It rained so much on May 5th that a near-100-year-old elm uprooted from the soggy soil and tipped onto wires above a $4 million Capitol Hill mansion. But that wasn’t the only damage done that rainy night. Seattle PI details an incident pretty common throughout the leafy streets of Capitol Hill’s swankier streets — the dreaded sewer back-up:

King County Superior Court Judge Laura Inveen and her husband are cleaning out their basement after a sewer back-up flooded their Capitol Hill home on May 5 during a heavy rainstorm, according to a claim for damages recently filed with the city of Seattle.

Inveen filed the paperwork May 11, though the total cost of repair hasn’t been added up, according to a copy of the claim form.

“We probably had about 4 inches of sludge in our basement,” Inveen told seattlepi.com. “It’s much less of a mess now. The carpet has been ripped out, a couple feet of wallboard have been cut out, and at least it doesn’t smell anymore.”

It was an unusually wet May deluge for the Hill. The judge said it was the first time in 24 years the sewer had backed up at the house. Sewer back-ups aren’t unusual up on the Hill even when the rainfall is less significant. Combine basements, old pipes, old trees and long roots and the recipe is there for the occasional disgusting incident. So, apartment renters, you have that going for you.

Got a grody basement flooding story to share? Disgust us in the comments.