Water Damage Help Along Lena Gulchfor southwest Wheat Ridge homes

Clear Creek is a mountain river, fed by snowmelt and running all year. Lena Gulch is a small urban drainage. It collects rain and snowmelt from the higher ground to the west and southwest, runs through southwest Wheat Ridge, and joins Clear Creek near Kipling Street. For much of the year it carries little water. During a heavy thunderstorm it can rise quickly, because the land it drains is covered with roofs, roads and driveways that send water straight into it.

The City of Wheat Ridge describes the Lena Gulch floodplain as smaller than Clear Creek's but notes an important difference: along Lena Gulch, homes and businesses are built much closer to the stream. There is less open space to absorb high water, so when the gulch overflows, it reaches property sooner.

That makes Lena Gulch flooding sudden rather than seasonal. The risk is highest during summer storms, typically on afternoons in July and August, when a cell stalls over the foothills and drops a lot of rain in a short time.

Many homes near Lena Gulch take water not from the gulch itself but from the runoff headed toward it. Water flows down streets, across driveways and through yards on its way to the channel. Houses with driveways that slope toward the garage, window wells on the uphill side or doors at grade are most exposed.

When a storm sends that water into a home, it usually enters the basement through a window well, a door threshold or a garage, and spreads across the lowest floor. Because it is outside water, it is handled as contaminated, and carpet and lower drywall that it soaked are typically removed rather than dried.

Properties within the mapped Lena Gulch floodplain are subject to the City of Wheat Ridge's floodplain regulations. In general terms, new construction and substantial improvements in a floodplain must meet requirements meant to reduce future flood damage, and a permit is needed for development there. If a house is badly damaged, the extent of the damage relative to the building can trigger additional requirements.

If you are planning to rebuild a basement or add on after water damage, talk to the city's floodplain administrator early. They can tell you whether your lot is in the mapped floodplain and what applies. This is also a good time to ask whether flood maps for the gulch have changed.

On sloping lots, the window wells on the uphill side of a house catch runoff as well as rain. If the well's drain is blocked with leaves or soil, it fills quickly and water seeps around the window frame or pours through if the glass breaks. A basement bedroom with carpet is the usual casualty.

Clean wells each fall, check that the drain at the bottom is open, and consider covers for wells that face uphill. Make sure the soil around the well slopes away from it.

Stormwater is supposed to stay out of sanitary sewers, but in practice some always gets in, through cracked pipes, loose manhole covers and illegal connections. A big storm can overload the system, and homes lower on a line may get a backup through their basement floor drains.

This is a sewage cleanup, not a simple flood: protective gear, removal of porous materials, cleaning and disinfection. Make sure your own sump pump and downspouts discharge to the yard, not into the sewer, and ask a plumber whether a backwater valve is appropriate for your home.

Because Lena Gulch flooding is sudden and local, many homeowners nearby do not think of themselves as living in a flood area. But surface water from a storm is generally excluded from homeowners insurance, so a basement flooded by runoff may not be covered without a flood policy. Flood insurance is available through the National Flood Insurance Program or private insurers, whether or not the home is in a mapped floodplain. ^[3]

NFIP policies typically take effect 30 days after purchase, so it is too late to buy coverage when a storm is forecast. Review your coverage in spring, before the storm season.

Summer storms in the Denver area bring hail as well as rain. Hail can damage roofs, gutters and skylights, and the next storm may then leak through into ceilings and walls. A ceiling stain after a hailstorm should be checked from above as well as below.

Roof repair is for a roofer; the interior damage is a restoration job. Wet insulation in the attic usually needs to be removed, and ceiling drywall that has sagged is normally replaced.

The southwest part of Wheat Ridge filled in during the decades after the war, with ranch homes, bi-levels and some two-storey houses spreading across rolling ground toward the foothills. Most have basements or lower levels. Some streets cross or run beside the gulch, and some backyards end at its fence line. A few commercial and multifamily properties sit near where the gulch approaches Kipling Street.

The terrain here is more varied than in the flat blocks closer to Denver. Houses on a slope may have a walkout lower level on one side and a fully buried wall on the other. That affects how water gets in: through the walkout door on the downhill side during a storm, or through the buried wall when the ground is saturated.

A walkout lower level opens directly onto the yard through a patio door. In a heavy storm, water running across the yard can reach that door, and if the patio slopes toward the house or the drain in front of the door is blocked, it comes in under the threshold. The water spreads across the lower-level floor, often carpeted, and under the walls into adjacent rooms.

Keep patio drains clear and check that the patio slopes away from the door. A small curb or threshold seal can help. If water gets in, treat it as outside water: remove soaked pad and lower drywall and clean before drying.

Where Lena Gulch passes under streets, culverts carry the water. If branches, trash or yard waste block a culvert, water backs up and spreads into nearby yards. Fences built across the channel can catch debris and act like small dams. After a storm, the debris line on fences and banks shows how high the water came.

Report blocked culverts in the public right-of-way to the City of Wheat Ridge. On private property, keep the channel clear of yard waste and stored items, and check with the city before building anything in or near the channel, since floodplain rules may apply.

Living near the gulch does not change the fact that most water damage starts indoors. Washing machine hoses, water heaters, toilet supply lines and frozen pipes cause the majority of water losses in any Wheat Ridge neighborhood. For these clean-water losses, extraction and drying usually save more of the house than in a storm flood, because the water is not contaminated.

When you call, describe where the water came from. A contractor will treat a burst supply line very differently from storm runoff, even if both left the same amount of water on the floor.

Near Kipling Street, Lena Gulch joins Clear Creek. Properties in this lower stretch can be affected by both streams: by the gulch during local storms and by the creek during spring runoff. Commercial and multifamily buildings near the confluence have the same concerns as homes, with more people and more parties to coordinate when water gets in.

If your property is near the confluence, check flood maps for both streams and think about both seasons: summer storms and spring snowmelt.

Summer floods arrive when it is warm, which speeds mold growth in wet materials. If a basement cannot be cleaned and dried within a day or two, perhaps because the power is out or a contractor cannot get there, take what steps you can: remove wet rugs and boxes, open the space to dry outdoor air if it is not raining, and run fans and a dehumidifier once power is safe. The EPA's guidance is to dry wet materials as quickly as possible.

Because runoff and gulch water are contaminated, belongings they touched need sorting with care. Hard items of metal, glass and hard plastic can be washed and disinfected. Clothing can usually be laundered in hot water. Mattresses, upholstered furniture, stuffed toys, cardboard and most paper are normally discarded. Food, medicine and cosmetics that the water touched should be thrown away.

Photograph each item before it goes, and keep a list with approximate ages. Flood adjusters will ask for this, and it is much easier to make the list while items are still in front of you.

Many houses near the gulch date from the 1950s through the 1970s. Original copper and galvanized lines in these homes have now been in service for fifty years or more, and pinhole leaks, corroded joints and failed shutoff valves are common. A pipe leak inside a finished basement wall can go unnoticed for weeks, wetting framing and insulation. A musty smell or a soft spot at the base of drywall is often the first sign.

Some homes near the gulch take water more than once over the years. Each event is stressful, and each cleanup removes more of the finished basement. After the second time, many owners choose to change how the lower level is used: storage on shelving, hard flooring, and furniture that can be moved quickly. Others work with a drainage contractor to regrade the lot or add a drain at the bottom of the driveway. Both approaches reduce how much a future storm can take.