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.

Darrel Lundeen of AAA Home Drainage was recently the featured guest on Radio KPAM- AM860’s Handy Randy Home Improvement Show hosted by Randy Querin.

Darrel Lundeen has been referred to as “the #1 Expert on the Internet in the area of Home Drainage”.

Listen now – Darrel Lundeen on the Handy Randy Home Improvement Show…

The stories about underground rivers and springs under your home are always started and promoted by home inspectors and sump pump installers, singing an off key minor sounding song about home drainage ignorance, and how to make money off the millions of “sump chumps” out there everywhere in the world.

Seems like these guys think like old W.C. Fields. “There is a sucker born every minute.”

Don’t be the next “sump chump” without willfully doing so. It is your choice. You are a victim only if you choose to be.

The status quo message you are supposed to be getting from home inspectors, sump pump installers, banks, and others is that you or the sellers of the home you wish to buy, are living on an underground river or spring, and that the water table where you pump your well water from is actually high in your area, and right under your feet, only a few feet down, and this is the source of your crawl space or basement groundwater that they say requires pumping.

The average sump pump group will propose to bore your foundation, dig up your crawl space floor making it absorb more groundwater than it did before this treatment, while pumping a little groundwater out.

The sump pump group will want you to dig umpteen feet deep and wide against the foundation on the outside, or install inside trenches, flat with little grade. These characters will not install hand excavated french drains ever. They often just tar the foundation and never stop any groundwater from entering your home, as they damage the home over time badly enough for you to want to sell it.

This group wants to charge you to pump out groundwater that is in the crawl space based soundly on the lie that you cannot collect the groundwater during the days of heavy rains, and within the top 18″ of the soil, on the outside of the homes foundation walls, preventing the saturation and hydrostatic pressure that causes the leaking.

Simple as that. Game, set, match. Get it, and never buy a home drainage pig again.

Feel like you are lost in the home drainage fog, ladden heavy with misunderstandings, drainage terms unfamiliar, unsavory people who call themselves contractors, and some that actually are contractors?

You have no doubt asked yourself some or all of these questions below.

“Why didn’t I hear about this home drainage problem before now?”

“Why did I heard about this problem only less that a week before closing of escrow, and whose plan was this?”

“Why isn’t drainage stuff treated by the lenders like dry rot repairs, which results from bad drainage, and is required to be repaired before closing of escrow?”

“Why is this drainage problem preventing me from closing escrow, but not so important as to be included or enforced as part of the home inspection damage repairs clause in my earnest money agreement, that would obligate the sellers to pay for the right work to stop the groundwater, which was their contractual obligation?”

This laundry list of questions, impacted by the fact that insurance companies won’t pay for fixing groundwater problems if you are stuck with them, makes this a veritable Catch 22 for home buyers.

“Why don’t the new home buyers get to choose the drainage contractor to do the drainage work with the best method and experience, while the seller still pays for it?”

“Why wasn’t my earnest money agreement clause written that way to protect me?” If my agent says it is a deal killer, so be it. I’ll find a home with better sellers as well as boards, bricks, and foundations. Right?

“Why are these home sellers allowed to get away, while they lie their butts off about never having had a drainage problem in the home?”

Then the prospective home buyers find, by professional inspection through a home drainage contractor, that the drainage problems have existed for decades, as evidenced by the damage that exists?

“How can home sellers, time after time, get away clean after violating the home condition disclosure statement of the earnest money agreement?”

If people started sharing their home drainage failures with each other honestly, in 5 minutes the whole auditorium sharing information would be off their chairs and on their feet with a consensus, wanting to know why.

This quagmire of lies and institutional home escrow close planning has its roots firmly planted in lender power, greed, familiarity of lies, and more familiarity of lies, sprinkled with new lies, spouted confidently without defense from anyone to worry about at all.

No one is talking about this subject apparently but me. If they are talking about it, their voice is not getting heard by me, a professional in the business of stopping groundwater entry below grade into crawl spaces and basements, while publishing on the internet on the subject at a world wide accepted level of competency.

This is not necessary. You don’t need to get ripped off time after time, or ever again for that matter.

The origin of this plot comes from the invention of electricity really.

The cast of characters include, but is not limited to, home inspectors, lenders and sump pump installers.

The large definable circle of participation in this charade makes it even more difficult to understand, and even harder to circumvent, especially if you get stuck on “why would they do this to me”, without the answer. Indeed. Why would they do this to you?

Sounds like this would be the last thing they would want to do actually.

Apparently however, the gain in home sales finished with this system store method, far dwarfs the amount of homes banks get back as REO’s from deals gone bad. That is one of the answers to why. They make more money, period.

This game is the lenders game, or it would not exist at all, as it is totally controled by the lenders during closing of escrow, as to when they actually hand over the home inspection report to the buyers, which depends on factors they determine to control if possible.

It dawned on me one day what was happening over and over, and that I could prevent it from happening to me and others easily.

This manufactured and conspired confusion is actually quite simple to track and understand once you know it exists and how the system works. The patterns are consistent and the eventual downside to the home buyers is always the same. Short notice. A proposal for a sump pump install to get the transaction closed without the sellers ever having to solve their deferred maintenance. Many of these home buyers would walk away in the first few days of the transaction, perhaps even before redeeming their earnest money note in escrow. But these home buyers will not be given much choice when they learn of the drainage problems 5 days before closing, with no time left to fix the problems before closing of escrow.

We can easily understand how this misinformation and lies campaign got started, the big lesson is to learn how it continues everywhere around the industrialized world today, running like a silent computer virus in your home drainage operating system of logic and decision making.

This home drainage quagmire is actually planned, engineered and manufactured chaos as a diversion.

It facilitates the lenders, home sellers, home inspectors, and sump pump installers, and their bottom line; as it also extinguishes the stated earnest money agreement rights of the home buyers around the world so unfortunate as to be found out matched by this game.

They find themselves sailing these lender pirate infested waters bearing home drainage problems, and at the worst of times, during escrow closing. And all this is always happening so fast, and without any previous knowledge that this could even possibly happen.

Most homeowners owning sump pumps start telling their stories of underground rivers and springs to anyone that will listen, as they apparently are much more comfortable living with groundwater and health problems than as a dogmatic victim of foolishness at their own expense.

This scenario plays out just before escrow closing on the home almost every time, unless planned differently by the buyers and their buyers agent.

Once people understand they can stop this torture themselves, at least for themselves, they will stop it, as all my customers do.

This closing of escrow groundwater trap is so stereotype common that I can talk to a person via e-mail from Slovenia or Korea for that matter, and speak the same frustrated drainage language of misunderstanding and confusion, lack of alternative methods available to them with respect to available methods of groundwater removal in their area, and stories of underground rivers and springs under their homes as justification for the installation of a sump pump.

The frustration level is about the same too it seems.

You should never ever again buy a home drainage pig if you read AAA Home Drainage web site.

This information is free, but not a quick fix until learned. You must get it to have a chance at not being its next victim.

You must form your own opinions after you learn what to look for around and under that home you wish to buy or sell.

You must learn who and what to watch out for first before just jumping into the mess.

If you learn the stereo type common home drainage problems, as well as the stereotype characters that prey upon those poor souls afflicted by groundwater caused home drainage problems while buying or selling a property or home, you will be light years ahead of the public in general right now, which is so massively misinformed and brain washed with respect to home drainage solutions that they cannot see the forest for the trees in front of them.

Many of these homeowners want to believe in the populalr desperation that is set up and handed over to them by the sump pump installation machine everywhere, because they have spent big bucks on sump pumps being installed under their home, while contently living with groundwater under their home year after year, winter after winter.

Many of these homeowners are apparently comforted by the fact that it was the best they could have done, installing a sump pump.

Wrong. Not even close to good.

This dogma concerning home drainage is true almost everywhere there is electricity in the larger industrialized world. While many of the so called non-industrialized nations are still doing what they have always done to prevent groundwater from flooding their compounds, homes and stables.

It would be so easy to teach this to Africans for example, as compared to Americans.

The third world countries, as they are defined in media, are still hand excavating french drains and stopping hydrostatic pressure that results from groundwater saturation, just like they were taught by generations before them. Just like their grandfathers always did.

Read further in this site if you need this information, as many unfortunate people I will never meet wlll need every shred of this information. I do not see this turning around anytime soon without knowledge getting out and being applied in real life to prevent it. Knowledge is power.

I have the toughest and most educated drainage market in the world right here in Oregon.

As they say in New York; “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere”. Take that to the bank. If you are looking for quality home drainage help on many levels, you have found it at AAA Home Drainage.

More expensive homes, as well as homeowners, usually also have more to lose. Therefore in general, the owners of these more expensive homes are my most frequent customers as the combination of knowledge and urgency colides.

This is true because of many factors in my opinion, not the least of which is their desire to learn, which is why they are where they are to begin with on the wheel of life, their knowledge level perhaps only given away by the stature of their homes and toys.

My home drainage market is a “niche market”, as a former Oregon governor homeowner I had the pleasure of working with said to me one day.

And it is a quickly expanding world wide “niche market”.

Only those who read about home drainage, as well as understand and apply what they have learned about french drains, can claim real groundwater prevention and removal success.

When a former governor gets referred to you, it is pretty much a sign that you have been recognized as an expert on the subject.

The nature of thinking “green” has been much worked, dissed, and spun in all forms, in media and press, both pro and con.

Todays expanding internet intelligence, in this case, as it pertains to the fragile world we live upon, which has drainage problems, being a water planet and all, has focused and mandated as a priority essential for the protection of our world.

Consequently, we must focus on what is best for our children. Not listen to stories of underground rivers and springs, set to scary music by sump pump installers, and their agents. Home inspectors are double agents. Fear them and listen to little they say about home drainage.

We can stop the drainage problems without their logic, trust me on that one folks.

Many home inspectors around the world, comprising varying intelligence levels on the subject of home drainage, as well as other aspects of what they postulate upon, get fat referral fees year after year, career after career, for funneling sump pump suggestions to their buddies, sump pump installers. This has been going on for as long as electricity has been around.

Sump pump installers get first chance to spin their stories almost every time.

Home inspectors should not postulate on home drainage requirements, as in the same breathe they tell the homeowners or prospective home buyers what they think is needed.

