I live in Seattle, in a home built in 1919.

As far as I can tell no drainage system was installed when it was built.

We purchased the home 20+ years ago and were advised to install french drains, which we did, ourselves, by hand.

They have worked well, although there has been “sinkage” of dirt areas above them, and a lessening of effectiveness over time. I think we did not add landscape fabric to keep dirt from clogging the well, and sifting lower over time.

As I was researching what to do, I found your article. I now understand the “science” behind hand digging – e.g. don’t disturb any more dirt than you have to, and have clean, flat bottom and edges.

I was horrified to learn that excavating to the foundation and backfilling with gravel was destructive. A former (dirt contractor) husband did exactly that for our neighbor — using his backhoe, of course. I now fear that the problem he was trying to solve will only get worse for them.

I’m very grateful that you took the time to share your expertise.

Thanks again –

Dash

Dashiel Wham
Executive Assistant to Dan Brettler
Chairman and CEO
CAR TOYS, Inc.
206-443-0980 x 202
206-443-2525 (FAX)
dwham@cartoys.com

Hello Dash: I appreciate your comments so much. Sounds like you were into french drains a long time ago. You understand them.

Your neighbor may have gotten away with it however, if the soil around her home perks very well below the footing, which is more rare, but it can, usually because of crushed or river rock under the top layers of dirt, and especially far under the footing as well.

This condition lets the groundwater slide by the foundation footing, instead of backing up at the foundation footing, and entering below grade, as the groundwater is forced to change directions, as the course of least resistance changes.

If this is the situation, the groundwater has a chance at perking deeper than the foundation footing, quick enough to not produce leaking into below grade areas.

If this was not the condition at your neighbors home, your neighbor might already not like you so much Dash.

Are your neighbors getting any groundwater coming in where the basement floor meets the basement wall? At the cold joint, where the wall meets the floor? That would be a sign it was not sliding by the footing stem wall, or basement wall, which ever they have, crawl space or basement.

Many contractors think it is actually o.k. to do this back hoe deal. I could probably start a few bar room fights over this subject alone in Washington and Oregon.

I do not agree with them, as you know. I come in behind there b.s. jobs too often.

Most often the back hoe excavation stops at the foundation footing level as well, where the clay floor begins, and a perforated pipe with a sock over it starts.

The pipe is laid on the bottom of the sloppy ditch, with no grade, backfilled with river rock, and vented to nothing. A worthless attempt in my opinion.

I am jazzed every time I get one of these messages. The last one was from a homeowner in New York.

Texas, Florida, California, Hawaii, and many other states have also weighed in with home drainage stories of some sort, that relate to my experiences with drainage; except Washington, right next door, until now.

Thanks again for your comments and your continued site support Dash. Home drainage is not rocket science, but it is science, albeit misunderstood and misrepresented science, more than simply understood science. Does not make sense, does it? The results speak for themselves.

As for your home foundation dirt behind the french drain sinking at the wall: You can raise the grade at the back of your old french drain with compacted dirt and clay, covered with some rock to prevent erosion. That is, if the french drain is still running well.

Compact it about 6-8 inches higher at the wall, to the edge of the old drain at a slant away from the wall.

Hand excavations can be opened and cleaned out too, replacing the pipe, rock, weed cloth, and excavating a new french drain inside a slightly widened former french drain aqua duct. An option sometimes.

It is much more cost and quality efficient and effective however just to hand excavate a new french drain and dry well.

Excavate your french drain after completing the dry well first, and the foundation grading and compacting, with the dirt from that excavation, prior to excavating the french drain.

Proceed excavating finishing about 5 feet at a time, installing your french drain about 18″ from the foundation wall, at the base of your new foundation splash block. Cover the splash block and french drain top with 3/4″-1 1/2″ river rock, which is also used in the dry well.

The splash block is installed with the dry well dirt, and then the french drain excavation is completed.

Grade stakes are set out every ten feet. That will tell you the projected depth of the french drain aqua duct at that point, as the excavation travels up the grade getting shallower, to the top at around 6-8 inches deep and 12 inches wide.

Start at 18″ deep and 12″ wide for the french drain, at the dry well. Ten feet up the system the depth should be approximately 16″ deep, and so on up the grade. Two inches per ten lineal feet of grade, on a flat surface.

Thanks again for your kind comments Dash. I enjoyed your message. Keep in touch, and let me know if I can help further.

sincerely, Darrel R. Lundeen AAA Home Drainage aaahomedrainage@gmail.com
- Show quoted text -

Things will improve soon.

Portland home value statistics, courtesy of The Barry Apartment Report, a well respected source of quality residential and commercial-investment property appraisal statistics and professional marketing information. Mark is, in my opinion, the top MAI appraiser, and appraisal educator in Oregon.

Mark Barry has been at the top of the commercial-investment real estate appraisal and real estate development industry in Oregon for as long as I can remember. I started selling real estate in 1978, as a 23 year old, and he was around then.

Mark Barry speaks often at high profile dinners to bankers and legislative members, who listen intently to every word he says.

The banks respect him for being conservative and honest, while he gets high marks among his real estate contemporaries as well, for the same qualities, as well as others.

Included is an except from a recent conversation I had with him, as well as quotes from his winter 2010 Barry Apartment Report.

Mark Barry graciously consented to allow my use of this information, here-in shared with you, courtesy of the Barry Apartment Report.

What has happened to Portland real estate all of a sudden?

Optimism seems gone. Sad faces abound. Tough times. What’s up with Portland?

Portland, Oregon, the once seemingly bullet proof real estate market, seems to be going through a down cycle after all.

The buzzards have come home to roost, as they say.

We all feel it and see it.

Statistics confirm that this is true. Every picture tells a story. “Thanks, Rod Stewart”.

The buzzards of declining home prices finally came home to roost, specifically in the last 24 months in Portland, Oregon.

The Barry Apartment Report, 2010 winter addition, written and published free to industry professionals, by Mark Barry, MAI appraiser, Portland, Oregon, tracks all new multi-family construction, commercial and industrial development land and buildings, as well as residential land and home sales, plus multi-family sales data, residential, commercial and industrial building starts, prices per sq. foot for land, residential construction starts by quarter, sales prices for appraisal comps, financing alternatives that affect residential and multi-family real estate valuation from a marketing, as well as from an appraisal standpoint, and if you can believe this, much, much, more.

Mark Barry is hot potatoes, and knows his appraisal standards.

Check out what he has to say about where we are presently in the Portland real estate market. Where we were, with respect to home values in Portland, Oregon, right on through to the present, where we are now, and perhaps, for a bit longer, into the future, where we may be going as well.

Quote. Mark Barry. “2009 will go down as one of the toughest years for the Portland economy since the early 1980’s, with only the Great Depression causing noticeably more pain.”

“While we all know how tough the second half of 2008 was, there was little to prepare us for the turbulent waters and gale force winds which impacted the Portland economy and commercial real estate in 2009.” “So just what happened here in 2009?”

Portland economy: “The big surprise of 2009 was just how weak the Portland economy was.”

“Over the twelve months ending in October 2009, we have lost 53,200 wage and salary jobs, or over 5% of our employment base.

In addition, our un-employment rate rose from 6.8% in October 2008, to 11.6% in October 2009.” quotes from The Barry Report.

“Single family market: “Two years ago, Portland was considered one of the best single family home markets in the country.”

However, home values slipped by 8.5% in 2008, and another 9.8% in 2009.

Portland is down 20% from the peak in August of 2007. We currently have around 8.5 months of supply based on current home sales.

The median price of a home in Portland is currently $239,000.

IHS Global insight, Wells Fargo, and Fortune Magazine are all forecasting a decline in Portland housing values in the range of 5%-10% in 2010 due to lay off, mortgage defaults, and expiration of the $8,000. tax credit on 6/30/10.”

So ends the mystery of why all those lenders do not want to jump hard into the home market right now. They are stalling for time, holding cash, keeping rates high enough to not have to lend it, but making it look like they want to lend it.

Lending only to the new select few, who have survived the financial passover, and only those who have retained a strong credit rating, in the wake of this financial hurricane, by keeping up with bills while others have failed, in their often circumstantial, topsy turvy world of American life.

Mr. Barry feels that albeit a slow first half of 2010, the last half of 2010 will produce a more productive real estate market in the Portland residential market, although he feels that the commercial and multi-family markets will be slower to recover in 2010.

He sees continued normalization in residential by the last half of 2010, and stronger again by 2011 in both markets.

Fix your home drainage problems now folks.

Get your home free of the home drainage boogie man. You will sleep better too.

Be one of the homeowners that sells right away in the first cycle.

Prices will be strong for the best of the best, compared to the rest.

The bargain hunters will find gold when it starts, not later in the game.

Home prices, as well as home sellers attitudes, will already be on the way up when the word gets out about how home sales are up. Get in before that time.

A new jobs bill perhaps. Spring and Summer sun. Portland doesn’t wake up until the sun starts shining in spring and the bulbs start popping out.

Portland will again show its fine colors in many ways, and stand out again, for the same reasons as before, for the outstanding home values that our area represents.

That will not change. We are still one very fine location, Oregon.

Get ready, we are only months from the bottom of this terrible Portland real estate market.

