10 home drainage conditions the buyers need to investigate. This is an Overview, read further for detail on each point: 1. Check the quality and age of the gutter system.
2. Inspect the rain drain discharges that vent the water from your gutter system away from the home.
3. Inspect the overall topography of the earth at the foundation walls.
4. Look for mature trees and shrubs planted within 2 feet of the foundation, or even up to 6 feet for large trees.
5. Look for evidence of a hand excavated french drain installation.
6. Ask the homeowners about home drainage issues.
7. Look for sump pumps installed.
8. Is there curb and gutter and is the property below grade to the street.
9. Does the home contain any funny smells when you go into the crawl space.
Prior to writing an offer on a home, you would be well advised to have a prepared list of home drainage due diligence questions with you when you jump into the home buying process.
Control is everything. You must control the stream of information coming to you, or you will be fed less than the truth in many cases dealing with some homeowners who want to hide home drainage problems and attempts to solve them as well.
Learn how to swim with the big fish without getting eaten. Don’t buy home drainage problems. You don’t need that kind of garbage.
It is easy to forget to look for existing or potential home drainage problems when the families focus is more on the neighborhood, the basketball hoop, where the bus stop is, patio dining possibilities, the overall size of the home, parking space, colors, water features, pool, and other items of cosmetic nature or comfort, which are important as well.
It is human nature for home buyers to forget about home drainage items that are not spotlighted, or disclosed to them by home sellers.
Oregon home sellers must present to the home buyers a home quality disclosure history form indicating everything they know about the condition of the home and its amenities.
This is done on a form that every home seller is required to give every Oregon home buyer, most often through their real estate broker. The form is an Oregon home condition and history disclosure, representing what the home sellers know about the subject property.
Ignore it as a home seller and you leave yourself open for lawsuits.
Non-disclosing home sellers can sell the home in the summer, sly as a fox. When the return of the homes groundwater problems show the new homeowners that they someone has been lying to them about never having a home drainage problem, moods turn into filing law suits many times.
Realtors are not trained to look for drainage issues at all. Actually, most realtors are not exactly dressed for a romp in the crawl space anyway.
The crawl space fact finding adventure should be the buyers first responsibility to themselves, if for no other reason than to provide the buyers with the truth about the condition of the crawl space, and most likely the homes health in general.
A crawl space will tell you lots about the over all age and health of the home, just from the smells or lack of them.
Focus in required to investigate the condition of the home from a home drainage perspective.
I will teach you how to protect yourself buying real estate and have fun doing it.
Whether the sellers are aware of the home drainage problems or not, you will be aware of them right away, and you will get down to the reality of what you are facing quickly by asking the proper questions in real time. Thrilled aren’t you.
You may benefit from having another person at the showing with you as a crawl space and overall property condition guy. Perhaps a handy man crawl space guy or a friend, to be dragged along just to be used for such important information gathering purposes as crawl space investigation.
That person can just be uncle Louie to the realtors and homeowners and say little at all to anyone during the process, but report to you. You will teach him what, where and how to look from this site information and your prepared and printed out list. Here-in enclosed.
1. Check the quality, age, and type of the gutter system installed on the home first. Ask yourself what the materials are in the gutters and downspouts. Are they aluminum, wood, or plastic. Look for gutter spikes protruding out of the facia boards on the end of the roof joists, where the gutter is nailed. They need to be nailed back into the end of the rafter tail if the gutter is still hung correctly.
Look for cracks in plastic gutter systems and the presence of gutter helmets, or similar types of supposedly no maintenance gutter guard systems. Gutter helmet types of no maintenance gutter protectors allow rain water, during heavy rains, to run right over the gutters producing the same effect or worse than you would have sustained if your home had no gutters installed at all. In soft rains they work as intended.
Even homes with quality french drain groundwater removal systems installed professionally have trouble keeping up with the huge flow that can come off a large roof during heavy rains where the downspout rain drain discharges are plugged and everything is overflowing at the foundation, and also most likely overflowing like a water fall off the gutters to the ground next to the homes foundation.
The end of the home is many times a gable end with no gutters, as it has a severe pitch to the roof line. These ends of the home can suffer worse from snow and rain running over the roofs end in that location.
