Schools in folks. This is the health home report card. Ready?
A healthy home is one with… quality groundwater and roof water collection and rain drain discharge systems. This prevents groundwater saturation at the foundation walls, the major source of leaking, in most cases.
Many variables exist, and homeowners of all sorts, do all sorts of things to homes, in the name of home drainage. Let’s do some investigation into what you actually have in your present home, with respect to home drainage basic infrastructure.
Let’s take a look at the report card for the, example class of home drainage 101. There will be a test at the end of class. lol
1. The home drainage report card shows an F in the first case example.
Homeowners owning homes with these conditions probably should not make huge plans on being able to sell the home in that condition, unless they get a drunken sailor as a buyer, or a rich widow with all cash. Neither would require a loan perhaps.
In this condition, it is unlikely, with a conventional mortgage, that this example home will ever make financing conditions, without a large cash outlay to correct the problems, which owners of these homes never have.
The homeowners seldom have the cash to solve these problems. If the homeowners did have the cash, the home probably would not be in this condition.
These homes were built to fail.
Many times these examples are entry level bungalows or one level ranch homes.
The grade at the foundation slopes towards the home, creating saturation of groundwater, and leaking into the basement and/or crawlspace.
The exterior basement wall has run groundwater down the foundation wall so often over the years, on every hard rain, that a slot exists against the foundation wall, and a white chalky line at ground level, where groundwater easily runs down the foundation wall below grade.
Mature trees or shrubs exist near the foundation containing root pathways that makes groundwater saturate and cause groundwater leaking into basemen or crawl spaces.
This example, bad home drainage condition home has no rain drain discharges what so ever, for roof storm water removal.
No rain drain discharges exist at all, and no gutters.
Every bit of the roof and groundwater is being deposited next to the homes foundation, producing leaking caused by hydrostatic pressure.
The roof overflows next to the home. The gutter systems are rotten, if they do exist at all.
The home has groundwater in the crawlspace or basement. The insulation would also likely be wet, ruined, and would have fallen to the crawl space floor in a wet mass. What a mess.
The home has no hand excavated french drains or rain drain discharges, with bad topography to boot.
2. The home drainage report card shows a D. The home has gutters and downspouts, but they dump next to the home, which lacks properly installed rain drain discharges.
The home has mature trees and other heavily rooted shrubs mature, and growing within 18″ of the foundation. As a result, the roots have probably caused water ways to develop along the foundation wall, where groundwater soaks in below grade. Groundwater has made familiar inroads along the foundation.
Foundation vents are at grade level so groundwater can run right into the crawlspace.
No hand excavated french drains exist.
The foundation grade is sloping towards the home on the side of the home where groundwater is entering into the crawl space or basement.
3. The home drainage report card shows a C on a home with this set of existing drainage conditions.
The gutters are connected to rain drain discharges.
The rain drains are still vented to the storm sewer however, and are not daylight vented, or vented into a dry well that is river rock filled. In the city of Portland, this would, in many areas, cause the storm sewers to overflow the sanitary sewer system, sending nasty sewer contaminants to the Willamette river.
Some of the rain drain discharges on this example home are still plumbed in old cast iron, clay or concrete pipe. These rain drain discharges are likely broken or plugged, and perhaps overflowing at the foundation wall.
Foundation vents exist, are installed too low, below the exterior foundation soil grade, and do not provide adequate cross ventilation in the crawl space. This puts the crawl space at risk for mold and mildew, as well as dry rot.
No hand excavated french drains exist around the home.
The roof has gutter helmets, a type of gutter protection system, on the gutters. I do not like them, as they allow rain water to run right over the gutters in hard rains. More plastic than air to collect water. They restrict the flow of roof water into the gutters in heavy rains, spilling out next to the foundation. Not good. Take them off if you have them. Barely a C grade on this home, I would say.
4. The home drainage report card shows a B for a grade. Getting better.
This home has good gutters and rain drain discharges installed properly. Wow. Minor miracles.