Start thinking positive if you want to make money at the bottom of this cycle.

Ride the wave up again, as the market gets better and you get more cash to work with.

Cash is going to be king in this market, as well as it is in every other market, except a market like we had previous to this mess, where money was dirt cheap and available, clouded by speculation and structured investment vehicles. Investment vehicles? Yeh, more like hit and run vehicles, I think.

Fix those homes with home drainage problems, and get in on a better 2010 summer market to come in Portland for home sales.

If you want to be a home seller, and you have a special home to sell, with value added infrastructure “green” features and systems, you will find now is the time to sell that home.

List it. Get it out there on the market, open and with terms ready to count on.

I would not waste my time looking and talking with for sale by owners, if I was a buyer in the new market.

A total waste of a day. I assure you.

That is why real estate agents must spend their money and time wisely, on something that has a negotiated fee, and a firm price.

Since almost all buyers use buyers agent representation, which is free to them, almost all your home buyers will have agents. No commission established, not any reason at all to show it.

If the buyers come up with it. Discourage it, and move on to the real values, that are real, not some homeowners idea of getting away clean, more like pie in the sky, and a pig in a poke. And always a guessing game too.

I think personally, additionally falling homes prices forecast for Portland in 2010 are not that severe, and will actually stimulate home buyers to come into the action. Given the other factors that lead us to believe we are at the bottom of this cycle.

Portland real estate quality value, as a real estate market in general, country wide, is rising and not falling, as our home prices fall a bit more. We are already looking good to us again.

Think about the rest of the nations homeowners, sitting in a dead market somewhere, who just might want to come play in this market at the beginning, when money is made.

A great market often comes on fast.

This is what will turn the Portland real estate market around in part. Local buyers mixed in with new incoming buyers, looking for value and turn key architecture especially.

Real home value and good old Portland location, location, location, as well as quality, quality, quality.

That is why Portland was out pacing most of the rest of America in home value stability in the first place.

It will return again for the same reasons.

Many factors indicate that the bottom of the present Portland real estate market is almost here.

Slow growth may follow in 2010 and 2011, according to Mark Barry, quoted above, but lots of good properties will be traded at good prices in the first few weeks of the recovered market, before the word gets out that summer sales are hotter than expected, and tv personalities use it as fodder for their local ratings.

True real value in the Portland real estate market will return in 2010, and be again fully uncontested and recognized.

Look for a stronger Portland real estate market by 2011.

Sellers will not be as flexible, and they will all have a different attitude as well. My way, or the highway.

Be one of the home sellers to actually sell and make money in this bad market. Or just sit on your home for another year, through the next winter, into next summer perhaps.

Fix it now, or be left in the dust with junk.

Many really fine home buying opportunities will fade away in the first few weeks of the spring season, once the word is out that the game is back on.

Cherry pickers delight in this type of emerging real estate market.

These are investors with cash, who have been waiting for this very moment in time to finally come. It is real estate Christmas to them.

Portland, Oregon is just a grab bag of interesting opportunities for investors. Exciting times for the wealthy. They do it for the buzz anyway, in many cases. And this market has them buzzing.

The new Portland real estate market will be especially exciting to those buyers looking for turn key, value added properties, without deferred maintenance. Most serious investors will be looking for properties with no deferred maintenance.

Real estate play makers always come up with a score.

When I was selling commercial-investment and residential real estate, I would take a quality investor out, show that investor a property he wished to buy, and tie it up, before his other home sold, if at all possible.

In a buyers market, a 72 hour first right of refusal comes about free for the asking from a motivated seller.

So, in a market like this, we would tie up a few properties on 72 hour contingency, first right of refusal. If the customers home I had listed sold, we knew we had first chance at picking off what we believed to be the best pick available, at that time.

I would proceed to write the new earnest money agreement to buy that home, making the new offer to buy, subject to the listed home closing, and go forward.

The key to making that work is always focusing on new inventory during the home sale process, watching to replace the old pick with the new, while selling the present property. You will find this not easy to do in a sellers market. Unlike real estate market we are in now, which is a buyers market.

This method can make experienced home buyers wealthy, if they hit it right, and often enough.

These seasoned investors stay ahead of the lookers by light years, by just doing it more often and better.

Get your picking and home buying done before prices are said to have stabilized by the end of 2010, and prices have again started on the way up, faster than expected again.

Lenders can turn the game on any time they wish. Just imagine how much they are hoping the market recovers soon, as they sit on huge interest spreads between the fed funds rate and the market rate. Huge profits are just around the corner for the banks, and some are already logging them.

I personally am not afraid of the distance left to fall in Portland real values in 2010 and beyond, with respect to properly chosen, value added, pride of ownership properties only however.

A few percentage points of value lost, in theory only I might add, for the moment, will be inconsequential in the end for the home buyers fortunate enough to find one of the special buys before prices start back up by leaps and bounds again.

A quality home will outpace the rest, like a race horse running circles around a mule, especially in a strong sellers market with appreciating home prices. They key is to be the one with the correct definition of quality.

An additional 25-50% in value increase or more, in hot markets, is not unheard of for these types of classic homes in choice areas. Those are the homes you make big money on, not the dirt bag capital improvement guzzling average fixer upper that looks like everything else.

I think the upside in a superior crafted, turn of the 20th century, Portland area home, like the one in this example, which could be, for example, a turn of the century 4 level historic Portland west hills brick classic crafted Tudor, that 2 years ago was priced at $200,000. more, for example.

The game stakes are high, but the return is great as well.

The potential appreciation acceleration during a great market for sellers, would make up for a small present dip in price from what they paid for the classic home now.

Blue chip properties always trade first, if priced even close to right.

Next year that same classic home will come back stronger than the rest, and continue up faster there after, catching up in lost hypothetical value, and out pacing the rest, because those homes have style and craftsmanship, and they can not be replaced, at any reasonable number.

When this market comes back, very few speculators will dive right into remodels and large capital improvement personal cash outlays, or new home construction, to begin with. Not in the first few months to first year, I think.

You will see a massive flight to established architectural home quality, as I have described previously.

Turn key architecture first. Commercial-investment next with hot cap rates. Land last.

Development is likely to lag behind the residential recovery in Portland. My opinion too.

Most capitalized astute home investors will be cherry picking quality homes for months, starting at the beginning of spring probably, when new inventory will hit the big board multiple service by the thousands in Portland.

Quality doesn’t have to be classic either. It can be just under valued, because of hard times, because of all the boards, bricks and man hours needed to replace it.

Buying the best of the best is for real estate pros who get in early, and have seen it before.

The rest of the late home buyers, perhaps only months late, are just fighting for scraps left over from the feast, while putting up with the increasingly bad attitudes of home sellers as well as significantly higher prices over night, in a new optimistic sellers market.

Most seasoned realtors will be ignoring the for sale by owners, unless the home is a chosen listing appointment.

The pros are already stock piling all the listings that make sense, that they can get for at least 6 months to a year, because many of those will sell, and a listing priced right, is at least a potential half a deal, eventually, if not a dual agency transaction where the listing company sells their own listing, and doesn’t split the commission with another brokerage firm.

The best realtors will be working existing new inventory. Fsbo, for sale by owner homes, are just worth putting time into. Their value is more questionable no matter what the class of property, or area. It is a very long game of serve and volley, from a negotiation standpoint, just to get a one party listing fee agreement agreed to in writing, before bringing in your buyer. Too much not professional. Period. Most of the pros will not be wasting time running a buyers shuttle bus for home buyers looking without knowing what they are looking for.

The real estate pros will not be looking for REO’s from lenders, or bail out problems from hurting sellers. These are a waste of precious time during a fleeting opportunity.

Top level real estate investors will be concentrating on new listed inventory only. Older classic homes, with no deferred maintenance, as well as newer contemporary homes of quality and design, will top most of these home buyers want list.

Many of these types of older established homes are great long term investments, safe for “widows and orphans.” Right widows and orphans that is.

As the spring and summer real estate market gets going, look for the expensive art pieces to go first.

The classic architecture, then the homes of good quality in general, with superior locations and views. Waterfront sites, etc. always come to the top of the stack.

Last of all, when the market has recovered and activity is up, probably next summer, it will be time for the realtors out of inventory in listings to be working the burnt out sale by owners, as well as those homes with home drainage problems.

Not until then. That could be a long way off if you are a home seller of one of those groundwater damaged homes, hoping to find a drunken sailor, or the like, to buy into your home drainage problem and relieve you of all the responsibility to pay for a home drainage solution, prior to your escrow closing check magically appearing.

Professional real estate knowledge requires experience, but the fuel is courage.

Selling into a bad market requires a home priced right, without repairs of any kind.

It requires properties without deferred maintenance in the way of chronic home drainage groundwater problems, and/or structural damage.

Get those home drainage problems solved people.

You don’t have a snow balls chance in hell of selling that good to average home, with those drainage problems, in this market, or any other real estate re-sale market I can imagine in the future.

The new real estate market will be dominated by informed home buyers, not spoiled investors wearing rose colored glasses, holding up high hopes, looking for a pig begging for a new coat of lip stick, and quick profit.

Nice dream. Great work, if you can get it.