Home inspectors are not licensed, bonded and insured drainage contractors.

The stories of underground rivers and springs under your home being the cause of your groundwater collection in your crawl space of basement came from this fabled and storied river, spring, thing. Everyone has heard of it. It is infamous.

These stories of underground rivers and springs being the source of your groundwater are always told to homeowners and home buyers when the inspector is giving a home inspection report that he is getting paid to accomplish in a fair manner.

Home buyers most often are told a sump pump installation is a solution that stops groundwater entry, which is not the case.

This can amount to thousands of dollars in jobs per year, per inspector, times perhaps hundreds of bucks per referral. Work all funneled to their buddies the sump pump installers.

Many times too often around the world, home lenders play into this game as well, to facilitate control and to maximize their chance of closing that real estate escrow as fast as possible, while insuring that the buyers can no longer back out of the transaction due to undisclosed drainage problems, that were supposidly disclosed by the inspection report only days before the projected date for closing of escrow in the earnest money agreement, every time.

Lenders act as ignorant agents; silently facilitating their own priorities and ignoring the buyers earnest money rights totally in many cases, if not the majority of them, in my opinion.

This happens very, very often, to almost always. It is a given, if your are in the business of buying homes.

This happens when a home is in escrow so often it should shock you. Home inspectors act as instigators too in many cases, and through their unsolicited comments and non-professional recommendations, with respect to home drainage issues.

See further articles on this website about this subject, and others.

What I make a living installing is “old school home drainage, enhanced”. Drainage for the 21st century with old world methods still used.<

p> How bad do you want groundwater success? Quit resisting success then, while still expecting it to come by mixing varies things that sound good to you, that are actually details derived from many illogical contractor sources on the subject of drainage.

This method of study is usually not the most effective method for the serious reader with a problem to solve, and is from a drainage solution stand point, illogical to support.

Don’t be a “sump chump.” Read this web site.

Have a professional home drainage contractor install 12″ wide, 8″-18″ deep, exposed river rock hand excavated french drains, located 18″ off the homes foundation wall, at the base of your previously installed and compacted/graded splash block also installed along your foundation wall at the time of your french drain installation, and in the area that corresponds to the leaking on the inside of the structure.

Or call AAA Home Drainage for help.

Cover the splash block area with a thin layer of river rock to match the french drain. This prevents erosion for decades.

Over the last 25-30 years in America, city and county planning departments have been slowly moving to mandate, or at least suggest, french drains, usually not making a distinction between a ditch done with a machine and a hand excavated and engineered french drain installed by AAA Home Drainage in Portland, Oregon.

Cities and counties around the world have for years now been moving fast towards mandating and suggesting to developers, storm and groundwater water retention ponds and lakes to vent all groundwater and rain water run off from the proposed subdivision homes, yards, roofs and streets from hitting the storm sewer systems and often flushing the sanitary systems of older design and ability.

The level of the storm water retention pond, which is often sold as “the lake” to the lot buyers, goes up and down with each rain event. Perhaps even dry in the summer, full of tree sprouts.

Sometimes a storm retention pond can be located with a fine looking park and walking trails installed around it as well.

The groundwater perks into the earth in exactly the same manner that it does in your dry well, excavated in your yard.

Dry wells perk just like those storm water retention ponds.

So don’t let a sump pump installer, or anyone else for that matter, talk trash to you about how dry wells don’t perk, because there are literally thousands of these storm water retention ponds permitted and installed in the tri-county area alone, as well as hundreds of dry wells, all perking, installed by me alone in the same areas.

And every one perks or in rare cases, has been plumbed to collect and pump the groundwater away from the homes foundation with french drains, and then be pumped.

The groundwater is perked back into the soil by the use of a french drain, dry creek bed, or storm water retention pond or lake.

It doesn’t get “greener” than that folks.

The storm water retention pond is excavated with heavy duty land moving equipment on a commercial level, and sized to the estimated quantity of groundwater that the subdivision will be putting out from streets, storm sewers, and topography rain run off, as well as other sources of groundwater.

French drains in a subdivision like this will vent into a pipe provided at the curb sometimes, which can be accessed as storm sewer discharge, and vented to the storm water retention pond.

Hand excavated french drains, while ancient in basic design as aqua ducts with hard bottoms and straight sides that can not cave in, are also the preferred 21st century home drainage method for high dollar homes around the world everywhere from desert to mountains.

Hand excavated french drains last longer, and work where nothing else will. And they will do it over and over again, without electricity being restored in the middle of your night to stop the flooding of your basement or crawl space.

Homeowners cannot afford to lose any percentages of their home value, and especially not huge percentages of home value, due to groundwater problems, often created from fouled up home drainage work attempted by contractors, who on a world wide level profess groundwater or water proofing services, as judged by myself and peers, are well known to be notoriously poor to not successful at delivering groundwater removal results.

Most sump pump companies are about one thing, selling sump pump installations that do not stop the groundwater entry into the crawl space or basement.

Storm water retention ponds and dry wells are value added green nature areas, that bring in birds and critters, while enhancing the cosmetic home environment, as well as the street appeal of the home as well.

Green storm water removal saves ourselves, as well as our rivers and oceans.

The city of Portland, Oregon is presently installing a whole new huge underground storm water discharge system in many areas of the southeast, to prevent the storm sewers in that area, from overflowing the sanitary sewers during hard rains.

Homeowners in target areas of Portland that have rain drain discharges that are connected to the storm sewer at this time may be involuntarily disconnected from the storm sewer in SE Portland by the city.

The storm sewer system in certain areas floods the sanitary sewer systems, pushing human waste from homes into river and delta areas where pollution and damage occurs structurally and environmentally.

Contact Portland Oregon clean river rewards programs for details on reductions to your water bill as a result of using green groundwater disposal methods. Information on the Portland Clean river rewards program is available on this web site.

]]> http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/371/feed 0 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/148 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/148#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 05:56:05 +0000 DL http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/148 Hot questions that home buyers and sellers should ask themselves, before buying or selling a home.

You must suspect drainage problems to discover them. And this study will teach you how to stay in control of the information stream, through asking yourself and others questions about the condition of the home from a drainage perspective.

Perhaps french drains would be a healthy capital improvement to the most expensive thing you own, your home. They have worked for thousands of years we know of, and are still the very best bang for your buck.

Install groundwater prevention systems. French drains are the first line of defense, and usually the only one ever needed. Ever.

If you are a home buyer, I will teach you how to continue asking the right questions, until the truth comes out of non-disclosing home sellers concerning past or present home drainage problems, solved or not, whether in their eyes or crafted delusion.

Home buyers will ask home sellers a list of questions from each topic. Questions, outlined and explained below, to determine the likely source of your home drainage groundwater problem, or if you have one at all, subject to the home buyers own investigation into the basement or crawlspace to verify conditions prior to writing any earnest money agreement.

This is what a hand excavated french drain is. An aqua duct with a hard bottom, that flows groundwater away on a slope, faster than it can soak in next to your homes foundation.

Don’t cry about all that burnt cash spent on pumping groundwater already in your basement or crawl space. It is gone.

Do your homework if you are a home seller or home buyer. Don’t be a victim of the sump pump, home inspector game. As explained in other articles on this web site. This is important information that can save you thousands of dollars in many cases, and prevent you from buying a home that is more like a sellers non-disclosure home drainage pig.

Use this 10 question guide to help you track what is happening to your home, and solve it yourself.

This information, as well as a whole lot more, is available to you in this website, for free, to make your home drainage fact finding a no sweat breeze. Your family deserves to live in an environment free of mold, bad air and mildew.

Make it all work great for you under pressure. You can do it.

Everyone will just stand there and be impressed, with their mouths open, blurting out the information you are looking for, as you continue asking questions, staying in control of the truthful information stream.

This gleaned home drainage information will make it possible for you to ascertain the most likely problem areas of your own home, or the one you wish to buy.

The information you find when buying a home will give you a beginning conversation point, with which to negotiate price with the sellers, and interview home drainage contractors, if drainage problems are found or suspected.

So here we go. First off, determine the place on the inside of your homes basement or crawl space where the groundwater appears to be entering most. This will require a flash light visit to the crawspace.

Mud stains on the plastic moisture barrier will most often also be present in this example.

Groundwater will often be noticed in a basement where the floor meets the base of basement wall. This is called the “cold joint”, and is where most groundwater problems first become apparent in the basement.

When you have located a groundwater pocket, mud stained area, groundwater mud and lime deposit on the moisture barrier or foundation wall, inside the crawl space or basement, go to the place on the outside of the foundation that corresponds to the inside groundwater trouble location. Just for starters.

Look to see what is evident to you at that location on the outside of the foundation wall first.

You might just find the gutter hanging loose above the water puddle below it, or find the gutter or downspout completely pulled down or off.

You might find a rain drain that no longer runs, and causes a downspout to overflow next to the foundation. That is all it takes some times to constantly fill your crawl space. Not some story about an underground river or spring, and how you need to pay some dude thousands for crawl space work and sump pumps.

Garbage. Idiots.

Ask yourself a few questions and log your answers.

You will be surprised at how easy all this really is, and the way home drainage problems have a way of leaving tracks and clues, and are more consistent than you would think in creation, with respect to the groundwater source.

You can do all of this, with help, and a good flashlight, and perhaps a partner too, and a pair of coveralls or rain pants.

1. Is the topography on the outside of the homes foundation wall sloping to the wall? Is the soil topography flat around your foundation? Are the foundation vents poured too low on the foundation wall, and are actually below or at soil grade level, where groundwater can simply run into them, and as a result, fill your crawl space up with water when it rains?

2. Can you see if there is a downspout on the outside of the foundation wall, corresponding to the inside the basement or crawl space area that is leaking? This could be the source of the groundwater problem.

Is there an area around the downspout where groundwater, that was actually first roof water, and then down spout water, has washed out a depression in the soil against the foundation? This is usually evidence of a clogged rain drain system, and the fact that your gutter is no longer venting, or running out.

It may affect more than one downspout location, if they were all hooked up to vent in series. Each area of the home may have a different vintage drainage attempt installed too. There could be many generations of home drainage attempts, all sold to homeowners as a solution to the problems at that time, whether they could ever have worked or not.

