Effective 4 November 2026.
General information only
Everything on Lowest Floor (lowestfloor.com) is general information, published to help readers understand basement water and sump pumps. It is not engineering, legal, insurance or medical advice, and it does not take your own home, location, policy or health into account. For decisions that matter, please speak to a qualified professional.
Who decides
Rules vary by city, state and insurance policy. Building codes are adopted locally, and many discharge rules and grants belong to one city. So a page here cannot tell you what applies to you:
- A structural engineer decides what a crack or a bowing wall means for your home.
- An electrician decides whether wiring and equipment are safe to use.
- Your city or building department decides what a job requires, where a sump may discharge and whether a program is open.
- Your insurer and your policy decide what is covered. Ask in writing.
The maker’s manual decides how a product is installed and serviced.
We do no jobs
Lowest Floor sells nothing and installs nothing. We have no crew and inspect no homes. We have not seen your basement, your quote or your policy, and nothing here is a diagnosis of your home.
Safety
Flood water, electricity, sewage, mold, gas and failing walls can all hurt you. Nothing on this site is an instruction to do dangerous work yourself. Don’t enter a flooded basement until the electricity is off. Iowa’s health agency says to turn it off, preferably at the meter, and to call the utility if you can’t do that safely. CDC says that if you would have to enter standing water to reach the main power, you should call an electrician. FEMA says to keep the power off until an electrician has inspected the system, and not to enter a building that appears structurally damaged.
If you smell gas, leave the house now and call 911 or your gas utility from well away (PHMSA). If you suspect carbon monoxide poisoning, get outside to fresh air immediately and then call 911 (CPSC). In any emergency, call 911.
Accuracy
Pages are checked against the sources they cite, but no check catches everything. Rules, grants, policies, specs and prices change, sometimes quickly, so something may be out of date by the time you read it. Check important details with the original source before you rely on them.
Calculators
Calculators give estimates based on what you enter and on the figures and assumptions they show. They are not design, sizing, code or safety sign-offs, or guarantees. They print numbers only, so read the notes on the page around them.
Prices
We publish no price tables. Links to our sister site, CostPlain, lead to estimates, not quotes, and a local contractor prices the real job. Any grant amount we mention is dated and may have changed, so check that the program is still open.
How our content is made
Every page is fact-checked against its sources before it is published. Pages appear under the Lowest Floor name. Our editorial policy explains the process.
Advertising and independence
Lowest Floor is funded by display advertising. Advertisers have no say over what we publish, and an ad on a page is not an endorsement. We use no affiliate links, accept no paid placements, sell no leads, give no quotes and make no referrals. Names of companies, products, publishers and agencies are used only to identify them, and we are not affiliated with them.
External links
We link to sources and other websites so you can check what we say. We do not control those sites and are not responsible for their content.
Questions and corrections
If you think something is wrong, email contact@lowestfloor.com with the page address and a source, and we will look at it. See also our corrections page and terms of use.