out a space heater from the 80s that kept the pipes from freezing until the repair guy showed up. That little junky heater probably saved me thousands too. What a wild storm that must have been to dump that much water that fast.

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claire_campbell3mo ago

Hang on, holding a space heater from the 80s as a lifesaver? @victor_butler50 those things are notorious fire hazards, I'd rather let the pipes freeze than burn my house down to save a few thousand. That bucket hauling sounds like the smart play to me, at least you know exactly where the water is instead of hoping a janky old heater doesn't short out. Plus eight hours of manual labor is a lot cheaper than a full basement restoration if that space heater had gone wrong.

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