Almost always, this overflowing downspout location will signal the necessity to install a new rain drain discharge system and vent. Which means a dry well and french drain system. Probably 3″ abs pipe, used in conjunction with flex solid corex or ads pipe, vented to the dry well.

Money spent on cameras, scopes, water rams, roto-guys and on and on, is all wasted money. Worse than chasing a squirrel around a tree. You will never catch up with it. And go drainage blind, while spending big money too.

3. Is there a drip line on the dirt under the gutter edge, on the soil below it, which is evidence of an overflowing gutter system that is likely damaging your foundation with groundwater saturation and hydrostatic pressure, that eventually produces groundwater into the basement or crawlspace?

Look at the age, shape, condition, and general health of the gutter system and the angle it takes on the horizon, not on the roof line. It should be paralell to the horizon, not sloping down, away from level. Some builders just don’t get it folks.

A roof collects a great deal of rain, in record time, and is a major smoking gun for a serious high volume groundwater problem when the gutters are not venting properly. This problem shows up quickly during hard rains usually.

Groundwater welling up into the crawl space or through a basement floor, and appearing as a stream of water through basement floor edges or cracks, is almost always connected to the failed rain drain discharge system primarily, and not just to the lack of french drains and groundwater removal, due to the topography. Unless the topography of the site is really bad.

In time, heavy rain saturation, usually for a few days to start it off, alone will produce the same flow into the basement or crawl space. But with a failed rain drain system involved as part of, or the entire problem, the basement water shows up very quickly when it starts raining usually.

Hydrostatic pressure causes this upwelling of groundwater due to the lack of groundwater removal on the outside of the building, and the constant addition of groundwater weight at the foundation wall.

The very day you stop adding groundwater to the surface around your homes foundation, with hand excavated french drains installed by a pro, you will notice a reduction or complete stop in the groundwater entry, as you have discontinued adding more groundwater weight to your exterior foundation wall.

Are the gutter spikes protruding away from the facia board, and as a result, the gutter system is sagging and overflowing? Check it out. I see it every day.

Look slowly at stuff no one knows about, or what you could be possibly looking at, for that matter.

4. Are the gutters on the home you wish to buy or own hung wrong, week, full of debris, or bent over with age; likely overflowing when it rains hard?

Are the gutters or downspouts cracked, rusted or separated from the facia board nailed to the ends of the rafter tails, on which your gutter hangs, or do they have rusted areas with small holes that leak?

5. Does the ground against the foundation have layers of soggy barkdust covering it? More than a few inches is really not good for the area. This condition is one that gets overlooked often.

Most often it is necessary to remove all that wet fluff and sponge bark dust, and replace the depression that probably exists under it with a sufficient compacted grade of compacted clay and soil against the foundation, to create a splash block for better rain run off to the french drain located around 18″ off the foundation wall.

The splash block area should be covered with a thin layer of river rock to match the exposed rock french drain that you installed, as well as to prevent erosion, and add to the life of your french drain, which if properly installed, should be decades in constant use. Unless you dig it up, or invalidate it in some way by covering it up and preventing the collection of groundwater into it.

The total river rocked area, including the french drain, equals 30″ from your foundation wall approximately, in the average installation, with the splash block compacted slope being 18 inches wide and the french drain 12 inches wide.

6. Are there berms of dirt next to the foundation that can trap rain water in between the berm and the foundation wall, especially when the gutters overflow?

They look great. Everyone loves the curb appeal, as realtors say, but they are groundwater traps.

These types of foundation areas are better off, from a home drainage perspective, if graded and compacted with clay and dirt, at a minumum 6″ per 10 lineal feet away from the foundation. That is code in Portland for example for new construction.

Set out large numbers of huge planters and containers for planting shrubs and perennials next to your foundation rather than dig up the bearing soil around your foundation wall. A much more drainage friendly approach. Set them on top of your french drains and water with a hose.

The french drain will carry the groundwater away nicely when watering planter gardens set directly on top of the french drains or exposed river rock dry wells, usually installed, in the case of french drains, about 2′ from the home. Dry wells 4 foot by 4 foot should be installed no closer than 10 feet from the foundation. This includes big cylinder filled holes with sump pumps located right on the foundation walls on the exterior. These systems are usually installed by people who mean to take your money and leave the problem behind, with the promise of a guarantee. Watch out, is all I can say.

p> Water with a hose if possible, and don’t leave that massive sprinkling system on all night, like a golf course superintendent. All night sometimes, saturating the ground next to the foundation, over and over, all summer.

These areas, perhaps not even planted with species that need daily watering, and also planted right next to the foundation, may be quietly filling your crawl space or basement with water. In this condition, winter rains create saturation and hydrostatic pressure on your foundation quickly, instead of a few hard rains.

Creating berms next to a foundation can be as detrimental to the health of the homes foundation as any slope that runs towards the foundation can be.

There is a time to use the berm for making groundwater that is coming from the neighbors property for instance, run around your property, just by creating a bio-swale or berm along your lot line, that makes the groundwater run along the edge of it, instead of towards the foundation, or onto your property. A french drain behind a bio-swale or berm will often cut that groundwater off entirely.

Careful with the trees and shrubs near the foundation. Don’t garden and dig up the foundation area and expect good drainage, or any substantive heavy rain run off at all. Don’t plant bamboo or trees on your foundation splash block area.

Roots will provide ways for groundwater to follow them to the nice cool foundation wall. In the case of bamboo, it will total your foundation in 20 years.

7. Does the foundation have mature trees or shrubs on the foundation? Roots often make pathways along the foundation wall, which speed groundwater perking, ie. soaking below grade.

The process of groundwater saturation and hydrostatic pressure against the exterior foundation wall, speeded up by channels that groundwater can follow, along the roots of trees and shrubs, right near the foundation wall, is often the source of major drainage problems.

Even if you cut the tree down the roots remain, to rot out and create a larger air space in the future than which exists in the present.

Foundation areas where trees were cut down years ago, could still be a groundwater source,due to the fact that when the roots rot away, air and sawdust is left to invite groundwater below grade at that location, soak it up, hold it, and continue leaking it during hard rains, every time more water weight is added to the foundation.

Never plant bamboo anywhere near the foundation of your home, unless contained in a planter that will not allow the roots to run.

Clumping bamboo does not spread as badly I am told.

Bamboo will spread from the roots, easily over 30 feet or more from where it was originally planted, lifting sidewalks, driveways made of asphalt and concrete alike.

Drainage problems many times follow as a result of these conditions.

Spraying repeatedly for years against the foundation will finally dispose of all of the roots, with a continued diligent effort on the homeowners part.

If the home you own or the one you wish to buy has bamboo planted in the ground near the foundation especially, and not contained in heavy plastic or concrete, I would go to the crawl space right away.

Some drainage problems already would require such great expense to solve, that the home drainage problems get passed on, from one homeowner to the next. Intentionally. And in violation of the Oregon home condition disclosure laws.

And this continues home sale after home sale in Oregon, sometimes to span decades.

Until one day, the home is sitting side ways, and the contractor is telling the saddened homeowners that the home now requires all new posts, beams, pads, excavation below grade, and an entirely new foundation pour, with the home suspended over it, and then lowered into place. This is not what you want to pay for ladies and gentlemen.

Without this groundwater removal and prevention work the home cannot be sold subject to financing, without solving the problems first.

Cash buyers with no drainage experience are the top folks who get stuck, time after time, because they just pay cash, and do not even get a structural and pest inspection, or they treat the report as not accurate by their expertise with respect to home drainage.

Checkmate. The equity you formerly thought was this amount, is now that amount. And that is, even if you can raise the money to solve the groundwater problems that have caused the structural damage and dry rot, preventing you from selling it. Does no good to fix the dry rot if the groundwater problem still exists. Duh.

8. Does the base of the foundation wall in the crawl space or on the outside of the foundation show any holes where the groundwater has been flowing under the foundation footing, if the home has a crawl space.

Often holes are roto-hammered in the concrete foundations to install water service lines, gas lines, or low point drains, within the crawl space. These holes are often not filled with concrete. Groundwater runs into the crawl space thru low foundation vents and holes, especially on entry level 1 level ranch homes. Costs are cut, and so it the expertise to follow, at bit less in quality.

Contact your local professional home drainage contractor/mason to repair this type of cracking or hole foundation damage, or to install new posts, beams, footings.

9. Are there any cracks in the foundation, at or below the soil grade level?

I’m not so worried about the vertical foundation cracks not more than a few inches long, above or below foundation vents especially, as I am about the horizontal cracks in the basement walls that travel many feet.

Earthquakes can cause horizontal cracks as well as verticle ones in foundations. Most cracks can be chiseled out, by a home drainage contractor who is a mason, to the point where the cracks stop, and repaired and sealed with a masonry fast drying cement for this purpose, sold by many names in different areas of the country.

Foundation walls with long horizontal cracks often in time pull away from each other, tilting the walls in opposite directions kind of. This is more serious.

Most inside and outside foundation cracks are filled with preco concrete, once chiseled out and repaired, which is sold under many manufacture names. Such as Thoro-patch 20 in my area of the U.S.

I recommend getting a trained mason to work with this substance however, as it is easy to get too wet, too dry, or in your eye.

10. Is there a white effloressence chalk lime line, and/ or moss on the outside, or inside, of the foundation wall, at the ground level base of the wall usually, or close above or below it? Is the effloressence seen on the water marks onto top of the crawl space moisture barrier plastic.? Where that funky plastic is may be the low spot in the crawl space, but it is not necessarily the area where the groundwater is coming from, just where it winds up pooling.

The white line on the foundation walls, or the white lime effloressence covering on the plastic moisture barrier, is the lime that has been forced out of the concrete foundation wall by standing groundwater against it, over and over for a long time.

This is certainly evidence of groundwater problems, and a potential long term deteriorating foundation as well. This condition of moisture barrier effloressence can be cause by a sustained plumbing leak in the crawl space too. I see that often too.

If the home is old at the time you are purchasing or selling it, you may be buying or selling the home drainage problems right along with the new features and carpet, and never know it, until it is too late.

A fresh look is the perfect non-disclosing home seller sucker punch too. Study up now home buyers.

