If you are buying a new home in Oregon you must read this article
If you are buying a new home in Oregon, you should read this article, and make sure you get the information about home drainage and groundwater problems that the Oregon state legislature meant you to receive prior to purchasing a new home. See the article on this site concerning the 2007 legislative summary report.
New home contractors now have a legal responsibility to provide the first purchaser of a newly constructed Oregon home with state of Oregon disclosures about “potential” groundwater problems, and possible groundwater solutions to stop groundwater from entering below grade areas and to prevent groundwater caused foundation damage.
While this information is required to be public knowledge by now, it appears it is not being well communicated to the public. I have had numerous calls and e-mails from realtors, as well as buyers and sellers asking about the new home drainage information law that mandates that contractors of new homes provide the first purchaser of the home with information on home drainage, groundwater problems, and home drainage solutions for the benefit of the new homeowner, and to red flag the new homeowner that home builder contractors do not cover this issue properly. Home builders seem to be poor, or overly cheap when home drainage is concerned.
Ask your realtor about the disclosure for home drainage and groundwater problems. If the realtor does not have the forms for the contractor or the contractor does not know about it, ask the realtor to contact the Oregon Construction Contractors Board for forms and updated information with respect to this law.
You can’t afford to let this pass you by. It is really a shame that contractors of new homes don’t hire professional home drainage contractors more often to install hand excavated french drains, footing drains, and rain drain discharges, so the job is done right.
Instead, the home building contractors just wing it, as most often is the case, and do it the same old way laying footing drains flat on the outside of foundation footings, and almost never installing hand excavated french drains to begin with, which is the homeowners best insurance against groundwater invasion below grade into crawlspaces and basements. If new home contractors would just step up and have a home drainage professional handle it, the homeowners would be better served.
If you are building a new home presently, read the articles on this site with respect to foundation grade, new homes, ingress-egress windows, hand excavated french drains for prevention of saturation of groundwater, and how to assess home drainage problems.
Consult with your architect early and stipulate how you want your foundation grade and foundation vents installed to allow raising the grade at the foundation and creating maximum runoff at your foundation away from the home. If possible specify in your contract with the home builder that they, or you, will hire a professional home drainage contractor to install hand excavated french drains during construction.
Don’t let these builders mess up your beautiful new home with bad home drainage engineering and poor planning. Don’t count on city planners being much smarter either, with respect to the home drainage subject. You would think they would be smarter, but they have many times proven to be overworked, and poor advocates of that which really works in the world of home drainage solutions, as their “book learning is great”, but “their practical experience is non-existent in many cases. Install hand excavated french drains for maximum groundwater collection. Install hand excavated french drains the old fashioned way for best results.