Home sellers won’t fool todays new home buyers into just installing a sump pump either, and then forcing them into closing escrow with groundwater problems intact and passed on.

Many of the new Portland home buyers have been reading this web site, and will want home drainage problems solved before closing of escrow.

They will find your problems and pass on you and your lovely home right off, if you look like a non-disclosing type of home seller, who is trying to hide the homes history of drainage problems from the new buyers and the lender.

]]> http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/425/feed 0 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/69 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/69#comments Sat, 27 Feb 2010 11:45:00 +0000 Admin http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/69 I recently was asked to be a guest on The Epodogy Podcast for a special show spotlighting Home Drainage. The Epodogy Podcast is produced by Media1250.

The show covers many of the basic topics I’m most often asked about such as what causes drainage problems, etc.

Please send me an email if you’d like to hear more audio programs. My mission is to help you resolve those drainage issues (ideally, before they cause chaos with your home) and I’m always looking to find ways to get the word out on the benefits of professional home drainage solutions.

Anyway, here is the show for your listening pleasure – hope you enjoy – and thanks!

]]> http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/69/feed 0 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/195 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/195#comments Sat, 27 Feb 2010 03:54:30 +0000 DL http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/195 Two pipe french drain systems separate groundwater from roof water.

French drains can serve at least two purposes, if not more, at the same time.

One of the beautiful things about professionally installed french drains is that they often contain two pipes, installed side by side on the bottom of the french drain aqua duct excavation, which serves at least two purposes right away.

The solid 3″ black abs glued pipe, available at any Home Depot or Lowes, for example, is plumbed to accept the roof water from your downspouts above grade. This is called a rain drain discharge.

The water from your roof, while running on the same downhill grade as your perforated pipe is laid, on the bottom of the french drain, never mixes with the groundwater in the french drain. This increases the capacity and speeds the flow of the french drain that is professionally installed and engineered to fit the particular home site it needs to serve.

The home roof water, channeled through the gutters, downspouts, and rain drain discharges, runs in solid pipe all the way to the dry well, or day lighted vent.

It never reduces the french drain capacity for groundwater removal, by adding more water to the flow on the bottom of the french drain.

The groundwater removal is another issue, handled by a professionally installed grade excavation and a perforated pipe system.

The 3″ perforated pipe is laid next to the solid 3″ rain drain discharge pipe, on the bottom of the flat clean finished french drain aqua duct bottom.

The perforated pipe speeds the flow of the groundwater through the system during heavy rain events, as groundwater already flowing quickly away, additionally builds in height within the french drain aqua duct.

Real french drains are always hand excavated, for results, safety, and long lasting quality.

A quality professionally installed french drain is most often 12″ in width, and will have a minimum grade of approximately 2 inches per ten lineal feet, down hill away from the home.

This means if your design limits the length of your proposed french drain to 50 feet or less, your engineering on a flat surface, for a french drain installed around 18 inches away from the homes foundation, should be as I have stated above.

A french drain should be approximately 6-8 inches deep at the top shallow end of the french drain groundwater removal system, and 18″ deep at the dry well end of the system. The dry well is a round flat bottom river rock filled, hand excavated tank, basically, carved into the earth, with a hand excavated french drain feeding it from the side, where the groundwater will perk into the earth on the bottom of the dry well faster and faster as it breaks in, usually days to months, depending on the amount of groundwater that is put into it.

Hence the name, “dry well. A well always going dry, is the context for that word.

This is your quality, professionally engineered french drain. It is a natural perk system.

A professionally engineered french drain will insure that the groundwater will flow on the bottom of the french drain first. The french drain will run groundwater on that bottom most often, except during days of hard rains, without rising into the perforated pipe at all.

When it rains hard, the pipe speeds the flow.

This cannot be accomplished with any machine, or by excavating a sloppy mud laden ditch that has a grade of half what is required, or no grade at all. People call those french drains too. Caveat emptor, let the buyer beware.

Those failed systems are called ditches, not french drains. They come to be as a result of ignorance and greed, in many cases. Homeowners are famous for installing sump pumps as well as buying into contractors who feed their supposition, while all the time, these homeowners are simply shooting themselves in the foot.

When the groundwater entry into the french drain aqua duct is great, the groundwater flows faster because of the perforated pipe, due to the perforations in the pipe, which pull the rain created groundwater into the perforated pipe, as it builds up within the french drain aqua duct, only during heavy rains.

The largest amount of groundwater in your french drain should already be flowing like a river on the bottom of your french drain, before any groundwater even starts building up in your perforated pipe.

Excavating a clean hard bottom and sides for your french drain will determine your failure or success with groundwater removal.

The choice of installation area, method, order of work, how to proceed safely, and many other considerations weigh into a successful home drainage french drain installation.

Results, or lack of results removing groundwater is the standard. Not whether some dude cons you into thinking you have a “guarantee” for something.

You either stopped the groundwater, or you did not. Nothing in between really.

It will take months to longer for below grade areas, such as a crawl space or basement, to dry out once saturated.

Once saturated, and covered with 6 mil plastic under your home, these areas do not take much to become somewhat less of a problem again, only weeks later once saturated, even after french drains are installed, because it does not take much groundwater at all to kick it off again once saturated.

When homeowners install french drains before the crawl space or basement is flooded, they are at least a year or more ahead of the curve, when many of their neighbors are swimming in their crawl space looking around, wondering what to do. Installing perhaps the wrong solution to the problem, and living over groundwater for months to forever, as long as they own the home.

Hand excavating straight sides and a flat bottom to form the french drain is important for aqua duct stability and long lasting quality, as well as the speed with which the groundwater drainage system removes the rainwater.

As soils vary in compaction, composition and wetness, your challenges multiply, requiring additional experience, like having been there before, if at all possible.

Knowing what to do safely is your objective as a do it yourself french drain installer.

Read articles within this site on the installation specifics of french drains and how to maximize your groundwater removal, and save your hard earned cash, with a groundwater removal system that will last decades, and out perform the rest on each rain thereafter, long after the other systems have failed and been replaced with some other dumb method, solving nothing.

]]> http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/195/feed 0 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/361 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/361#comments Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:01:19 +0000 Admin http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/361 Pleased to announce the release of several new entries to my Home Drainage eBooks series. 

These eBooks are designed to help you avoid and diagnose drainage problems. It’s my objective to share my experience and help you preserve equity in your properties. You can download the eBook PDFs below.

eBooks currently available for download:

17 Ways to Determine If You Have a Drainage Problem
A useful guide for printing out and conducting your own walk around inventory of your home.
-> Download here

Brain Damage: Home Drainage Botched Big Time
Horror stories not for the faint of heart. Bad advice gone wrong. You’ve been warned!
-> Download here

15 Smoking Guns:  Groundwater Home Inspections
For those who’ve always wondered what are the key groundwater problems a licensed home inspector will look for. A must read for realtors and anyone buying or selling a home.
-> Download here

Hope you enjoy the books and thanks to all who have continued in supporting this site.

]]> http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/361/feed 0 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/424 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/424#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:06:34 +0000 DL http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/424 AAA Home Drainage to mb. Mark Barry, respected Portland MAI appraiser, asks: What does AAA Home Drainage do? Who are we? Questions answered.

e-mail to … Mark Barry, world respected Portland, Oregon MAI Appraiser. He is one of the very best in the business, without a doubt. His opinions are relied on by lenders and individuals alike.

February 24, 2010. Portland, Oregon

Author, appraiser, real estate professional, gifted speaker, and Portland property historian, Mark Barry. Howdy Mark: Thanks for returning my call so promptly, and even while on jury duty. What a guy.

I appreciate you offering a digital copy of your Barry Apartment Report, for my discrete use.

Please send it to aaahomedrainage@gmail.com

My website is accessed by entering hand excavated french drains, hand excavated dry wells, home drainage, Portland french drains, groundwater removal, and other keys words, on any browser. You can enter aaahomedrainage.com on any browser.

I teach home drainage as a service, and out of necessity as well.

It is great institutional advertising and good will for my company AAA Home Drainage.

I am a licensed, bonded and insured home drainage contractor in Oregon, since 1999. CCB#138340. I was a residential and commercial-investment real estate broker in Oregon, from 1978-2000. My specialty was land development, as well as residential real estate and IRC 1031 tax deferred exchanges.

My web site subject matter covers groundwater problems, water in crawl space or basement, home drainage solutions, hand excavated french drain groundwater removal systems, the difference between a ditch done with a machine, and a true engineered french drain, as well as other pertinent groundwater home drainage related information.

I teach groundwater removal strategies, bad advice on home drainage, how to spot home drainage scams, and how the lenders control late disclosure of home drainage problems thru late disclosure to principals of home inspection reports, in order to control the closing time line of closing, and lock down home buyers so they can’t back out because of the drainage problem.

This often forces Oregon home buyers to take the property in escrow “as is” with drainage problems intact and pre-existing, and not necessarily, but perhaps, a few bucks from the sellers to the buyers, in the way of too little, too late compensation, for something that will not even be fixed by the new buyers.

The money is just pocketed by the home buyers often, and the cycle continues, as the home still suffers from groundwater problems.