This is especially true with basements where the walls have been framed over with wood and sheet rock over the concrete walls.

Sometimes the finished basement is just to hide that hideous looking concrete white flakey effloressence stained and damaged crumbling wall behind it. What does it smell like down there?

What is behind that pretty painted interior, or more factually, interior basement wall?

Better see a bear behind every tree to be safe on that one folks.

Sometimes a crumbled, white concrete wall, full of cracks exists behind that framed out and sheet rocked/painted wall. Who knows. You might find out though, just by looking at the outside of the home, corresponding to the area you question to see if it exhibits any of the standard features discussed above.

Look for reasons on the outside of the foundation wall that corresponds to the groundwater problem location on the inside of the crawl space or basement first, if it smells bad or gives you the tip off feel that you should look further.

The outside of the foundation wall will hold the answer very often, and it may be just a flat area next to the home, where groundwater just sits and does not flow away.

Prudent advice for homeowners planning a basement remodel is to proceed with new rain drain discharges and french drains first, if any evidence of groundwater during heavy rains exists.

French drains first. Basement wall repairs or inside renovation to follow. Not ever the other way around, unless you are the gambling sort of homeowner, and a very poor one at that, in my opinion, knowing you must lose given time and lack of home drainage common sense.

Look for information on this website to guide you, the prospective home buyers or sellers, through the home buying earnest money negotiations, as well as the home buying and selling due diligence processes, with respect to navigating the difficult times and misrepresentations that very often exist during the home selling or buying process. There are many pitfalls and traps in the home drainage game.

Use this web site to structure home drainage due diligence clauses for your earnest money agreement, ie. contractual offer to buy the home; that when done right, can position you as Oregon home buyers, or home buyers anywhere around the world for that matter, to not become a victim of a very common home buyers trap set by lenders, home inspectors and sump pump installers.

Use this information during offer and acceptance, as well as through closing of escrow, to figure out how to stay one jump ahead of their game.

Don’t be afraid of buying the home with a drainage problem, if your home drainage professional tells you that a substantive change, or a complete groundwater solution is possible right away, with the installation of hand excavated french drains.

Sometimes a sump pump system is the only answer, but very seldom, not business as usual; as the sump chumps would love you to believe.

Protect yourself with professional french drain expertise, and keep that smile and your precious cash intact, while solving your home drainage problems in a professional and timely manner without breaking a sweat.

If you chart this information, and your responses, and use it in your home drainage volatility fact finding, while looking at many homes, you will have lessened confusion, and you will very likely have pointed yourself to the source of the groundwater problem, or problems; whether you are a home buyer or home seller.

An inspection by a licensed, bonded, and insured home drainage contractor mason would be best, if excellence is your objective. Don’t expect the same results just because they call it a french drain, or sound like they speak the lingo.

“Cavet emptor.” Let the buyer beware. It is right on your money folks.

]]> http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/148/feed 0 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/69 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/69#comments Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:45:00 +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/391 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/391#comments Tue, 20 Jul 2010 04:10:27 +0000 DL http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/391 “Dry wells don’t perk.” “There is an underground river or spring under your home causing the groundwater in your crawl space or basement.”

These are the two most common stupid drainage remarks, usually sump pump installer remarks actually.

And there are others too. They are as old as the moon, and are still causing the same effect among homeowners that they always have.

The most common motivation for the installation of a sump pump is for a home seller to convince a prospective home buyer that a home drainage solution has been installed, once the home is in escrow and the poor home buyers are without a home yet.

Almost always, used by the sump pump industry to promote fear in the homeowners, during hard times especially, and to promote acceptance of the sump pump guys story, as the home sellers or buyers are desperate, confused, and vulnerable, just days prior to closing that home escrow, finally.

Most often sump pumps are wasted money, and worse drainage and monetary problems than before. They follow right along with the sump pump installation, even if it is done right, because the source of the groundwater, almost always being heavy sustained rains, has not been dealt with.

Whether it is topography of your home site, or your gutter, downspout, rain drain discharge system, it must be in working order and installed properly to achieve success without falling into the trap of ignorance and becoming fodder for the sump pump guys. S.O.L.

Are these sump pump guys funny, or what? Most sump pump guys just crack me up.

They are always telling poor home drainage plagued homeowners that the water table in their area is high. What an old worn out line that one is, as well.

Between that one and the,”this neighborhood is famous for underground springs” line, my sides just won’t quit hurting from the laughing.

The water table is where we pump our wells from folks. On the average, that is from around 75-300 feet down. Not right under your home. The top 2 feet of the ground may be holding enough groundwater to make you swear you were living on a floating bog out in the ocean, but it just isn’t true. It is a lie. Pure and simply, the lynch pin to a weak argument, when not defended with logic, turns into a homeowner rip off about 95% of the time.

Saturated top soil areas are not sources of drinking water, are they.

Most often this comment is made to a homeowner living in a platted and approved 20th century subdivision as well, making it even more laughable.

That is so unlikely, it is a joke to hear it advanced as though it was a common occurance and a valid argument. Cities and counties scour U.S. Geological survey maps, satellite photos, past groundwater and rain challenged hillsides, and more. They seldom make the big mistakes it would take to build a home on a year round spring.

When someone starts talking about the water table, remember that they don’t understand what they are talking about, most likely. In very rare cases, it may be true, but in those cases, you won’t get a permit to build a home on that lot anyway, as it is probably in the 100 year flood plane, or has slope issues.

100-200 feet average is how deep you need to go to drill a well, and hit the water table, and get groundwater safe to drink. That is way down there. Not right under your home.

I live on the Columbia river. On one side is the river, the other an island my home is built on. All winter heavy Oregon coast rains pound us, and the flat fields behind my home fill up with groundwater, in lakes and ponds up to 4 feet deep in places.

We are actually in a 100 year flood plane that has never flooded from the Columbia river since the corp of engineers re-constructed the dykes in the early 20th century. I have flood insurance, for example with FEMA.

Within a week after it stops raining, and the rain water stops feeding those ponds, the groundwater is gone completely. Not evaporated in 35 degree weather either. Perked into the already saturated flood plane. But it has a long way more to go, ie. perk, to get to the water table in our area as well.

Even the Columbia river bottom itself is perking.

How does that bend your home drainage consciousness? Even my neighbors, when I moved down here, said that dry wells would not work here because of this and that.

Many are now asking how I do it.

So, let’s ask the hypothetical sump pump installer a question. “Mr. installer, are you telling me, Mr. sump pump guy, that from the ground level down it is nothing but saturated water, merging with the water table many hundred feet below. No air between right? The ground won’t perk, right?

Absolute consumer fraud in my opinion, perpetrated by people trying to get a buck, through scamming drainage affected homeowners into a feeling of desperation and lack of hope; sadly, through the homeowners willingness to belief in the sump pump dudes stories.

If the pump guy can talk you into excavating right against your interior foundation wall, replacing the dirt with rock and a perforated pipe, and not installing your exterior foundation hand excavated french drains, he will look even better when bad weather comes, as he has told you that it is futile for you, because of the conditions he contends exist.

He knows he is not stopping any groundwater entry.

Remember the underground river and springs story? Oh, if you haven’t heard it, you will sooner or later if you are so unfortunate as to be the owner of a home drainage problem.

And it does not matter whether you live in Korea or Kansas, the story is so well told over the decades that it is the default method of homeowner drainage abuse around the world at this time, I am told by many, who live around the world.

The wonderful world of e-mail connections and information.

Truth is, you almost never need a sump pump.

Better read that one twice folks.

And when you think you do need a sump pump installed, you probably shouldn’t, and don’t really need one anyway, no matter how he dances and prances around acting like “the king of anything”.

You need to concentrate on stopping the groundwater on the outside of the foundation, quickly, during hard rains, to prevent the groundwater saturation and the hydrostatic pressure that comes as a result of continuously adding groundwater weight to the soil around your foundation walls.

If a french drain groundwater removal system is vented to a dry well location, that after testing it, does not perk well, a sump well is created, out of the dry well excavation, and the groundwater is pumped away from the sump well, so it never fills up, but still is the end of the line for your groundwater. This system is installed on the outside of the home, not under your home or in it. That is the last resort only.

A groundwater overflow can be installed at the side of your dry well, that overflows down the hill, away from the location of the dry well/sump well, in solid pipe, and daylights below the home. This can be done in lieu of installing an exterior sump well, if you can make the gravity work with your distance required to flow the groundwater away to. Consult a professional for best results, or just keep reading this site.

You most likely need to collect and pump the groundwater, properly, on the outside of the home first, and not under it, after the groundwater damage and dry rot is already done.

And that is if pumping is the only answer, because it is suspected during the dry well installation that the soil at the site will not perk. Which is very rare actually, even in clay soils. Once every two to three years it happens that we make a sump well where a dry well does not perk well.

Keep in mind that if you went to the city of Portland, for example, and applied for a “perk test” on a bare piece of ground with no sewer, that you wishes to build your new home on, the city would dig a large dry well sized hole with a backhoe, and fill it full of water. Then they would give the hole around 2-3 weeks prior to inspection to see if the water had started to drop and perk into the ground.

This is a common standard for a standard septic permit most everywhere around the United States.

The sump pump industry has advanced the same old weak stories for decades. No one should believe these stories, but lots of homeowners do, and some even take it to heart, willing to defend their drainage failures, as compared to admitting and correcting them.

As a result, fear and loathing is a default reaction at times. One favorite old weak story is, that “dry wells don’t perk in clay soils.” Wrong. Not true at all.

Another premise of sump pump installers I do not agree with is: that underground rivers and springs, although undefined and/or unproven with respect to the actually existing under the home, and not substantiated by a geo-technical survey, should automatically destine the use of a sump pump, rather than a method to prevent the groundwater from entering into crawl spaces and basements in the first place, prior to the groundwater saturating and creating the need for pumping.

Duh. Basic home drainage. Unless your knowledge level is next to zero, unfortunate but often true, and you look vulnerable to one of those sump pump installer characters.

Groundwater deposited into dry wells make cracks on the bottom of clay soils, everywhere around the Portland area. Few approved building sites do not perk.