Gutter spikes attach the gutters to the facia board which is nailed to the ends of the rafter tails at the top of the gutter. Make sure that they are securely attached, and that the gutters are not dented or bent over and are hung at a slope to the downspout, where it attaches to your gutter system. Where the downspout drops to the ground and vents into your rain drain discharge, which is located at the side of your homes foundation, right where it can overflow and bomb your crawl space with roof water, turned into groundwater if your gutters plug up your rain drain discharges.
Look for drip lines under the gutters on the dirt. It could be evidence that the gutters are overflowing during hard rains. Look for rusted gutters that will likely leak in hard rains.
2. Look at the rain drain discharges, which I have described above. Determine where and how the gutters are plumbed to them and what they are plumbed with, as well as the gutters approximate age and the quality of the materials used. Are those rain drain discharges made of flexible pipe above ground, and not hard glued abs pipe, as they should be?
Usually 3″ abs glued pipe is mandated for use above ground for plumbing rain drain discharges. The rain drains may attach to a 3″ solid ads flex pipe as well for allowing underground turns and twists in your french drain systems aqua ducts.
3. What is the overall topography of the home site, and can you determine what basic type of the soil exists at the exterior foundation wall? I just mean, does it look like thick bark dust around the foundation, which acts like a sponge? Does the ground slope toward the foundation in general, and has it been dug and gardened, or is it firm and sloped away from the home, and naturally hard and compacted?
Ask yourself if the concrete areas are poured sloping towards the foundation, or flat against the foundation, like a patio at the rear sliding door. This can be a tip off to the source of the groundwater into the crawl space or basement in that area, when you see bad rainwater collecting slopes running right towards your home.
Look to see if anyone in the past has placed any kind of rock, sand, or gravel right on the foundation wall, after removing dirt against the foundation wall, either all the way down to the depth of the foundation footing, or perhaps even just a foot or two? I do not mean a thin layer of river rock covering the sloping compacted splash block against the foundation wall, which gravity flows heavy rain water away from the foundation wall.
Splash blocks are installed approximately 18″ away from the foundation walls and adjacent to the hand excavated french drain installation, which is itself approximately 12″ wide.
The finish layer of 3/4″-1 1/2″ river rock is to prevent erosion of the compacted splash block against the foundation wall, and to enhance rain run away speed into the french drain.
Rock placed directly on the foundation should red flag you to look within the basement or crawlspace for potential home drainage problems. Although, like I just said above, the river rock may only be on the surface of the splash block at the foundation in a proper french drain installation.
Look for evidence of a home drainage groundwater problem at the ground level, at the exterior foundation wall, where a white chalky substance called effloressence is usually present. Put your finger on it, and you will get lime on your finger. A conclusive test for evidence of groundwater entry in that area due to groundwater saturation produced by water laying against the concrete foundations surface for extended periods of time.
The presence of efflorescense shows the lime within the concrete foundation wall that has been displaced by groundwater laying on the foundation wall over long periods of time.
4. Are there mature trees planted within 2 feet of the foundation that, in conjunction with bad topography sloping to the foundation, probably have sent roots down along the foundation, which often causes groundwater to run below grade into basements and crawl spaces?
Are there deep layers of barkdust or chips near the foundation, which will certainly act like a sponge to absorb groundwater?
Where the grade at the foundation wall can be increased by the creation of a compacted splash block, in conjunction with the installation of hand excavated french drains, home drainage success will follow.
5. Does the homeowner contend that there is a french drain installed along the home, but you see no exposed river rock on the surface of the ground which would perhaps evidence the french drain installation. This does not mean that the french drain was engineered or excavated correctly, because no one can deconstruct the french drain to determine if it has the proper slope and depth, as well as the correct hard finished bearing ground slope of at least 2″ per 10 lineal feet, to make it work well under hard rain conditions.
Digging into the sides of the french drain installation would further deteriorate the ability of it to collect groundwater over a long time, as the silt and mud created by loosing the soil sides of the french drain, and then being periodically flooded, can reduce its effectiveness to some degree or invalidate it all together.
6. Ask the homeowners about their experience with home drainage issues as they pertain to the home. Do so without much of a warning. Do the homeowners fidget, and seem a little reluctant to answer, as they find the right words to answer? Did they look at each other before responding? What is their body language like after you ask these questions?
7. Are there any sump pumps installed? If there is a sump pump installed, where and how does it vent? What do the sellers say about who put it in, why, and when? If there is a sump pump installed on the outside of the home, how close is it to the foundation?