The lenders have not cared much about what the buyers wound up with, in the form of continued home drainage problems, in the past, as they would mandate a dry rot repair, but not mandate stopping the groundwater entry that causes the dry rot.

The same stuck home buyers, with groundwater problems, become the next generation of non-disclosing home sellers, pissed off that they got stung, as many homeowners become convinced it really is not their problem anymore.

This often leaves Oregon home buyers with few choices, only days before closing of escrow.

Multi-family buyers are much more seasoned, and do their due diligence within reasonable time frames, or they tell the sellers to take a hike.

When a home drainage problem most often is found in a home, due to the late disclosure of the actual home drainage and structural conditions, it is too late for home buyers to back out without significant changes, both monetarily and emotionally.

Lenders feel they are locking the buyers in harder by doing this decades old ploy. And they are right, they are locking those buyers down hard. Most often, in opposition to the buyers given rights in the repairs clause in the earnest money agreement.

I discuss, from my perspective, how many home inspectors, work with many sump pump installers, to control public opinion on home drainage.

They spin stories constantly about underground rivers and springs under the homeowners home, as they also talk about why dry wells really don’t perk.

They attempt to, and succeed at driving sump pump installation business to their buddies who install sump pumps. This is completed through misinformation and lies, without so much as an intelligent discussion about the source of the groundwater, and it being rain on the ground surface, and within the top 18″ of the soil around the foundation, in almost all cases, during hard rains, as well as how to prevent groundwater saturation and hydrostatic pressure against the homes foundation. Prevention, not solution.

I concentrate on teaching how to stop the groundwater entry below grade into crawl spaces and basements. Not just sump pump it for life, until the electricity goes off.

I teach home drainage, and related subjects to a world wide reader group, most of whom naturally are the Portland audience.

Over 15% of my readers are currently staying on my web site for over 30 minutes, with 13.2% of those readers staying on for 1 hour or more, reading about the subjects I teach.

That statistic references all visits too, not just unique visitors. That includes all the non-persons, like web spiders crawling for content to rate, which means even more of my readers than that are targeted readers, who are solving their own home drainage problems.

I teach home buyers that they have additional rights, if they plan their home purchase better, how to hire a patient buyers agent, and how to discover home drainage problems early in the looking process, before loan application, or even writing earnest money agreements, if at all possible.

This is accomplished with “buyers drainage due diligence”, through their own drainage based inspections, based on my check lists of items to observe, and what they mean to the health of the home. I teach them not to fear, but inspect, accept, or reject, without worry about all the drum beating for urgency that goes on between realtors and sellers.

I advocate my readers ordering their own home inspection reports early, after the home is tied up for a day or two, at worst, after first clearing it with their prospective lender, to make sure they will accept the home inspection report, prior to ordering an appraisal.

Without this plan, home buyers are likely jumping head long into a home purchase, without even knowing the quality of the home.

Naturally, most realtors see this as a deal killer. Oh well. I teach home buyers that the home drainage and structural volatility is just too great to be conned by that kind of logic.

I’m sure many realtors are now screaming, “time is of the essence”, and “you will lose the home if you don’t write that earnest money agreement right now, without that garbage”, but never the less, the volatility for new homeowners is simply too great, from a structural and health perspective, not to see my opinion on this as compelling to the success of them owning a healthy drainage problem free home, so I advocate listening to those plaintiff cries only to a degree.

I am attempting to change the way these good old boy standards damages home buyers and sellers. Changing public opinion takes lots of money.

The trap of late home inspection groundwater problem disclosure, is always created by the lenders, with help from the home inspector.

This is done, in my opinion, for control purposes alone, all set to the tune of how busy those home inspectors really are, and why, every time, the home inspection report just happens to come out just the last week before closing of escrow.

I write about a home sellers obligation to disclose former home drainage problems to buyers, as per the disclosure laws already in place in Oregon, and how home sellers lie their butts off to home buyers. This is a massive problem right now in Portland.

I have published articles on lenders who locally, not named of course, are currently attempting to market homes and apartment buildings with massive drainage problems. The larger institutional owners, like lender REO departments and insurance companies are some of the worst non-disclosing slip sliding home sellers I have ever seen.

One lender last week was quoted as saying, to one of my real estate agent friends, that the Bank who owned his listing was not interested in even installing a dry well and two new rain drain discharges, as per code, on a 3 year old home in their REO department. They had it sold and in escrow.

The groundwater had from day one filled the crawl space with roof water, because of two dangling downspouts dumping roof water into a pit at the side of the foundation, carved by overflowing roof water for 3 years, on the lenders watch.

Yet a three year old failed sump pump was sitting in 12″ of crawl space mud and groundwater.

This is just a basic code violation that in this case, the lender will not even fix.

The lenders request to my realtor friend, even after my proposal to solve the problem was delivered to the Bank, was that they would like to see a new sump pump installed, and for the drainage contractor to tell the buyers it was going to be ok.

I passed naturally, after giving my speech.

I write about the huge numbers of non-disclosed home inspection conditions in the Portland area alone, and the obvious lender/home inspector traps that I have mentioned. I teach the logistics and materials to use for homeowner hand excavated french drain groundwater removal system installations.

I explain badly engineered home drainage systems, and why they always fail, from sump pumps to other bad ideas that lead to disaster.

I have free e-books published for readers on my site designed to educate how to prevent groundwater problems first, there-by not needing to solve groundwater problems.

I teach readers how to facilitate their home drainage solutions, and/or how to hire a professional home drainage contractor in their part of the world, who can help them.

I avoid sump pump installations, if at all possible, and advocate the collection of groundwater on the outside of the building first, with professionally installed french drains and properly installed rain drain discharges.

I am stopping groundwater problems before they start, with hand excavated french drain groundwater removal systems, installed at the base of a compacted grade splash block of dirt and clay, compacted against the foundation stem wall, and covered with river rock to match the french drain, and prevent erosion.

This is the most important aspect, with respect to groundwater damage prevention.

Check out AAA Home Drainage on angieslist.com, to see what Portland thinks of my success with groundwater removal and french drains.

A splash block grade of dirt and clay is compacted and sloped to the french drain, away from the foundation. Raised perhaps 6-8 inches at the foundation, if the homes siding is not installed too low on the wall, or if low foundation vents do not exist, either of which could prevent the compacted soil grade increase at the foundation, without first installing a window well.

This is the message I am trying to get out. Thanks for your interest.

Thanks for your time Mark.

]]> http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/424/feed 0 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/128 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/128#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:59:18 +0000 DL http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/128 The forensic home drainage contractor. A true story.

Once upon a time: I was called out to a home in a wonderfully luxurious home development, in the suburban Portland area.

A homeowners request for a free home drainage evaluation came with a degree of urgency, as he explained on the phone, that he needed help, but not some expensive drainage system.

I scheduled the appointment never the less, after in my own mind, qualifying him as questionable already.

So it was, the stage was set, and I went to his home, to see if I could help this individual.

Upon arriving at the home, in a gated community, with average home prices well over a mil. I became aware quickly, from this homeowners attitude and statements, that he already knew everything about home drainage.

I was struck by the fact that this homeowner had his own, very strong idea of what was causing his home drainage problem, as evidenced by his posture, quick to remind me of various methods that he had already employed to solve it, and how well they worked.

Even though nothing was solved. Oops.

This is a story about a real guy, with a real big problem, of drainage and denial as well.

That was ony the beginning of what seemed hours of logic lock, and bad emotional rock and roll.

I kept on asking this homeowner, why, if he had been so successful at solving his home drainage problems, and was so proud of his methods, which amounted to nothing substantive; then why did he call me at all at this time. What was I doing standing in front of this guy? I should not be here then, right?

Even as I had him rocking off the ropes of logic, nose bleeding, as I bombarded him with common sense; he fought back and spewed out more nonsense, while all the time calling it common sense. OOh Boy.

What a piece of work this guy was.

The overall effect of his attitude, and professed success was getting to me a bit, I was actually thinking it was time to shake his hand and leave.

The deeper problem was that I was standing next to him looking at the home drainage mess, that he had created, while he was professing to know what the source of his groundwater problem was, and how to treat it.

He still had the home drainage problem, even after he had employed numerous home drainage voo doo methods to solve it. Go figure.

Just stupid ideas with worse execution. These other methods had all made his groundwater problem worse.

So I quietly listened, wanting this guy to get it all off his chest. Which in time he did. After which I explained that if he was interested in solving his groundwater problem he would need to listen instead of talk.

He seemed to get my frustration and calmed down a bit, feeling my counter attack of knowledge and attitude might have some validity after all. I was bold enough to confront his weak logic instead of bolting, the easy way out for me. I think he kind of sensed that in me.

He just forgot one thing. He called me to solve his home drainage problems after he had messed it up to the third power. Now he was still right, but needed just a little help only. Get the picture. Nothing expensive, you know. He could do it himself, but.. Yeh, butt alright.

After I asked the homeowner a series of questions about the symptoms of his groundwater entry he became frustrated with me, because he thought that I was going in a direction and method of treatment that he had already ruled out. Which he had.

He did not want french drains of any type, period,” wasn’t I listening”?

He just wanted a bid for me to do what he wanted done, period. “Was I just stupid or something”? He didn’t want to pay for what he described as “some expensive french drain that he didn’t need”.