The Portland west hills and outlying areas consisted of various farms back in the mid 1800’s, and those homes and barns were all depositing groundwater, septic waste, animal wastes, and groundwater into dry wells, drain fields, and leach systems designed to vent water from barns, cow operations, and waste water from homes and buildings on the farm.

Hundreds of dry wells in the Portland west hills are in service at this time, that were installed by me alone, where the city of Portland water bureau will tell you dry wells don’t perk, and don’t work. The same old story with a new set of words. I think the sump pump industry taught the city the bad behavior and drainage ignorance actually.

So there you go, home drainage ignorance starts, in this case it appears, at the top levels of city government, and works its way down to the even more ignorant. Sorry to report folks. Do you think for one moment I would waste precious fishing time by sitting at this lap top day after day, just talking home drainage garbage?

I have never had a dry well fail. The ones I thought would not perk, were installed as sump wells.

Keep in mind that the standard for approving a septic tank, where a hole in the ground is filled with water to see if it perks out, completed by the city or county, is around 2-3 weeks for a standard septic approval.

In other words, the county expects to approve your septic tank location based on the fact that the original water placed into it will take weeks to saturate and break in the dry well, but after that will accept groundwater in huge amounts.

For home drainage purposes, If it looks like a particular site won’t perk, you install a sump well or overflow, while still collecting and pumping the groundwater around 18″ from the foundation wall, in a hand excavated french drain, and then gravity flowing it away from the home, and venting it at least 10 feet from the foundation, where it can be collected in the sump well, and be pumped out, or perked into a dry well, or overflowed, if the site does perk fast enough.

In the summer time Portland clay is so hard that it needs to be wet down for days prior to hand excavation, in order to carve it correctly. Yet if you run 12″ of hose water in the bottom of one of the average clay excavated dry wells in the Portland area, after it is first excavated, the water will be gone most every time within hours to a day or two, even without the dry well being broken in, which would perhaps take a few rain events and a few weeks to break in the cracks on the bottom of the dry well with wider cracks. A typical tougher dry well will take two to three weeks, but when broken in, will function well.

Once the dry well is broken in, and has 1/2″-1″ cracks formed on the bottom of it, no debris will fill them in, as the dry well is fed with clean river rock filtered water, run through the river rock in the hand excavated french drain system with the perforated pipe and weed cloth.

Dry wells do perk, nearly everywhere. Go pick out the most clay lousy site that you can find, anywhere in the world, above a designated flood plane or lake/river bottom. Dig yourself a pond. Do not put a liner in the pond.

Fill the pond with water and order many colorful expensive fish and plants.

Pay all the labor and material fees required to pull it all off. Grab a beer and enjoy.

Then, stop feeding your pond with more water, ever again. Sooner than later, your pond water will be gone. Probably around the same time that your fish croak and your plants die.

Most all sites, even lake and river bottoms perk.

Don’t prove your ignorance of geology and home drainage to a sump pump installer scammer by buying into his stories of underground rivers, springs, and a world floating on a bog, floating itself on our drinking water water table.

One last point that any rational mind might conclude is that, “even if the sump pump guy was correct, long shot; in that your water table within your crawl space was so high that it was the source of your contended up welling groundwater problem; installing a sump pump below the level of the groundwater river itself, or indeed within the water table, as he contends exists under your home, would only mean that you were going to be continuosly pumping the underground river or spring itself.

Without consideration of the amount of groundwater that could amount to be either. Likely it would just run forever.

Like I said, you can’t make sense from non-sense. Don’t try to figure out how they can be so stupid as to even try to sell that. Just don’t fall for it.

A more rational decision than installing a sump pump would be to pack up the kids and head for a motel. Start looking for a new home, without a home drainage problem, if you can’t afford to fix that one.

The building sites that do not perk, once the lots are platted and approved, are very rare.

I sold land to developers, as my specialty, as a licenses Oregon realtor, for 25 years before I started this company, and almost always those problem sites become common area in the development plan, and a community park, or a drainage ditch or bio-swale, for example.

Many groundwater drainage affected homes, where normal dry wells are not good candidates, are still not good candidates for the sump pump guys interior crawl space french drain system or sump pump.

His idea of what a french drain is, would likely be just a shallow ditch with no grade and a little rock and a pipe. Not even close. No cigar.

Collecting and venting the groundwater on the outside of the foundation walls, with hand excavated french drains is always the most important first step, along with raising and compacting the grade at the foundation where ever possible.

A sump well on the exterior of the home, away from the foundation wall, connected to hand excavated french drains is most likely the answer if the dry well site won’t perk. And not a system installed right near the foundation wall in some deep tube made of plastic either. Those are all over town, and are a liability to the home actually.

A favorite sump pump installation, still done everywhere.

The answer is certainly not basement wall moisture trapping plastic to cover the wetness, while not stopping it from even coming in.

The solution is not sump pumps installed without need and/or improperly installed, or other stupid waterproofing tricks, mostly advanced by a group of sump pump installers and professed “waterproofing” guys.

Yeh, waterproofing. What a joke. This type of sump pump guy preys on homeowners, with a premeditated coldness in order to spread a feeling of fear, confusion, and misinformation. Sump pumps do not stop groundwater from entering below grade.

The most common motivation for the installation of a sump pump is for a home seller to convince a prospective home buyer that a home drainage solution has been installed, once the home is in escrow and the poor home buyers are without a home yet.

Never go for the common old failed installation, placing a sump well or river rock directly against the foundation wall, with a shallow, low grade to no grade ditch connecting the mess together.

Install sump wells the same minimum distance from your foundation wall, the same as you would with the installation of river rock filled dry wells. 10 feet minimum for a 4 foot deep by 4 foot in diameter dry well from the foundation is code in the city of Portland, Oregon for example.

Always subject to adequate engineering, so as to not put too much water in one location. Split the flow up into many dry wells rather than one large one if at all possible.

Common sense experience and ground and roof square footage calculations are needed to determine how many dry wells are required for each home, their size, and their placement.

Most cities have this information available for the homeowner to consult, if they are not using a home drainage professional in their area. Expect the information to be expensive to do and not effective or correct in most cases.

Splitting up the groundwater into dry wells, perking into various areas around the home, is better than buying into a massive concrete tank installation, as mandated sometimes by the city of Portland,as well as many other cities around the U.S.

These systems contain a huge hole, dug with a back hoe in about 20 minutes, with an open center concrete tank created out of huge concrete cylinders, stacked, and surrounded only, not supported like a dry well should be, with a foot or two of river rock around the concrete cylinders only and the middle open, and probably finished with 2 feet of dirt over a concrete top.

These systems are ones that I do not do, because the tank tops can crack over many years, or be driven over by a back hoe, long after someone would know it was there.

Pretty much a hole for someone on a backhoe to fall into at some time in the future, rather than a value added feature, in my opinion.

The city of Portland is in love with large concrete dry well systems made cumbersome or impossible to install, by the system consisting of heavy concrete tanks with holes, surrounding air and rock only on the outside of the tank, with downspouts and french drains plumbed to one massive dry well location.

These systems all perk directly into the ground in the same manner as a typical 4 foot by 4 foot river rock filled dry well, as they sit directly on the soil itself, same as the bottom of a rock filled and supported dry well.

Seldom does this type of installation give any benefit to the homeowners, by doing such a huge concrete installation, unless they are forced to by the city to complete their project. It feels so good when they quit beating on you. Homeowners will be stuck at their mercy if they are building an addition, and a new rain drain discharge system for the proposed gutter plan being installed to vent the downspouts mandates that type of system.

]]> http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/391/feed 0 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/47 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/47#comments Wed, 07 Jul 2010 07:40:41 +0000 DL http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/47 Many homeowners have discovered their groundwater problems too late in their home ownership, due to absentee ownership, originally being lied to when they bought the home, the statute of limitations on fraud running out prior to them finding out the problem existed, and/or a general lack of home drainage experience in combination with those above.

In the homeowners defense however is that fact that homeowners do not spend much time in their crawl space.

And never go into the crawl space themselves when they buy the home either. Which is a massive mistake.

How would these home buyers have known about home drainage problems, unless they had inspected the crawl space personally, before they bought the home.

And certainly, prior to even writing the earnest money agreement, if at all possible.

It only takes minutes, if you know what you are doing.

The key is to learn what to look for, with respect to home drainage problems.

A growing number of home sellers do not disclose well known groundwater drainage issues. This is becoming a redundant statement, decade after decade.

Home drainage problem non disclosure is at epidemic proportions, in my opinion, in Oregon. And elsewhere around the world as well, from what those homeowners tell me thru e-mails.

Home drainage issues, and damage to properties and families, as a result of undisclosed groundwater problems, has become one of the fastest growing segments of home based litigation in the country.

Next to lot line disputes and contractor lawsuits, groundwater damage law suits specifically are close to the top of the list these days.

“A cleaver person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.” Quote. Albert Einstein.

A large number of Oregon home sellers, willfully not complying with Oregon state home condition disclosure laws, during a real estate transaction, have focused the need for heads up home buying, by informed home buyers, who know how to take home drainage problems out of play, when buying a home, and do so early enough to actually have a choice running in the end, and not just stuck taking the property “as is” with the drainage problems not solved because of ignorance and late disclosure of the problems.

Many sellers do not disclose known home drainage problems in their Oregon sellers property disclosure statement, even though penalties for doing so are in place, and occasionally someone gets caught.

Does that law really lack the teeth to make it work? Let’s look at it. You be the judge.

These homeowners, violating Oregon home condition disclosure laws, know what they are gambling, and who they are messing with. They are over all, from my experience watching them in the past, very confident and cavalier. Chests puffed out, with the attitute of, “so catch me, or “so prove it”.

Many home sellers feel that to acknowledge even the correction of a home drainage problem makes it less likely for their home to appeal to most buyers.

They feel the stigma of having even had the drainage problem in the past, albeit was successfully solved, puts their home in some sort of substandard category. They see it as having a stigma, where if they just lie their butts off, they save money and justify themselves in that they feel they got burnt with, and have lived with, the drainage problems, and now it is time for someone else to take their turn at getting burnt for big money and potential bad health.