It is not good to install a sump pump in a sump well, installed against the foundation wall, or within 10 feet of the foundation for that matter. Portland city code wants a 4 foot deep by 4 foot in diameter, rock filled dry well, to be at least 10 feet from a foundation wall.
A sump well also retains groundwater that was not pumped out. This leaves the remaining groundwater soaking into the ground below you at the foundation wall if that is your installation.
Even if a solid tank is used, the sump pump will never pump out all the water. A few inches will always remain to keep the area musty smelling.
Many failed drainage systems exist in the Portland area that also have the dirt dug away from the foundation wall a foot or two, maybe with a back hoe, maybe by hand, and are then are connected with the ditch that was crudely dug and the dirt was replaced with rock. A sump pump on the outside of the foundation wall, at the end of a ditch filled with rock is not quality home drainage. Lots of these failed attempts are out there. Thousands in the Portland area alone.
7. If there is a sump pump installed in the crawlspace or basement, does the home also contain hand excavated french drains with exposed river rock on the surface, installed on the outside of the home, located about 18″ from the foundation wall, with a compacted soil grade against the foundation which is called a splash block? This would be a very good thing to discover.
Does it appear that groundwater is sloping to the inside of the hand excavated french drain from the foundation splash block? This should be the correct engineering for the compacted splash block and hand excavated french drain installation.
Sump pump installers do not prevent the groundwater from entering below grade areas with their sump pump installations. Without hand excavated french drains installed, the groundwater will continue to enter below grade areas such as crawl spaces and basements.
If hand excavated french drains are installed, and a sump pump exists as well, the homeowners probably had the hand excavated french drains installed after the homeowner realized that the groundwater was still entering below grade, even after the installation of the sump pump. While I am sure some sump pump guy would love to try to convince everyone that it was the french drain that was installed first and that the sump pump prevented the groundwater from entering below grade, this would be a preposterous lie, without a shred of truth to back it up. Everyone knows it is just the opposite.
8. Does the home have curb and gutter at the street? The lack of these systems can send groundwater from streets onto home sites and saturate lawns as well. Groundwater problem can follow.
For some procrastinating home drainage challenged homeowners, this can really become an industrial problem more than a residential one in scope and budget, and a street rainwater problem that eventually winds up to be that cities or counties problem, if enough tax paying homeowners get together to light a fire under their butts to address the issue and probably sue the city, or work with them, to give their street curb and gutter as well.
Is the home below grade to the street?
While these conditions can many times be changed, it is extra money for you to budget if you decide to purchase the home that may require hand excavated french drains to collect street groundwater prior to it ruining you lawn and saturating the foundation walls.
Memorize or bring this list with you to the home showing, and don’t be sidetracked. Always return to your list of questions. Look for the conditions that I have showed you. Asking yourself the strong value questions puts you in control of the home buying process totally.
You will blow them away, and almost find yourself at times witnessing the admission from homeowners caught off guard and not prepared for someone that comes off like a home drainage and geology student more than a home buyer. Memorize the list, or just read from it, and everyone certainly will conclude that you are the boss. No exceptions. Not a bad place to be coming from in this case, I think.
Contractors and homeowners, as well as realtors, all are pulling your mind away from the fact finding process, and trying to turn everything into getting the buyers to accept what is said to them as fact, and move along, without their own investigation or knowledge weighing in.
My experience as a home drainage contractor, land developer, former commercial-investment and residential real estate brokerage owner and broker, taught me that you can see deeply into the secrets of the environmental and structural health of the home when you look deeply.
9. Does the home contain funny smells that seem to indicate groundwater problems may be a reality? Time for further inspection. Where is the crawl space hatch door? Probably in a bedroom closet floor. Find it, open it and smell the crawl space.
Nice. Now you can appreciated what I am saying right? You will learn lots about the home doing this simple exercise. Get a good flash light,, coveralls and gloves if you are doing it yourself, and a mask is also advised in many crawl spaces. Perhaps not all of them.
Do you have any suspicions of mold or mildew because of smells? Does the carpet look old, with a touch of funky smell, even though it looks recently cleaned or new, or at least not that old? Perhaps it was once flooded if it is in the basement, and the homeowners made the cheaper attempt to dry it out rather than replace the molding carpet. It never works.