This guy had just graduated to the next lower level of intelligence, and he was proud of it.

In this case the homeowner just wanted me to use a portable sump pump to pump out his crawlspace, which contained 4 feet of water.

Yes, you read it right, 4 feet of groundwater below a million dollar plus home, on a hillside, with a posted up foundation, and lots of crawl space room at the bottom levels, which had completely filled with groundwater.

The home was at that time, less than 2 years old, and had been featured a few years before that, as a “street of dreams” home.

Ah. Yeh. Bad drainage dreams maybe.

Our brain child homeowner just wanted me to agree with him, period, and write a proposal to just pump out the groundwater in his crawl space, without any french drain corrective groundwater collection work being done on the outside of the homes foundation.

When the ground around the foundation gets saturated, it is too late. Pump it out, in hours, the crawl space likely fills back up again with more groundwater, as it drains the rest of your yard, into your crawl space.

That is not a solution.

This guy was really starting to bug me.

Without proposing any french drains to keep the groundwater from filling up the crawl space again, the effort would be worthless.

Then, I found out that he had sold the home, had the home in escrow, and that the home inspection had started this all off.

He just thought he was going to skate on it, and stick the new buyers with a huge home drainage nightmare.

Sure buddy, like most home inspectors are going to miss 4 feet of groundwater in your crawl space. What a maroon.

His home had ground sloping to it on three of four sides, on a tight cut lawn, sloping from this hillside location towards the home, and every rain without hand excavated french drains installed to prevent it, he was getting hammered with groundwater saturating his foundation, and finally running below grade.

He wanted me to give the home a clean bill of health, and convey to the new home buyers that the treatment of just pumping out the crawl space would solve the problem of groundwater entry, and stop the groundwater damage, and any associated health problems, which would surely get worse with time. In a million dollar plus home. Right!

I almost wrote “give the home a clean bull of health”, instead of bill of health, it would be more appropriate in that case I think. So. O.K.

I told this homeowner I was not interested in just pumping out his crawl space, and that I would pass all together, and I stuck out my hand to shake his and leave. Time up.

The mood changed from bad to worse.

The game was on again. His ego flared even more.

He looked at me in disgust and anger, and said, pretty much to goof on me, I guess, “well you’re just some kind of fancy forensic home drainage contractor aren’t you?

I said, “well, I guess I am, now that you mention it”.

I said to him, I told you that without hand excavated french drains installed you will not solve your groundwater problem. Now I see that you do not want to solve your drainage problems.

He confessed, in anger, that he was not trying to solve the problem, he just wanted to close on the home, without putting any more money into it.

“What was wrong with me making some money, and just walking away, after pumping out his crawl space?”

I told him that I would not inherit his, certainly later on, pissed off home buyers.

Home buyers who later would ask me what I had done to solve the home drainage problem. Since it still existed.

He still didn’t care much for that logic either.

Time to shake the hand again, and I’m out of there. Phew.

I slowed everything down as best I could however, and explained that if he paid me to just pump out his crawl space, without installing hand excavated french drains to stop the groundwater entry again, that the crawl space would just fill with groundwater stored up in the soil layers around his foundation.

The groundwater would just enter again, some times within hours, every time it rained hard.

The stored groundwater that is still held up in the soil around the homes foundation walls will release into the air space newly created in the crawl space from pumping it out, and re-fill, over and over again, until you cut the groundwater off on the outside of the foundation, when it rains hard.

The same would occur if a sump pump was installed in the crawl space, without stopping the groundwater saturation and leaking into the crawl space with french drains first, on the outside, between depths of approximately 6″-18″ deep, or deeper, depending on how deep your daylight vent or dry well is, and what is appropriate engineering for your objective, and system.

I explained that the situation was not something he was likely to legally avoid as well, and that he was required to disclose these problems..

I asked this homeowner if he had given an Oregon property condition disclosure form to the prospective buyers, as he was a for sale by owner, indicating the condition of the home to the new buyers, and the presence of any groundwater problems.

Not doing so would leave the new owners of a million dollar home with a bad problem, and every reason to sue the contractor who said he was going to solve the home drainage problem.

Mean while, our former home seller is living in a hut somewhere in the Azores, and is never to be found. Still leaving our scape goat contractor, rolled over, and roasted for lunch. Road kill at best.

Get the picture?

This is not fantasy. Not fiction. This is home drainage in Portland, Oregon, and I suspect about everywhere else, if not worse that it is here.

I further told this gentleman, as he stood their still red faced, swaying back and forth, muttering and sputtering, that I was not about to be his roadkill, as someones scapegoat, while he skipped off into the sunset with the closing check, leaving me to hold the bag for what would eventually be a pair of rightfully pissed off home buyers.

That one may have been a little harsh for him, as his mood went from angry to not very nice at all. I live on the edge, what can I say.

So bye bye, no thanks chump. I’ll just pass on your action. Thanks, but no thanks.

“Perhaps then you will understand this from a forensic platform of logic sir.”

I said to him “you seem to have the corpse laid out right here, dead as a door nail, which was the reason for your call to me. Since I can’t remove the corpse, I assume you want to save the organism.

At the same time you are trying to get me to buy into your contention that we just have not used enough cpr to revive this dead horse yet.” That the correct method was employed by you before, as in pumping forever. Just not often enough?

This guy had lost me completely at that point, and I could smell his home transaction going up in smoke as we spoke.

I left him muttering something. I determined at that point it was more important for him to be right, than to raise the dead, ie. as in, solve his home drainage problem. Solve it.

Oh well. Next appointment.

Yes, I guess it is like being the forensic drainage contractor alright. A day can get long sometimes.

The one fact that this homeowner could not disagree with was the fact that he called me, after the drainage problem was home treated by himself, and everyone else probably, without french drains and compacted splash block foundation grade run off benefits.

He was destined for future problems with groundwater without french drains to keep the groundwater from entering his crawl space.

He wanted to sell the home for $1,200,000. and give the home drainage problem, and 4 feet of groundwater to someone else. More common than you think, but usually not to that degree at all.

I did not want to be his fall guy, so I passed.

He probably knew he would find someone willing to play the part of the fall guy, and take his money to just pump out the crawl space again, as the phone book is full of sump pump installers ready to rip you off, rather than refer you to someone who can install hand excavated french drains, and actually solve the groundwater problem.

Sometimes sump pumps are really needed. Not often though. Very seldom. When they are installed, a quality standard, that is absent in most sump pump installations, must be followed for functional excellence.

And the sump industry falls short on that one too, in my opinion.

]]> http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/128/feed 0 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/400 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/400#comments Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:01:07 +0000 DL http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/400 Are some professional Oregon home inspectors getting kick backs from the sump pump installers? I do not have any evidence that they are.

But, curious is the degree to which many of our Oregon home inspectors are, from my experience watching them operate, in love with… sump pump installations.

Many of the home inspectors I am familiar with in the Portland, Oregon area, that fit this modus operandi seem like they are quite cavalier about openly attempting to influence the acceptance of one particular home drainage method over another, during a stressful time for sellers and buyers.

In this case, the subject is always sump pumps, advanced by professional opinion, or simply suggested by the contractor, as the only acceptable groundwater solution to groundwater problems in the crawl space.

This all happens during the last few days of the escrow time, concluding the sale of the home.

Even more curious to me is the fact that, time after time, home inspectors say that the prospective home buyers should contact a professional home drainage contractor, while still attempting to weigh in as a home drainage authority themselves, suggesting home drainage solutions, that their buddies just happen to install.

The home inspectors are not so stupid as to recommend them. They just do the dumb guy act and say that sump pump installation, or this or that, perhaps….. is blah blah.

Home inspectors seldom will shut up and quit talking after they admit they are not a professional home drainage contractor.

They will continue to recommend and postulate, within their home inspection report, about home drainage, and what they think is needed to solve the problem they say exists in the crawl space or basement. And you guessed it, most always a statement saying that they recommend this or that, or grading in the crawl space, or a sump pump.

This garbage is what follows the home inspectors recommendation to contact a home drainage contractor for an evaluation. It is called “the last word on the subject”.

Note, they admit the home needs professional home drainage evaluation, and that they are just blowing smoke up everyones posterior. So why does anyone pay any attention to home inspectors trying to influence the drainage work bid anyway?

Because the recommendation comes during a crisis situation, where home buyers and sellers are both in crisis, emotionally stressed to the max, trying to close escrow on a property they need to own, in order to go on.

Everyones judgement is clouded during these stressful times, and these types of home inspectors and sump pump guys know it.

Many of you readers are nodding your heads right now, because you know I have seen it, just like you have.

The combination of the sump pump contractor and the home inspector, both recommending the same thing, often will tilt the scale in favor of the acceptance of the sump pump method over any other method, nearly every time.

That is why they do it. It is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to them over a lifetime of scamming sump pump installations.

Due to the homeowners buying into their “guarantee”, many of these homeowners just throw good money after bad, sometimes over and over installing more than one worthless sump pump system of some sort.

Most of these guys basically cannot be sued for anything. They may be deceptive, but their contracts seldom say things that pin them down. If they even use a well written contract at all.