Many of the homeowners that exemplify this mentality, simply don’t know why, or can’t/won’t tell you why, but they too just do not want exposed river rock exposed on the surface level of their french drain, period. And I am guessing, probably for the same reasons, although this group holds their cards closer to their chest, in the poker game of potential home drainage disclosure. So who is to know.

These types of home drainage problem non-disclosing home sellers stand a very good chance of being sued, by informed home buyers who are just plain sick of getting burnt by home sellers who defy them and Oregon home real estate disclosure laws.

Not a week goes by that this subject is not part of an hour long plus conversation I am having with a customer somewhere.

This conversation, the one about the source of groundwater being an underground spring or river, as the homeowners may contend, or the old faulty sump pump installation saga, about the worthless “guarantee” that the homeowners thought they got with their multi-thousand dollars installation.

The gloves are coming off, figuratively speaking that is.

Home buyers are coming into real estate transactions informed and ready to trap those types of non-disclosing home sellers, trying to hide the home drainage history of the home.

Many of these non-disclosing types simply don’t want to even disclose the fact that groundwater problems have even been solved; even with french drains professionally installed.

This sometimes plays out like an avoidable, but eventually sensationalistic, and figuratively speaking, bare knuckle, courtroom brawl.

It all could have been avoided. Totally prevented.

Home sellers may feel because home drainage is so poorly understood among the public that they can weasel through the process under the radar, and most often they do exactly that.

Oregon home sellers have been pulling this off for decades in Oregon, and elsewhere around the world as well, I am told by my readers, who number over 50 countries per month.

The damaged home buyers usually want to get everthing they can from these fraudulent home sellers too, and that pushes the crazy feelings, and anger, and makes the eventual mood a solid frustration, ready to explode, instead of the problem being managed.

When groundwater visits uninvited, and the kids basement room is flooded; the kids and mom are not generally too happy.

The doo doo has already hit the fan. No one is a bit cheerful for weeks.

When they aren’t happy, the household in general will be in a funk, at best. And well, Dad? He really gets the hurting too, as he must live it, and endure watching his family live with it.

Possessions are ruined.

Carpets gone, drug out leaving a trail of slopping water everywhere by guys who seemed they would be so much better, even though they were the lowest bid, and said they could do the same thing as that other well known company. Oh my…… New carpet pads, now ruined. Trash. Don’t even try to dry them out. Mold will follow. Replace them.

Happy meal collection trashed. Junior is crushed, as is common with 4 year olds, and you get the picture.

Walls soaked. Sheet rock damaged. Wet carpet weighing too much to lift, even in a bear hug.

The former possessions all wet, sitting there in a pile with other soaked and formerly valuable possessions, now garbage.

This reality, and the fact insurance won’t generally pay for it, only adds to the crushed expectations of these homeowners, and additionally hurts their family financially, just when they most can not afford it.

Just a huge bummer of a day for everyone. As well as more money spent on labor, trash pump rental, dump runs, clean up, dry out, etc. etc.

Then better get those french drains installed before starting over again with the carpet and such.

This issue is a real hotbed of activity among informed and angry home buyers, who have been lied to about home drainage problems that have existed for decades in most cases>

The homeowners have usually signed the Oregon home condition disclosure saying never have they had a drainage problem ever.

Ah, right!

Sellers are many times so stupid when it comes to home drainage problem non disclosure that it amazes me. It is tragic and stupid.

]]> http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/47/feed 0 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/706 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/706#comments Wed, 07 Jul 2010 06:04:42 +0000 DL http://aaahomedrainage.com/?p=706 Protect yourself against home drainage problem non-disclosure.

The neighbors at the home you wish to buy probably know more than you know about the drainage history of that home. So ask them.

The neighbors probably know what the over all drainage health of the neighborhood is like. Just ask them. And do it before you write the earnest money agreement, if at all possible.

Come back when the realtors are not there, after the work day. Knock and introduce yourself. Neighbors that do not seem to be good ones for this plan should be valued for their ability to tip you off, and this plan should not be used in the worst of neighborhoods across America, or anywhere else.

The next door neighbors very likely know the drainage health of that particular home you wish to buy, as well. They probably know the entire history of those former homeowners attempts with home drainage.

Neighbors talk about and share home drainage information.

If for no other reason, they want to find out if their neighbor is wet too, and what they did to stop it.

You will be amazed at what these neighbors think they know about groundwater problems and geology, in their subdivison or area.

Be prepared for stories of underground rivers and springs, located right under everyones homes however.

These stories will first hit the stage when the home inspectors report says, “contact a drainage contractor,” and after the home inspector has had a chance to first give the homeowners his card, and the card of his buddy, the sump pump installer contractor in many cases. And that is exactly what happens many times.

Sweet little deal they got going. Let me hip you to it.

Information to follow in other articles on this ripe subject within this website further explain this mutual admiration society in detail.

Some of these types of homeowners, or neighbors, will aggressively attack any other suggestion that a french drain contractor may have, that would invalidate, or even challenge, their premise that a river or spring exists under their home. Why? They already have thousands of dollars spent on a worthless system that does not stop the groundwater from entering at all. It was a failed groundwater prevention method by design, the day it was installed.

That’s why they blew all that cash on something that they know has not stopped the groundwater entry. They were told those dumb stories of underground rivers and springs existing under their homes.

That is a mistake most homeowners are not able to admit easily, from my experience working with homeowners over 35 years as a real estate broker-developer, as well as contractor.

These homeowners probably have already dumped thousands of dollars American on a failed home drainage system. Not only are their egos challenged, they want to convince the new buyers that it is the best they can hope for, even if disclosed.

They are pumping proudly, forever; until someone cuts the wire, or the electricity just goes out during the worst of times when it is raining inches per day.

When confronted, with a different logic, these types of homeowners can be very defensive, to the point of reminding one of a dog on a short leash, that has developed a knee jerk, fear biter type of response to an approach.

Approach them with caution to avoid getting bit.

The former neighbors might even make statements that everyone in the neighborhood knew that the former owners of the home always had groundwater problems, from day one on their watch. As many of the neighbors still do have groundwater problems, and sump pumps installed in their crawl spaces and basements. This is often the case.

That is why they all have sump pumps. Right? It is those pesky underground rivers. But fathom this: In your platted and approved subdivision. Ya, right. Not very often folks. Just garbage talk.

Neighbors will make those types of statements in front of witnesses after the home is closed too.

Gladly. Why not? You are their new neighbor, and they love your kids too.

And when the new buyers have discovered the groundwater problems, and the old sellers are long gone into the sunset, to what they think is “parts unknown”, your neighbors will be your best starting point at building a case as well. The sellers probably even told them where this planned get away stop was. Bingo. You got’em. Your attorney does actually.

Try to get the neighbor to talk to you earlier than after closing. My advice. lol

As a practical matter, many of these same neighbors can and will be, supporters of yours in court, whether they like it or not, following their comments about the former drainage problem being common knowledge, and that the sellers knew about it specifically.

This does not really get cooking until the homeowners have been burnt, have recovered after their move in finally, and finally, after their resolve evaporates to plain pissed off.

Then the game is on. Even mom is flexing.

Those new nice neighbor folks, most likely wanting to help your case in any way, may be more than happy and thrilled to reiterate there former statements about the homes former owners and what they said they knew about the drainage, in front of a judge in court.

Seems like many of these former home sellers are so stupid as to think that after they have gotten the check from the escrow at the title company, and boogied off into the sunset, that they have become untouchable.

Invisible, after an old worn out scam is pulled off again. The perfect “get away”.

Many non-disclosing home sellers think that an “as is” clause in their earnest money agreement, written by their realtor, to sell their home, is going to protect them after the closing of the home escrow, despite the fraud that these former home sellers have perpetrated on the new buyers, and the lender as well.

These homeowners may have broken state and federal laws that pertains to bank fraud, as well.

Many times home inspections do not identify the groundwater problems from last winter, because the “smart” sellers have had the formerly mud covered crawl space moisture barrier and have dried it out, and have replaced it.

They can be slick. They remove the signs of groundwater and effloressence stained moisture barrier before selling it, with a new one that looks ever so nice to a home inspector in a hurray that day.

Painted exterior foundation walls to hid lime effloressence marks on the foundation, which are made as evidence of groundwater saturating against the foundation wall and entering below grade are also used to cover the evidence of groundwater saturation.

The most famous of these ploys is when sellers just paint the basement walls with dry lock paint, which is worse than doing nothing if you have not repaired a damaged basement wall prior to painting it.

These types of homeowners will be selling the home well before the rains come next winter too, giving them time for a clean get away somewhere to parts unknown, if possible. Most drainage problems undisclosed are bought in the summer.

Lenders as a rule, in the past at least, have NOT REQUIRED home sellers to do groundwater drainage work, even after it was offered and the groundwater problem disclosed by a home inspection, as well as a solution offered by a licensed, bonded and insured Oregon home drainage contractor.

The banks can’t make the home sellers agree to anything, or physically make them spend the money to fix anything, if these types of home sellers don’t want to. And these types of home sellers don’t want to part with a dime.

So the banks and other lenders opt for controlling the time line of the closing as best they can, to get those loans closed, and fees generated for the bank.

The subject of other articles on this web site, that are critical to the understanding of how it all works against you, unless you know how to make it work for you. The default action is home buyer abuse, without my home buying information, with respect to home drainage problems.

If the lenders made the home drainage problem a condition of financing, like dry rot, which is most often caused by faulty rain drain discharges, and the lack of groundwater removal at the foundation walls, they would kill many transactions themselves that conform to this non disclosing type of theme. So no one at the bank wants to get between the buyers and sellers, understandably.p> If the home sellers or home buyers did not comply with the lenders ultimatum to fix the problem by stopping the groundwater entry below grade, and no one agreed to pay for it, the deal is toast.

The bank just shot themselves in the foot.

Lenders have for decades allowed the drainage problems disclosed during a transaction, to just be passed down from one home buyer to the next, simply to hold their transactions together.

The result of home buyers complying with something they feel they cannot change, is part of the big home drainage lie, told thousands of times a year in the Portland area alone by sump pump companies.

As a result, home buyers take the home with the groundwater problems disclosed, and all inclusive. They learn to give up easy, and be victims. Oh me. p> “As is,” between the seller and buyers.

