Classic home buyers enjoy saving old structures. Yes, that would be me too. Home drainage issues can, and do, regularly pop up at the worst of times, when the home closing is in process. Most often groundwater in the crawl space or basement. Everyone is blind sided. Not good news for anyone.
Everything is absolutely wonderful until… the home inspection report is read a little closer and evidence of groundwater in the crawl space or basement is mentioned, with a suggestion to call a licensed, bonded and insured home drainage contractor.
The lender will stop the escrow closing until the home drainage problem is solved, in many cases. Lenders know that hand excavated french drains are the answer. In our current environment, lenders are unlikely to spend the money to install them however, as a practical matter, if they are the home seller. Watch out for problem properties that are marketed within a cloak of institutional b.s. about the condition of the home, with respect to the home drainage problems. In my experience, many lenders handle home drainage problems the same way that sellers who do not disclose them do.
The prospective homeowners/buyers must ask themselves, honestly, if the home they are looking at is going to be a home drainage money pit or not? They must be able to confront a homeowner with pertinent questions and while staying in control of the information stream, find out the truth, or witness the weasels that are trying to hide the truth.
You can answer that question in 30 minutes or less if you understand what I am trying to teach in this website.
When you estimate repairs, look on the realistic side, and budget for at least twice as much as “you” think it “should” cost. The last time you heard of a contractor who did quality home drainage work was probably, never, if you represent the average homeowner around the world. Therefore, you are not likely to have a current idea of what it costs to install professional hand excavated french drains.
Homeowners are way behind the curve when it comes to understanding the budgets required to solve home drainage problems, especially on steep slopes.
I passed on bidding a job this week, at a home with 54 steps almost straight up from the busy street level, with no place to park, and no where to put excavated dirt or have the dump truck deliver river rock. That won’t mean anything to the novice, but the pro will realize that you would need a bus full of laborers just to get the dirt out, and the rock up hill 54 steps in wheel barrows or buckets.
The logistics of getting excavated dirt away from the proposed french drain site and getting wheel barrows or buckets of river rock up to, or down to the proposed hand excavated french drain location are variables that make every property a feasibility study first to determine the ability for the contractor or homeowner to excavate and plumb a hand excavated french drain system. It is on that basis that man hours need to be estimated to complete the work.
Read the information on this web site about doing “due diligence”, conditions fact finding, when buying a home, for home buyers.
Read articles about how to structure home inspection clauses in your earnest money agreement to protect you against seller misrepresentation and fraud, as well as speed the closing of your selected property.
Home drainage problems do not necessarily mean there is anything seriously wrong with the home at all. In time, those home drainage problems could cause, or perhaps have already caused the need for repair, and often have created the need for a hand excavated french drain system to remove groundwater when it rains hard to prevent groundwater saturation from happening again near the homes foundation. That is your objective.
Home drainage problems in a nice home may be just the segue you need to buy into the home at much less. Just because the homeowners know about and will not disclose the groundwater problem do not mean that it can not work for you instead of against you as home buyers.
Those are the sellers that get double dipped financially, often. They think they are saving money by being a couple of big birds with their heads in the sand, but when these troubled sellers are forced to acknowledge and fix the problem before closing, these sellers are almost always forced to take less money than they would have liked to as well, and still pay to solve the home drainage problem for the buyers to close escrow.
More money spent, even after they accepted a lower offer. The sellers will do this, or they will likely lose the transaction, if the buyers feel that they should pass, having no way to solve the problem, and not wanting their family to live with it. Sale fails result in many cases. Escrow is cancelled. Buyers are returned the earnest money in full. The buyers have already lost big on fees paid for the home financing though. Too late to cry folks. Oh well, on to the next home.
Most often the worst topography next to the side of the homes foundation, flat or sloping to the foundation, not away from the foundation, or loose soil and bark dust in conjunction with negative grade at the foundation, will tip home buyers off to the fact that there may be a home drainage problem, as well as show buyers the area that the groundwater is likely standing longer around the outside of the foundation, and therefore the area that is probably the major source of groundwater entry below grade.
White lime stains, called effloressence, on the inside or outside of the foundation wall, at ground level, are usually evident as well, and proof that groundwater stands in that area often prior to the saturation of the dirt around the foundation that produces the groundwater below grade into the crawl space or basement. Many times a green moss will accompany the effloressence stains as well at ground level.
Inspect the condition of all gutter systems well. There is additional information available within this site that goes into this subject deeper than this article. If gutters overflow due to improper hanging, age, ice, or debris, the roof water will pound that side of the home, just as if the home had no gutters at all, even with hand excavated french drains professionally installed, and can flood below grade areas as a result of the massive amounts of ground water that comes off a roof during heavy rains, or when the snow melts over frozen gutter systems and runs off the roof. That is why we always plumb downspouts into rain drain discharges that vent then with solid pipe. That way the roof water runs directly to the drywell or daylighted vent where it belongs, and not your basement or crawlspace.
Inspect homes with home drainage experience at your side. Study the information in this website to understand what very few contractors really understand.
Call a professional home drainage contractor/mason in your area today for a free evaluation of your property prior to selling or making representations with respect to the property you are planning to sell.
Read my articles about how to hire a good buyers agent. They are free to you. Why not get a good one?