Every homeowner I ever have spoken to about their failed sump pump system, said that they got a guarantee with the installation. When I ask them what it covered, and under what conditions, and with what limitations, and…. They most often just say nothing more about it, and my perception of the mood change, means that I should stop asking about it, and that the homeowners would simply not like to talk about it anymore, but to say that they were not able to get any money back from the sump pump company, or get the Oregon contractor builders board to rule on their side in the end. Nothing could be done in arbitration and mediation to bring the parties together to solve the dispute over the guarantee, and the lack of specific teeth in the supposed guarantee, made it the homeowners loss, for lack of their own due diligence I guess. Sad but true, often.

Home inspectors and sump pump installers have shined a spot light on themselves, by virtue of their own decisions, actions, perceived motivations, and the way they treat the public in general.

I have watched home inspectors and sump pump installers mix well, over a 4 decade period in Oregon alone, while serving as a professional real estate commercial-investment and residential broker, and brokerage owner, as well as a licensed, bonded, and insured home drainage contractor in Oregon.

I watch these characters pulling off the same scam over and over, year after year.

“Sump pumps for everyone, whether they need them or not.” This seems to be the overall business plan between the home inspectors involved in this activity, and the sump pump installers. Nice work for them at thousands of dollars per pop. Sell. Sell.

These guys are messing with everyone, and no one is standing up to them with logic.

I know what homeowners tell me over and over about their experiences with groundwater following the sump pump guy and his “guarantee”. They are pissed.

What makes me believe these home inspectors, used in this example, are dirty from a professional standpoint at the very least, comes directly from their own statements, albeit untimely, rude, and unsolicited.

My opinion of them with respect to this issue, comes from viewing their actions and priorities, as well as their failed numerous sump pump systems everywhere in the Portland, Oregon metro area.

These failed systems are installed in just about every way wrong possible. I is amazing the collective stupidity in the existing sump pump installations existing all over town.

I remove these failed systems, at my suggestion, as well as the homeowners request, prior to the installation of hand excavated french drains to collect the groundwater on the outside of the foundation walls first.

Those types of contractors, or individuals posing as one, most often just add to the scope of the home drainage problem, and do not solve it, or reduce the groundwater flow below grade, as a result of their sump pump installation.

Most sump pump installations, that I find and remove, are an encumbrance to the property and not a capital improvement.

The pissed off homeowners that I am handed, as a result of this abuse, have been ripped off by sump pump installers more often than any other complaint I hear, probably at least 10 times over.

I hear 10 times more complaints about sump pumps than any other complaint having to do with home drainage. Year after year.

That is the reason for this article. They fool you guys. They don’t fool any professional home drainage contractors.

Sump pump installers, many of whom I have unfortunately met, shoot their mouths off about “guarantees”, that are absolutely worthless.

Some of these guys really are on a roll, and feel pretty rich and bullet proof, figuratively that is, and do not respond to the needs of the homeowners. They are like the liner car salesmen at a system car store, where every customer must not leave the store without buying a car.

If you think you are going to lose the customer, because he is getting tired of your s..t, then the customer gets turned to another sales person to start the process all over again, to wear down the car buyer to exhaustion if possible.

If you think this is not the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, go hire a sump pump contractor guy yourself, and disprove me. Happy trails.

The groundwater will never stop entering your crawl space after he is finished with you. You are going to be one sad homeowner, after having blown that cash, and you still have a wife that wishes you would have installed the hand excavated french drains that some other contractor proposed.

Didn’t you remember? The guy was referred too. Oh you blew it big time alright pal. Oh well. The wife says, love you honey, and “the beat, or beating in this case, goes on”.

Nothing will change, and the crawl space will just get pumped out partially, while the depth of the groundwater in the crawl space will drop a bit perhaps, or go away between rains only.

My original study of this home inspector, sump pump, sump pump contractor love triangle began years ago, while I was cutting my teeth in the home drainage business, and still owned a commercial-investment real estate brokerage.

When I first suspected, many years ago, that the frequency of home inspectors making un-solicited, unprofessional home drainage remarks and/or recommendations in their home inspection reports, was not by accident, I was not aware that it was a far deeper and more seriously complicated issue, that would affect my business, and Oregon home values and Oregon homeowners health as well.

It was discovered to be a far more serious than had been previously thought problem.

A problem of deception and greed, fleshed out by example, only in the last few years actually.

Early on, I have wanted to follow home inspectors and sump pump installers around with a camera and mic. 24-7. I still think it is a great topic for some bright investigative reporting writer, for some major tv show? Call me John Stossel.

There is an important story to be told here, ladies and gentlemen. It is not just an Oregon story. It is a world wide story.

The numbers of home inspectors that are involved in this game would be anyones guess. I believe the number to be hundreds in Oregon alone, and probably in the same percentages around the U.S. as well, given the remarks that come from homeowners from both coasts and the islands too.

I think it is part of a now little spoken tradition, made legal in the average home inspectors eyes probably. Many home inspectors are just happy with the opportunity to rake in some more cash.

The gratuity referral system is quite normal and standard in everything from a to z in the sales world, everywhere. Except this is one example of how absolute power corrupts absolutely.

This referral ethic, and mutual admiration society, between the home inspectors and the sump pump installers, has proven so massively profitable to them that they now would fight to the death for it, I now suspect.

The standard was probably established a very long time ago, and handed down from one inspector, and generation to the next for over 50 years, as everyones memory of groundwater removal methods from the old country went forgotten as ancient technology. Everyone now says: what’s a french drain? I heard about a sump pump though, that must be the right choice. It’s only money.

Old world systems got disrespected, and were replaced, with the better, new type of system, run by power. OOOh Power.. I can just hear Homer Simpson saying that line, which seems appropriate in some ways given the sad sick humor in watching homeowners shoot themselves in the foot, installing sump pumps to prevent groundwater entry. Or home inspectors are simply out of constructive input, and default to what they have heard everyone else writing in their home inspection reports. Stuff like “adjust the low point drain, install a sump pump”, blah blah.

Bingo, it’s the fact. It is the, just established, need for a sump pump or crawl space system to be installed.

This “fact”, now needs to be disproved by anyone coming behind it, instead of the remark being treated as an allegation, that additionally needs to be supported with evidence to become a valid charge, and additionally proved, before it becomes fact.

My personal evidence, not here-say, that I have observed, watching home inspectors practice over approximately 40 years, as they write words in home inspection reports that include sump pump referrals, directly by name, make my conclusions very true to me.

In over 25 years, previously as an Oregon licensed real estate broker alone; I started in my 20’s in Oregon, it never came to my attention that the additional language that home inspectors added about home drainage was there for a reason that paid off for the home inspector in dollars, as well as in mega bucks for the sump pump contractor.

That is, until I started losing jobs to this bull, as a home drainage contractor.

Oh sure, it costs me money. I am pissed too.

I’m sure you had that vibe right away when I started discussing it, but I wind up coming behind these clowns work over and over, and have to deal with their emotionally damaged homeowner victims, who at that time resemble dogs that were beat too much.

They stare and shrink a bit, every fearful that you could be one of them too. Really.

You would be unhappy too. Too often this business borders on therapy as well as home drainage solutions.

Some of these folks just need a hug and someone to listen first.

Just listening basically, and then trying to help if you can.

Real home drainage contractors laugh their butts off reading home inspection reports and goofing on home inspectors and the stuff they write.

Who knew home inspectors were actually self, and pump promoting devices, used to sway the minds of homeowners and buyers, during a real estate transaction.

A home inspector in Oregon, that I know to be honest, tells me he is sad to say his industry, is in fact influenced by sump pump installers and their pitches.

He tells me many Oregon home inspectors just figure it is money on the side, and that homeowners want sump pumps anyway. They have no problem with doing it at all.

A referral fee is not against the law that I know of. Even though in this case, it is a conflict of interest and a fraud, in my opinion.

Like many good old boy industries, this honest home inspector friend that I know, who made the above statements, would not go on record for this article, as his own organization would surely have something unpleasant to say to him about his attitude, and his diminished future respect with the association, or something else like that to get his attention.

In the end, if his Oregon home inspection peers wanted to spank him, they would.

Two home inspectors that I have met personally in Oregon exemplify the need for discussion of this problem. Other home drainage contractors tell me the same as well of many Oregon home inspectors that they have met and have become aware of, doing the same thing.

Home drainage information of quality is little to none in the public domain, and the home drainage information that is out there is often distorted, not factual, manipulated, and controled by the sump pump business and their agents.

These joint efforts are orchestrated underground and behind closed doors, against home buyers and home sellers.

These home inspectors and drainage contractors, doing mainly sump pump installations, are referring work both ways, while postulating on the abilities and strengths of each other, and touting the other persons system or reputation.

The intention of both parties is to elevate the other party to a higher standard in the eyes of the home sellers and buyers that need to choose a home drainage contractor to solve their groundwater problems, and to be the first one to do it, making everyone else the new concept that needs to be defended.

Just good ol boy stuff that happens everywhere, at every level in the construction world, as well as in America specifically. Kick backs are part of our lives, whether we like it or not.

From congress to the streets, they are common place.