In other words, the sellers “walk”. They get a pass, just like they knew they would. And voila, another generation of weasels are born.

And the perhaps young, first time home buyers are stuck with the drainage problem. usually only days before financing and closing of escrow, and with absolutely no alternative than to do whatever is said to them if they don’t want to be on the street without a home.

The bank cooperates enough to stick the new buyers with the home drainage problem they know should be handled, but won’t be.

Lenders and legislators are not going to change this money stream facilitating scheme, unless this information starts becoming a problem for them.

In other words, public knowledge.

Lenders today will still mandate that the carpenter fix the dry rot prior to closing of escrow, but not mandate that the drainage contractor fix the cause of the dry rot and structural damage.

Much more serious than that is the structural integrity of the home and the future health of the homeowners and family members.

Doesn’t make much sense does it? It is never the less, just as I have said. And not a small percentage of teh time. Nearly all the time.

Some home buyers accept the statement from the home sellers that there are no drainage problems, and that there never has been any home drainage problems, without any of their own investigation. Not smart.

Prospective home buyers want to believe that, never ever, has there been a home drainage problem at the home. The answer fits the status quo and isn’t questioned in most cases, unless the focus is already in place to do so.

Someone not focused on home drainage will just take that statement as fact, as most homes do not have home drainage problems.

The home buyers find out way too late, after closing escrow on the home.

Indeed, the groundwater drainage issue was public knowledge, and a big problem for a very long time for those former homeowners.

And indeed, the home drainage issue is, and has been, making the home “sick with mildew and mold spores for decades perhaps”.

Now those home buyers are really hot.

Pissed off.

The worst part of this story is that occasionally people are living in groundwater damaged homes that could be making them sick, without them even knowing it.

Here comes the lawsuit.

A smart attorney will turn that into a pay check for the newly groundwater damaged homeowners, almost every time, if those homeowners can prove former knowledge by the sellers of the groundwater problem itself.

Judgments, as well as liens on properties owned by these former home sellers can be used to secure eventual payment.
p> Proving pre-existing home drainage problems may not be so hard as you think.

p> Fun for everyone. The day of justice.

A friend of mine built a home on the pacific ocean along the Oregon coast.

This home was really cool, and was sited on the confluence of a bay and the ocean. Ocean front.

When my friends decided to have the home built, the real estate market was strong, and it was a sellers market.

Developers and builders get away with more cost cutting procedures in this kind of a real estate market, than if it had been a buyers market, like we are currently in, where it is not easy to build or sell a home, and the spot light of intuition and investigation illuminates home drainage problems better, due to a slower pace of the real estate market and agents.

The property was listed for sale. The buyers were found. Everyone was happy. The mood was pretty strong to the positive on the stress meter. No worries.

Along came the results of the home inspection, and everything changed quickly to panic mode.

The report indicated that the home had standing groundwater 2 feet deep in the crawlspace of the home, and that the insulation had even been pulled down, and fallen into the crawl space full of groundwater.

It was a floating mess of wood and insulation in the crawl space around 2 feet deep.

The home was only 5 years old.

So the call went out; ‘deep into home drainage land” lol, for someone brave, and experienced; to swim the terrible dangerous waters of the deep brown crawl space delta.

Just another day at the office folks.

Removing the groundwater from the crawl space, while installing a low point drain under the foundation wall, to gravity flow all groundwater existing in the crawl space, out to the beach, was the solution to that particular drainage problem.

It took only about 30 minutes to drain the entire crawl space two feet deep in water, once two days of excavation was completed, from the beach up to the home, and under the foundation footing around 12 inches wide.

I excavated from the beach wall, hundreds of feet away, but down hill to the home, where my french drain passed under a wall at the beach, and day lighted at the sand.

The french drain sloped uphill slightly, and I was able to run around 300 lineal feet to the edge of the homes foundation wall at the rear of the home.

When I completed the excavation, the french drain extending to the home, around 300 lineal feet up from the beach, and under the foundation footing, the groundwater formerly flooding that crawl space flowed out like a raging river, 12″ deep. It ran out quickly, on the bottom of the hand excavated french drain, and onto the beach below.

The neighbors clapped their hands, grinned, and asked for cards. Quite a show.

Soon everyone was happy again, and the mood between the present and prospective homeowners was like, “let’s go fishing sometime buddy.” “Yeh, thanks buddy, cool house.” When do we close escrow now?”

In the end, after the french drain and rain drain discharge installations were completed, and bank funded the new buyers loan.

I wrote a letter for Richard and Susan, my long time friends, memorializing the former groundwater condition at the beach house, and what was needed to solve the problem, and enclosed another copy of the drainage proposal he had paid for to be sent to the weasel, who we had an attorney find.

Richard, an insurance company owner, wrote the retired home builder, who had already retired in Arizona comfortably, a very direct letter about the situation. Richard can be very direct in his business, and is good at it anyway.

The builder just wrote Richie and Susan a check for around $8000. after reading those letters.

It ended friendly, I’m told.

This particular builder constructed around 20 homes in a “build to suit” sale, of ocean front lots and new home construction, that he had originally developed.

In most of the homes, he just stuffed the downspouts into the sand at the corners of the home, and never complied with conditions to install rain drain discharges to vent the roof water from the downspouts.

This was the case with Richard and Susans home.

He was obviously thinking that the ground, which was sand, would take the roof water as fast as it would come off a large roof like that, just like a river rock filled dry well. Or was he even thinking?

Big mistake of home drainage logic on his part.

As a practical matter, crawl space issues are seldom found prior to a home inspection that is required for a buyers loan on the home. Do your own home inspection, as I teach in this web site, and protect yourself from this kind of nonsense.

Buyers are striking out in anger, and simply put, “not taking it anymore”. Home drainage problem non-disclosure is peaking, even in a bad real estate market.

Attorneys I know have had many cases where the home sellers have moved to another state, after closing of escrow, and are still nailed down in court, and brought to justice in lovely Oregon. Sometimes felony charges.
]]> http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/706/feed 0 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/400 http://aaahomedrainage.com/archives/400#comments Mon, 05 Jul 2010 11:01:07 +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 and the massive amount of money those installations generate, without stopping groundwater entry into basements and crawl spaces.

Just wasted money in almost all cases.

This is a story. Not fiction. A true story, about how your community works.

This is a story about how home inspectors and many home drainage contractors attempt to weigh in as home drainage professionals, during your most vulnerable time, as a home buyer under stress, with a time line to boot.

This is the story of why there are so many continued home drainage problems, everywhere in the world, but especially in lovely Portland, Oregon.

Read on and I will show you how everything operates to stream line you down the tubes as home buyers and sellers, and slammed into a sump pump installation, over and over again, with no chance of stopping the groundwater entry below grade.

Only the buzz of hearing that sump pump running more often than before.

If a lender and home inspector is involved in your home transaction, you need to read every word of this and take it to heart.

A true cycle of deception, lies, and ignorance, as sump pump installers backed up by home inspectors bilk homeowners around the world of billions of dollars in home drainage contracts that are absolutely scams, and worthless.

Most of these voo doo drainage projects, are so bad as to be laughable, unless it is your home, while additionally being detrimental to the overall health of the occupant family as well.

So, hear we go.

Many of the home inspectors I am familiar with in the Portland, Oregon area, that fit this modus operandi seem quite cavalier about openly attempting to influence the acceptance of one particular home drainage method over another. And this all comes down during a stressful time for sellers and buyers, during the last week of the real estate escrow closing at the title company.

The real estate transaction. So check this out folks.

Lights, camera, action.

In this case, the subject is always sump pumps. The need for which is always first spoken by a guy who admits he is not a drainage expert, and does not have an advanced, experienced, professional opinion to offer, yet does, over and over again.

To drive business to his buddies the sump pump referral fee types.

Even more curious to me, watching this scenario since around 1978 in Oregon myself, is the fact that, time after time home inspectors say that the prospective home buyers should contact a professional home drainage contractor, which they are professionally bound to do.

But they are doing this charade while still attempting to weigh in as a home drainage authority themselves, suggesting home drainage solutions in their inspection report language. Their buddies just happen to install sump pumps, and are licensed and bonded too. Wow. You should just be tickled, right? Hum.

Most Oregon home inspectors are not so stupid as to recommend solutions outright though, they are just the warm up band, and drop a name or two at the right time. Like in the beginning of the conversation with the homeowners, which then makes everyone else coming along the new theory in those homeowners for whom home drainage ignorance haunts and challenges.

The real entertainment has yet to arrive. That will come in the form of perhaps one or more sump pump installers most likely, from my experience buying and selling hundreds to thousands of homes for customers while in the real estate business, during a 25 year plus career prior to starting this home drainage business.

The home inspector simply smiles and does the dumb guy act after he gets the chance to talk first. He knows it is his game to lose now. All he has to do is shut up and get those homeowners his sump pump buddies card, and fat referral fee is guaranteed.

The common home inspector report with a groundwater issue will say something like,”the interior crawl space needs grading, and french drains, plus a sump pump installation, or just trenching along the inside of the crawl space walls

This is absurd stuff folks. Don’t buy into it.

Home inspectors seldom will shut up and quit talking after they admit they are not a professional home drainage contractor. And that should be your first tip off. You have no idea at this point how well this whole deal has been made part of every day business, from a homeowner perspective. Sump pumps, which are worthless at stopping groundwater entry below grade into crawl spaces and basements, often cause more problems than they attempt to solve.

Many Oregon home inspectors will continue to recommend and postulate, within their home inspection report, albeit unsolicited and without professional licensing or knowledge, about home drainage.

This charade is most always accompanied by a statement saying that the home inspector recommends 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.

This 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. And just days ago, only a week before closing they all got this drainage bomb laid on them at the last moment, always, in the rear perspective of the way the game is set up, which includes the lender, home inspector and the sump pump default industry inc.

Everyones judgement is clouded during these stressful times, and folks may be just flipping out too.

These types of home inspectors and sump pump guys know it. They are like the bears waiting for you, the ripe salmon to just swim by, so they can harvest you without much work and effort expended.

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

The combination of the sump pump contractor and the home inspector, both recommending the same thing, within 24 hours, usually will tilt the scale quickly in favor of the acceptance of the sump pump method over any other method, nearly every time. The first word is a powerful thing. Welcome to America folks.

