Can you inspect a home for signs of groundwater problems? What should it tell you if you are looking at a home to buy, and the home has a home groundwater problem in the crawlspace or basement, and there is already a sump pump installed? It should tell you that the sump pump isn’t a solution to the problem.
If the groundwater is still entering the crawlspace or basement, would a reasonable mind assume that the sump pump is a solution to the problem, or a bandaid?
Let me put it to you this way. If you owned a boat, and the boat was taking on water when put into the ocean, would you install another bilge pump to remove the water, or find out how to patch the hole that is letting in the water?
If you miss that question on the test, you are likely the person to conclude that the sump pump installation is the first thing to do just because it is likely cheaper.
You are just throwing your money away by installing sump pumps and thinking they will solve your groundwater problem.
Perhaps you are the seller of the home, and you just want to con the buyer into thinking that a solution to the groundwater problem has been created.
One of the major points of home drainage logic that I continue to drive into the minds of home buyers is to recognize the sump pump home sellers ploy.
Thousands of home buyers are bilked each year of hard earned cash with sump pump installations without a prayer of changing the groundwater entry problem into their crawlspace or basement.
When those new buyers become sellers, many of them are just plain pissed off and blame their ignorance of the subject on who ever sold them the home. Some sue the sellers and prevail, and others just try to pass on the home drainage problem to the next buyer.
When the groundwater problem becomes an issue again, when disclosed in a new pest dryrot and structural inspection during the sale of the home, the sellers have an expensive home drainage problem to deal with.
So, what’s the answer? Wait until the post beam structure supporting the home and the groundwater problem has caused home damage, and has caused tens of thousands of dollars worth of reconstruction work, or install hand excavated french drains to prevent the groundwater from entering below grade in the first place?
The answer to this home drainage groundwater problem is, to not buy a home with a groundwater drainage problem. If you buy it, have the seller, or you, install hand excavated french drains to solve the drainage problem.
If you do not take advantage of free information on the subject of groundwater removal and hand excavated french drains, expect to be a home drainage victim. It’s not a possibility, it is a certainty.
The home drainage problem won’t just go away. Oh, it may go away for long enough to allow you to mellow and forget about it for a few months, or maybe even a year if we get no hard rains, but eventually it will be back, only worse than before.
Take control of the home buying process by inspecting for the signs of groundwater drainage problems during the first viewing of the property.
Write home repair clauses into the earnest money agreement to obligate the sellers to pay for any repairs, including groundwater issues, prior to closing, or pass on that home, and find another home to buy. It is a buyers market totally.
Read this web site and learn how to protect yourself from home seller fraud with respect to home drainage problems. You will find the answers you need, and will never need to hire me to solve your groundwater drainage problem.