The consistent, always present, burning theme and practice of many home inspectors in Oregon seems to be to share the word to the public about what they know about home drainage, while writing a home inspection report about just how cool and effective sump pumps really are, and that they “may”, be needed at that property.

They spin stories of underground rivers and springs, and attempt to influence public opinion on dry wells, saying they don’t work, as well.

An actual fact that I discovered recently through a weird, late night conversation with a home inspector, is that he had also invited one of his favorite sump pump contractor buddies to speak at the 2009 Oregon Home Inspectors Association gathering. You know, throw the dog a bone.

This would not in itself be need for further observation and criticism by me of the home inspectors intentions, but combined with the fact that very little home drainage engineering or science was discussed, at the state convention no less, as a result of this theatrical display, his motivations are now in question as a result of what I will share with you now.

A good part of the 2009 Oregon home inspectors convention was a sump pump business info commercial, I am told by another licensed home inspector who attended.

I am told by the home inspector that was in attendance, that it was just another sump pump stump speech, talking nonsense about home drainage.

Many home inspectors are totally up to speed with home drainage. Many call me and refer me. I am talking about the ones that should be discovered for their intentions, asking yourself, why would they do this.

Lots of home drainage professionals and real estate professionals are hip to the intentions of home inspectors and sump pump installers, and how they work together.

We are sad to see they fool homeowners. They do not fool us.

Statements from this particular sump pump installer I refer to here-in, working in the Portland area, were thrown out to the Oregon home inspector association crowd in 2009, as home drainage facts, when in fact, the many home inspectors that knew the difference could easily see the room divide off between those that support the game, and those who did not. He said it was a very interesting display of good old boy power.

Many home inspectors questioned this sump pump contractors statements about things like, “dry wells don’t work”, and other stupid statements.

These guys have crossed the line of mis-information and decided to specialize in just being liars, instead of just a bunch of scoundrels.

They come on to informed home drainage professionals as crooks that resemble a wild west fake preacher, in front of a room full of wealthy widows and orphans, trying to get them to buy into the new proposed wealth builder project. Perhaps that new railroad, coming in a few years, that will need some advance cash and some blue chip stock investors right now. Right?

This example, and other examples not shared with you at this time, all show me there is a money trail between many sump pump guys and the home inspectors. They just work too hard for each other.

The plot is so easy to discover once you suspect it exists.

They don’t just refer work back and forth, they attempt to influence the placement of it with lies.

Many home inspectors function actually as part of the sump pumpers business, in many respects, in my opinion, due to their actions and motivations, and perhaps beliefs, even if in ignorance, because many of them benefit from placing work monetarily with their sump pump buddies.

The home inspectors playing this unethical game earn their referral fees by providing the sump pump contractor with a copy of the inspection report that indicates, in the home inspectors opinion, which should not be in there at all, that the homes crawl space or basement may perhaps require the installation of a sump pump, or any one of the many other b.s. attachments that could be added to it by his buddy.

The sump pump guy is always called out first, by the home inspector himself.

That secures his referral fee too.

The home inspection report is usually handed to the sump pump friend right away, so he is the first one out to the home to postulate the need for a sump pump installation, and attempt to set precedent, of which groundwater removal system should be installed.

That puts him in total control, for the moment.

The evidence of a mutual admiration society in itself, like that which exists between home inspectors and sump pump installers, is not direct evidence of, or an indictment of anyone at all, even if these home inspectors practices, by themselves, or simply their intentions, could be determined by a blind man in a snow storm.

That is not the basis for my opinion on this matter however.

I have watched Oregon home inspectors inject themselves into a position of authority, during a real estate transaction, through their language and recommendations, written in their home inspection report, too many times to remember.

I have observed this hundreds of times over the past 35 years, since I first started in professional real estate activity in Oregon in the 70’s.

I should have been talking about this problem decades ago.

The words in the home inspection report, such as, “adjust the low point drain”, “install a sump pump or crawl space drainage system”, “grade the crawl space”, come up on almost every one of the Oregon home inspection reports that indicates there is groundwater in the crawl space or basement, and also contains a recommendation to contact a home drainage professional as well.

Other articles on this site explain how home inspectors work with lenders to plan the late disclosure of home drainage problems in order to further their buddies chances of a sump pump installation, as it pertains to the home inspector, and control the buyers better, as it pertains to the banks and home lenders, who order the reports and communicate with the home inspectors. Actually paying for the report and becoming the home inspectors customer, instead of the home buyers becoming a customer of the home inspector directly by ordering the report ahead of time themselves. Explanations abound in previous articles on this site.

The sump pump guy has always been there first. Every time. That might tip the not so aware off, right away.

The home owners have been told that their home inspection person would be happy to send a professional home drainage contractor, his sump pump contractor buddy, by to look at the homes drainage problems. Would that be o.k.

Duh. Like it’s not going to be o.k. Slam dunk.

First point in the match automatically goes to the sump pump guy, as he is the one that can do what the inspector wants him to do as well, right out of the gate. Wow. What luck. Hum. Install a sump pump.

The home inspectors report always makes the recommendation for the home sellers and buyers to contact a home drainage professional, but it does not stop there.

If the home inspector can arrange for his sump pump contractor to be marched through the home first, planting mis-information in the minds of sellers and buyers, that every other qualified home drainage contractor will be forced to compare their installations with, and explain why their system is better than, etc. the first battle of the drainage mis-information war is won, in favor of the sump pump guy, who if found hiding behind the curtains in the room with you and the homeowner, would be laughing his ass off.

This is a very old political trick.

The stage is set. The home inspector gets the house warmed up, and in comes the sump pump guy to validate everything he just said about needing a sump pimp, oops, I meant pump. Sorry. lol Well, no, I’m not sorry actually. So hate me if you must.

The home inspector postulates, and then he brings in his friend the sump pump guy, when he is not present, who backs up what the home inspector has told everyone in his report.

A sump pump or interior crawl space french drain is required perhaps, according to the “sump pimp” guy.

I have read home inspection reports shown to me by homeowners, and after inspecting the home myself, I have told the homeowners that there was no drainage problem at all. This was all after they received a sump pump proposal from the sump pump guy, who had just bid a job valued at around $8,000.

A near perfect crime of ignorance and deception, perpetrated on so many smart homeowners, it would amaze you.

This is not going to just change overnight folks. It will take everyone talking about it, and finally people with legal abilities legislating over the top of.

Do not listen to what home inspectors say about home drainage.

Whether the sump pump guys business buddy, the home inspector, speaks out first and attempts to establish a standard or not, your preparation for his theatrics will be sufficient to end the whole thing, should it occur, with an early curtain call.

When he sees you are not falling hard for his stories of underground rivers and springs under the home, he will go on to easier pickings.

Just keep asking your questions. You are in control. Read articles on this site that teach you how to interview contractors and stay in control of the truth of their intentions and abilities, as well as always research their referral base well.

I will discuss with you now, the motivations for my criticism of certain home inspection practices in Oregon, that are apparently not only tolerated by the industry, but have become the basis upon which homeowners are systematically lied.

This happens everywhere around the state of Oregon, and probably elsewhere as well around the world.

Many homeowners health and finances have been compromised by sump pump guys working with home inspectors in this manner.

Criminal, or just good old boy business as usual, yo to quit. They are counting on homeowners home drainage ignorance and vulnerability to keep this scam alive.

A former president of the Oregon Homeowners Association, who I been previously introduced to, called me one night, about 2 months ago, around 9 pm, stepping in on a discussion that I had been having with a prospective customer, engineer, earlier in the evening.

It was later in the evening than I would normally even have picked up or looked at the office phone, but something made me pick it up.

The engineer, prospective customer homeowner, I am told, asked the home inspector to call me, because the sump pump guy who had previously bid the job was the home inspectors friends and no doubt the source of some cash too, as it turned out.

The home inspector was at least a good enough to work until 9 at night for I guess. He was interested in putting me on the defensive and as he told me his engineer friend had really asked him to call me, about the sump pump, a bell again went off, and I just let the dude ramble on, filing in lots of blanks for me, some of which I have already shared with you in this article above.

I still did not understand why this home inspector had been shoved out front to talk to me about home drainage, at 9 pm by my prospective home drainage customer, the engineer, who by the way, should not have needed the opinion of the home inspector, or to have him call me about a job that he was not going to hire me for anyway. Nothing made sense from what they said their motivation were. Strange but true, at 9 pm no less.

The call to me, unsolicited on my part, was almost at bedtime, and consisted of over an hour of questions, on the part of this condescending, pumped up home inspector, who touted his experience with home drainage, trying to invalidate my proposal and get me to justify, or explain to him, something that was none of his business in the first place.

I finally tired of being the nice guy and told him that when he had a world wide page rank on google, yahoo, and bing, on the subject of home drainage with hand excavated french drains, then he could talk home drainage, and I was done with him.

Why this dude thought he would be able to intellectually bully me is beyond me. They guys are punks.

I think some home inspectors, like some of the ones I know, are guys that are getting money for driving business to the sump pump installers, and are part of a long standing public home drainage and groundwater mis-information campaign about home drainage, designed and practiced to get sump pump referrals to their buddies installing them, and money back in the hands of the home inspectors.

Now I understood exactly what was motivating the home inspector to work a little harder at 9pm on a friday night.