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 the typical sump pump installtion “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 after another, like gambling addicts at a slot machine, yelling for more quarters.

Most of these guys basically cannot be sued for anything in the end either, unless you are really good, and have a better attorney.

They may be deceptive, but their contracts seldom say things that pin them down firmly without enough wiggle room to spin things around if needed.

Many will have a contract that is only specific to installing sump pumps, a good tip off too.

Every homeowner I ever have spoken to about their failed sump pump system, said that they got a ” sump pump installation guarantee”. When I ask them what it covered, and under what conditions, and with what limitations and exclusions, and other questions, 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 in the end. 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 may be the most vocal publicly but I am by no means the only one thinking it.

I have watched home inspectors and sump pump installers mix too well, over a 4 decade period in Oregon, on my watch 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 have watched these pumped up, pun intended, 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.

This is the dark ages of home drainage, going into a transition that does not bode well for homeowners around the world who have home drainage problems, and find themselves part of this scam.

If no one starts understanding and teaching this, when old farts like me are gone in the not too distant future, a new era of ignorance will descend upon home drainage land, like the home drainage “nothing”.

The void that just sucks your brain and money out, and still leaves you with a home drainage mess.

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 off homeowners with anger that has been unable to be vindicated, validated or recognized, after extensive measures to do so.

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 those statements being untimely, rude, and unsolicited.

My opinion of these types of home inspectors, not all of them, and sump pump installers, not all of them; the ones who own and built this game of deception.

In my business as a professional home drainage contractor in Oregon is see hundreds of failed systems per year. They are installed in just about every wrong way possible. It 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. They are never going to run anyway. Sometimes they are just left there, but never work again, because no more water comes in to feed them after I install hand excavated exterior french drain groundwater removal systems around the homes foundation.

The pissed off homeowners that call me following this experience, 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.

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.

Nothing will change, and the crawl space will just get pumped out partially, if it works at all, while the depth of the groundwater in the crawl space will drop a bit perhaps. If it works at all.

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

When I first started studying this accusation, I was buying and selling real estate as a commercial-investment as well as an Oregon residential real estate broker.

Little did I know at that buying a home was full of games and tricks to watch out for.

I never saw that the drainage industry was so intrenched as to be able to influence the acceptance of one method of home drainage over another, and could set home buyers and sellers up to give a distinct advantage to the inspector, lender and sump pump installer, while absolutely violating the spirit and intent of the earnest money that was written by the buyers agent to protect the buyers, if only they had found out the condition of the property, prior to literally the last minute.

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 over and over again. If I would have had a blog in those days I probably would have been talking about it in the 80s.

From early on, I have wanted to follow home inspectors and sump pump installers around with a camera and mic. 24-7, like a mouse in their pocket.

I still think this is a great topic for some bright investigative reporting writer, with tons of money and a huge staff, 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 of how slam dunking the home buyers works every time.

The numbers of home inspectors that are involved in this game would be anyones guess in Oregon alone. I believe the number to be at least hundreds of them in Oregon alone, and probably in the same percentages around the U.S. as well, per capita, given the remarks that come from homeowners from both coasts and the islands of the United States, and literally from all over the world as well.

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. And may have to, if homeowners play them like they are trying to play you.

The standard was probably established a very long time ago, and handed down from one inspector to the next new inspector, along with a connection to a sump pump guy, for over 50 years, as everyones memory of groundwater removal methods from the old country has been all but forgotten, and described as outdated 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. Instant validation at the price of hot air. Sweet.

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 proven, before it becomes a fact.

My personal evidence, not here-say, that I have observed, watching home inspectors practice over approximately 40 years in Oregon, 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 in Oregon and brokerage owner; 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 got that vibe right away when I started discussing it. But I wind up coming behind these clowns 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, ever fearful that you really could be one of them too. Really.

You would be unhappy too my friends.

Too often this business borders on therapy and understanding more than crafting home drainage solutions.

Some of these folks just need a hug and someone to listen first. I usually pass on the hug part. Hugs from strangers, who are already in question may not be the best effort.

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. They are a real hoot.

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, from a party that purports to be an independent source of unbiased home condition information, even though they disclaim their reports dozens of times, and their contract with the homeowner limit their liability to not greater than $175. which is probably less than you have spent on him. His opinion is literally worthless on home drainage in the first place.

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, Oregon home inspectors, would surely have something unpleasant to say to him about his public attitude, and his diminished future respect with the association as a result of his published opinions about his fellow members, blah blah, 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 on the internet.

You can find videos on you tube with 40,000 views, and the film is garbage, with absolutely no professionalism what so ever. Their supposed french drain thing has to fail.

The home drainage information that is out there in the public domain on a local level is distorted, not factual, manipulated, and controled by the sump pump business and their agents.

These joint efforts are orchestrated underground, and behind closed doors, like a secret society, 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, around the 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.

They insinuate or actually say that sump pumps “may”, be needed at that property.

They spin stories of underground rivers and springs, as they additionally postulate on the source of the groundwater. They act like they know geology, but most of these players are looking to accomplish a very specific goal. Get the homeowners to call his friend the sump pump guy and collect a referral fee.

Perhaps a year ago now, one friday night about 8:30 pm. I was called by a home inspector person whom I had once met before through a realtor customer. This inspector, and former president of the Oregon home inspection association did not remember that meeting, when I reminded him. He just was calling to find out why I was recommending the particular system I had bid for a customer in Lake Oswego.

wanted me to discuss my business with him at 8:30pm on friday night, even though it was none of his damn business. So I thought, this is interesting, and went along with the dude.

He said he had his friend, a local doing very well sump pump waterproofing company guy speak at the Oregon home inspection convention in 2009, and how his methods were not consistent with what I was proposing for another customer in Lake Oswego. He wanted me to defend, weakly I guess if possible, why I was doing what, and where. In other words this dude was just fishing. He thought he had just landed another stupid drainage contractor that could easily be out talked and dis-credited.

In other words, this dude was totally a back set driver, bent on steering me into a conversation about a proposal I had written, that was competing with his sump pump buddies deal, the acceptance of which was apparently required in order for him to collect a fat referral fee.

I don’t really know why he would have weighed in on a transaction that was none of his business, unless he thought it was his business.

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 I know who attended.

I am told by the home inspector that was in attendance that day that it was just another sump pump stump speech, talking nonsense about home drainage, underground rivers and springs under homes with drainage problems, as well as stories about how dry wells don’t perk. What garbage.

Many home inspectors are totally up to speed with home drainage. Not like the dudes.

Many call me and refer me. I am confronting only those home inspectors and sump pump installers who are involved in this default scam.

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 many of 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 do not operate that way.

He said it was a very interesting display of good old boy power.

Many home inspectors questioned this particular self professed waterproofing sump pump contractor guys statements about things like, “dry wells don’t work”, and other stupid statements.

He was unable to discuss specifics. Just hot air, I am told.

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

They come on to informed home drainage professionals as crooks that resemble a wild west preacher, perched on a stool in front of a room full of wealthy widows and orphans. Trying to get them to buy into the new proposed wealth builder project for their community or church. Perhaps that new railroad, coming in a few years down the line, or never, literally; that will need some advance cash now however, 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. Their opinions should be taken with less than a grain of salt. They just work too hard for each other to be straight up.

The plot is so easy to discover with respect to the inspectors, once you suspect it exists, and watch for the signs I have shown you.

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

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. Many of them benefit from placing work monetarily with their sump pump buddies to the tune of thousands of dollars every year. Like having two jobs basically.

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 grading, or low point drain replacement, or low point drain adjustment; 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 is the real hook up and the lynch pin.

That secures his referral fee too.

The home inspection report is usually handed to the sump pump friend from the inspector right away, so he is the first one out to the home to postulate the need for a sump pump installation, just like his friend the home inspector says in needed in his report.

You lie about it, and I’ll swear to it, all within a day if possible.

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 alone, could be determined by a blind man in a snow storm.

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, for over 35 years in Oregon alone.

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.

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 to control the buyers better, and prevent them from backing out of a transaction where drainage issues are found that the sellers will not pay to fix prior to closing of escrow.

The sump pump guy has always been to the home first when I get there. Not just occasionally. Every time.

That might tip even the not so drainage aware home buyer off right away, but in time, over and over again, duh. This is a fact among my friends and me.

The home owners have most often been told that their home inspector would be happy to send a professional home drainage contractor, his sump pump contractor buddy, which he does not tell them; by to look at the homes drainage problems. Would that be o.k? Would it be ok for the inspector to give this person a copy of the report so he can study it?

Like it’s not going to be o.k. Right? Slam dunk. First in, first out. The stealth hit. Everyone else to follow must be compared to it, as the already accepted default need, unless otherwise convinced.

First point in the match automatically goes to the sump pump guy and home inspector, 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. And he even knows someone who does it. Are we lucky, or what? “Sounds good huh? A guarantee is nice too, I think.” Right?

Ya, I’m down for that alright. lol

The home inspectors report always makes the recommendation for the home sellers and buyers to contact a home drainage professional, but it never stops 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, getting everyone talking sump pumps, then every other qualified home drainage contractor will be forced to compare their proposed installations with the sump pump method, and waste their time while explaining to the homeowners why my system is better than, etc. etc.

The fact is you are talking apples against oranges. One system prevents groundwater entry, french drains, and the other does not, sump pumps, period.

The first battle of the drainage mis-information war is won, in favor of “team sump pump”.

This is a very old political trick as well. Do you own a tv? I do not. And have owned one for years.

I get news off the internet and major services without the hype of Fox or some other station franchise to sell an agenda.

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 of course, who backs up what the home inspector has unprofessionally told the homeowners, or eluded to 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 bid the job 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 to change the laws in Oregon and enforce them. Legislating over the top of this mess and re-educating public awareness on groundwater sources and home drainage methods that work.

Do not listen to what home inspectors say about home drainage. It should be obvious if you have read this far.

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, should you find yourself playing the role of the home seller and/or buyer.

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. They are basically lazy, like most thieves.

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 sump pump installer and home inspector intentions and abilities, as well as always research their referral base well prior to hiring them, after checking them out well.

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