The gutters are disconnected from the storm sewer system, and are daylight vented, or vent into a rock filled dry well, engineered for the amount of estimated groundwater to be vented. Not some plastic container you bought at Home Depot or a similar store.
Storm water from the homes roof is vented through properly installed rain drain discharges, which are in turn vented to dry wells or daylighted areas, to run roof water away from the foundation area, and not into the storm sewers.
The foundation slope is at least 6″ per 10 lineal feet, sloping away from the foundation, as per most city and county codes around the country require on new constuction.
The home has no hand excavated french drains however, and suffers from groundwater in the crawl space, when it rains heavily. The planners and builders all dropped the ball for quality success on this home too. It too has periodic groundwater in the basement and/or crawl space.
5. The home drainage report card shows an A for this home. Good job homeowners.
This home has hand excavated french drains, installed professionally, with a bonded, licensed, and insured home drainage professional that came highly recommended to the homeowners on Angies List. com, a national contractor referral service.
The hand excavated french drains at this location contain straight sides and a flat bottom, an engineered slope of approximately 2″ per 10 lineal feet, a 3″ ads perforated pipe for speeding groundwater flow in the french drain, and a 3″ solid abs and perhaps, as well, a 3″ flex solid ads pipe. laid in the bottom of a french drain with a proper grade, installed for venting the rain drain discharges at the side of the home.
The hand excavated french drains are approximately 12″ in width, 6″-18″ deep, engineered with a slope of approximately 2″ per 10 lineal feet. These french drains have been excavated on a hard clean french drain aqua duct bottom, that was not recently excavated prior to the installation, and is absolutely free of dirt and debris. These hand excavated french drains slope to a hand excavated dry well, or daylighted vent.
The clean washed river rock is exposed along the entire length of the hand excavated french drain, for maximum groundwater collection, and has a layer of weed cloth installed approximately 4″ under the top layer of the 3/4″-1 1/2″ river rock, which tops the hand excavated french drain.
No foundation plantings exist within 18″ of the foundation wall. These homeowners love to set large planters out next to the foundation for curb appeal and their enjoyment, rather than digging the foundation wall up to plant something, loosening the soil at the foundation, causing rain water saturation, and inviting home drainage problems.
The home has a compacted splash block of dirt and clay, installed approximately 18″ from the foundation wall, installed on the side of the home that corresponds to the leaking on the interior of the basement or crawl space, upon inspection by a quality home drainage professional.
The land is sloping away from the foundation at greater than 6″ per 10 lineal feet, which is code in many areas of the country, for a foundation grade permit, for new home construction, although many builders, architects and inspectors drop the ball on that one big time.
The homeowners have not dug or gardened in the splash block area, loosening the soil.
The homes moisture barrier shows no staining from effloressence or mud, which is usually evidence of groundwater saturation and entry below grade. The signs of groundwater entry are many times, literally on the wall.
The gutters are covered with a bird block mesh to keep debris out of the gutters and the gutters have protection cones where the gutters go into the downspouts from the roof.
The homeowners inspect the gutters, foundation, crawl space, roof, and rain drain discharges twice a year or more, to look for gutter and rain drain discharge overflows, caused by debris that got by the gutter and rain drain protections and is plugged further down the line in the system.
Well, how did your home stand up to this report card? I hope you did well. These are the standards that todays residential construction must exhibit if you want to compete with other homes in the tough real estate market we are now in.
Most all of these bad home drainage conditions will become write ups in the home inspection report, and therefore conditions of approval for the home loan as well. This is all required for the new buyers to get a loan, or the home sellers do not get a sale and a check.
If diligent homeowners have their properties in excellent home drainage condition, with respect to these issues stated above, they can and will, save themselves a great deal of time, emotional energy, and money. This all comes back to the homeowner when the chips are on the table, the pressure is on to make the timing work for the purchase of their new home, as well. At that time, the heat has been turned up on the home selling game, and it is good to get a clean bill of home drainage health for your home sale or purchase. You do not want a home drainage problem under the gun.