The homeowner engineer really had not made up his mind yet, and was on the fence, still asking questions about both proposals, when the sump pump guy recognized this from his call back to the homeowners, and thought a referral back to the home inspector would inject validity into his claims, and stature back into his postulations.

Things were starting to make sense.

The home inspector wanted me to attempt to get me to re-sell my proposal to him, as made to the engineer.

He was sleep walking I guess. This guy is not playing with a full deck. Why was he calling me? Did he think everyone just was hatched out yesterday, and had not even fluffy out their feathers yet?

After seeing the effort this particular, self professed, former president of the Oregon home inspectors association home put in, late night, trying to get the deal away from my drainage company, and land it with the sump pump guy, his buddy no doubt, which he eventually accomplished, I am now quite convinced that these guys are in financial bed together. Game, set, match. I’m done with there bullshit.

And they may have bitten off more than they can chew, in the end, messing with Oregon homeowners like they do.

I suspect that much of the home inspection industry is run that way, from the regularity with which I am confronted by this subject, and how often I watch home inspectors attempt to influence the opinions of both home buyers and sellers during a real estate transaction, when most sump pumps are installed.

If this is not true, why don’t home inspectors do the professional thing, like they are paid to do, and shut up about what they know little to nothing about. Simple.

Another very interesting aspect that perked not only my ire, but my desire, to express my opinion to the public on this subject, was the fact that the home inspector that I have used in this example, also was referred to me 12 months previously, by a top realtor friend in the area.

I had been introduced to this inspector by the realtor professional, and the home inspector complimented on my hand excavated french drain work.

Same Oregon home inspector, who at the time of the late night call to me, we are discussing, did not remember who I even was.

Funny stuff, these inspector types. More like the “Pink Panther” than anything else.

The home inspector had indicated, when I met him, that he was interested in sharing referrals, and asked me for cards, but since I did not offer a payment of any sort, I never do, or bring it up at all, the discussion soon turned off, and he could not find his cards at that time.

When the same home inspector called me late night, less than a year later, he had already forgotten who I was, or where he had previously met me, when reminded, since I had told him that he had previously met me.

He said, at the time, he was out of cards, while he was actually mowing the lawn at the home where I was installing hand excavated french drain groundwater removal systems for his realtor friend, in order for all of them to get paid and close the transaction, after my groundwater solution was completely installed and inspected.

Question everything that a home inspector or sump pump installer says about home drainage, and watch as every home inspection report that indicates a problem with drainage at the home in escrow will also contain an un-solicited recommendation from the home inspector, attempting to influence public understanding.

Home inspectors spout junk about grading the crawl space, adjusting the low point drain, or installing an interior or exterior sump pump system, or french drain system, with a sump pump in the crawl space, or one installed against the exterior foundation wall, even prior to any home drainage professional looking at the problem.

Home inspectors invite further investigation of their businesses and their practices.

Hand excavated french drains predate sump pumps, or the idiots that install them almost exclusively, and constantly, in lieu of collecting the groundwater prior to it saturating the outside of the foundation, by thousands of years that we know of.

The reason home inspectors act like they know diddley about home drainage is because they are trying to set the bar and posture themselves as the expert.

This is done naturally so the sump pump installer can attempt to make everyone else the new concept when they come along.

After all, both the home inspector and the sump pump installer have said the same thing needs to be done. Not some old dumb expensive, nasty, not in the budget, french drain.

Especially not one installed by one of the best contractors at it, as they perceive this would be much more expensive for them. Often not the case at all.

Home sellers know professional groundwater removal is not cheap. They think sump pumps are cheaper, which often they are not.

Home sellers think a sump pump installation will not solve the drainage problem, but it will get the home sold and closed anyway, if the buyers accept the terms.

Those of you with no experience reading home inspection reports will not see this as a problem, and perhaps already question my intentions.

Many home inspectors writing in their two cents on something that they could easily keep there mouths shut about, all indicates to me that there is an ongoing fiduciary problem here, and potentially a legal problem for them as well, if they are ever caught.

Question every thing home inspectors and sump pump contractors say about home drainage. They know little to nothing about professional home drainage installations.

These guys are in bed with the sump pump guys, who out number real professional home drainage contractors specializing in hand excavated french drains by 10 to 1.

The professional home drainage contractor who wants to solve the groundwater problem, by installing hand excavated french drains, is not the new suggestion, even if the home inspector got to the homeowners first, and opened his mouth first, when he wrote the home inspection report, about how a sump pump should be installed, or how some other unsolicited non professional recommendation should be recognized as needed.

Just because he got in the first word does not make him even remotely correct. He is part of the scam too, in many, many, cases.

A professional home drainage contractor that is licensed, bonded and insured is the first and only professional recommendation anyone should pay any attention to.

Avoid companies that specialize in sump pump installation. Call them and ask the question. If yes, say thanks, and be the wiser and richer for it.

Everything that a home inspector says about drainage is subject to inspection of a home drainage professional anyway. Don’t pay any attention to their postulations on home drainage.

The whole trick about the home inspector being able to talk first, attempting and succeeding at driving home drainage business to the sump pump installer, shakes out like a premise has been established as a result of this first opinion.

This is the opening shot of the home inspector-sump pumper game in many cases, and where it all starts.

It can mean game, set, match, in favor of the sump pump installer very often, if every other contractor has to come behind him, answering questions about underground rivers and springs under the homeowners home. Everyone already on the defensive, and thinking all they need is a sump pump, because somebody put that idea into every ones head before the starting bell.

It happens about every time just like that. Would that make you wonder? When the obvious professional decision on the home inspectors part should simply be to shut his mouth, after saying contact a home drainage professional, and explaining the physics of where the groundwater is located in the crawl space, and how much groundwater is in the crawl space.

That’s it. Not..blah blah..a sump pump may be required. Or something like that. Just shut up.

They would shut their mouths if there wasn’t a benefit to it for them for always opening that flapper, unsolicited. Human nature.

I know human nature too well to let that one blow over my head. Don’t let it cloud your judgement either.

I think we need to call it for what it really is. Homeowner manipulation at the very best. And perhaps, unethical and even fraudulent, as it comes during federal lending and constitutes a conflict of interests between the home inspectors, lenders, sump pump installers, and and their hyped independent reviews.

It is just a way for sump pump installers to buy referrals from home inspectors, and visa versa. The mutual admiration society with income potential and lots of back slapping good times with the cash.

The obvious is their own smoking gun, and the legions of damaged homeowners that would be happy to bury them in a court of law.

I am telling you, I could stage a parade tomorrow with the numbers of damaged sump pump installation homeowners I know of in Portland, Oregon alone.

A mouth that remains quiet has already been satisfactorily paid.

So tell me. Why don’t home inspectors just shut up about drainage? Or do you think I might have a point here?

]]> http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/400/feed 0 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/154 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/154#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 03:27:27 +0000 DL http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/154 French drains and dry wells are the oldest “green” groundwater removal systems known to man.

French drains are all about the speed and degree to which the groundwater, just minutes before rain water, is vented.

French drains existed long before the term “green” was ever created.

Putting the groundwater back into the ground, rather than sending it down the storm sewer line, is environmentally sound.

Perking groundwater with dry wells restores the groundwater table below us, and keeps our wells pumping clean water.

It also does not overflow the sanitary sewer system, flushing human waste into the Willamette River.

The city of Portland has been disconnecting downspouts on southeast and northeast Portland homes, to name a few areas, in the past few years, to stop the amount of roof water from rain drain discharges on homes in those and other areas from overflowing the sanitary sewer system, flushing contaminants to the Willamette river.

The city of Portland presently has a multi-million dollar project under construction that will some day stop the storm sewers from overflowing the sanitary sewers.

Until then, and probably after as well, it is up to us to dispose of the roof water with dry wells, or daylight the groundwater, in areas where that is appropriate, allowing it to saturate, and perk back into the ground, where it would have gone had it not been collected on the roof of the home instead of falling to the ground.

Do your part. Homeowners should hand excavated french drains and dry wells for the venting of roof water.

Green science protects our environment.

Perking rainwater into the ground with dry wells replaces groundwater below grade with water that would have normally been flushed into storm sewers.

Too many paved and permanent surfaces, as well as roofs, steal rain water from our soils, and flush it out to sea through storm sewers that vent to rivers, that flow to the ocean.

Do your part to create green groundwater removal knowledge among your neighbors.

Think “Green” groundwater removal, and french drains. Restore the groundwater to our planets’ normal water storage areas below grade, where we pump our water. The water table.

]]> http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/154/feed 0 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/421 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/421#comments Sun, 21 Feb 2010 03:38:55 +0000 DL http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/421

Professional french drain installation is always done by hand.

Never with machines.

Safety comes first. Accuracy and engineering of grade counts big. Home drainage groundwater results follow.

Specify french drain groundwater removal systems. They are just old time “french drains”.

Make certain you understand the difference between a machine dug sloppy flat ditch and an engineered french drain, that was hand excavated for accuracy, if you want home drainage groundwater removal results. Get the real deal.

Call us today for a free home drainage prevention, or groundwater problem, property evaluation. AAA Home Drainage 503-421-3375