Home inspection - basement leak

10 years ago

Hi,

We are thinking of buying this house. We like the location and the layout of the house and we are getting a bit of deal on the house because of the seller's personal situation. The house has a finished basement with wood panels and carpet floors.

During the home inspection yesterday, when the inspector checked under the carpet, we realized that there was water leakage in one of the basement corners.

According to the inspector, grading could be an issue behind the leak. When we checked the exterior, the ground at that corner was sloping in.

The seller has been living in that house for about 5 years and he told me that they did some work to improve the grade.

Here are some questions that are going through my mind.
1. Would there be mold behind the wood panels?
2. Would I be able to fix the leak? How much would it cost?
3. How big is the real problem?

Any suggestions, ideas?

Thanks.

Featured Answer

ncrealestateguy

9 years ago

All good advice above. First thing I would do is find out if it is coming from surface water and draining down to the footer or if the ground water is coming up and around the footer and then into the home. If it is coming from above, you can usually see stains or efflorescence (white powder) on the concrete walls, before the water hits the bottom.
Most surface water problems can be fixed with grading the soil so it slopes at least 6 inches over 10 feet. away from the home and by making sure gutters and down spouts are working correctly.
Water that is coming up from the water table can be fixed by installing drainage tiles on the inside of the basement's perimeter floor, and having these drains sloped to a sump pump(s).
Both situations can be fixed; one relatively cheap, the other relatively expensive.

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Comments (8)

sylviatexas1
10 years ago
These questions can't be answered responsibly on an internet forum;
you need an expert to guide you here.
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greg_2010
10 years ago
1) Could be.
2) Depends on what is causing the leak.
3) Depends on what is causing the leak.

The cause of the leak cannot be diagnosed from my seat. IF it's just a grading issue, that's not usually a big deal. But it could be a bunch of other things that range from no big deal to ridiculously expensive to fix.
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First and foremost, I'm not trying to be snide, but seriously, you get what you pay for...and $250.00 for a home inspection pretty much gets you a walk through...which is probably why he missed the red flags. That said, lets talk about those red flags. The sealer alone is not a red flag...because bottom line is that chances are that at some point most basements will experience water intrusion even if they have gone for years and never had a drop. This is because things change....the most obvious is development, which creates more impervious coverage, so the water flows to places that it never did before...often entering basements. The weather pattern has also been very weird for at least few years now, in terms of sometimes raining for days on end, overwhelminmg even the driest of basements. This is why many places are enacting new storm water management measures etc. That said, it is pro-active to seal the basement walls with seller...so that is not necessarily a "red flag". It is also best to have a sump pump? Do you have one? If not...have one installed. A friend who has owned his house since new 15 years ago had a flood in his basement for the first time a few months ago...a sump pump would have saved him a lot of grief. Of course, IF the staining along the floor and walls were present on the day of inspection, and did not develop between the day of inspection and the day you closed, and IF it was not concealed by the sellers possessions...yes, he should have noticed this and reported it.. If he took pictures of the basement and you have them to prove that the staining was present, you can make a case for money back. Otherwise, probably not. The porch is whole different story, as all of that should have been reported. If he did not include that in his report, I would send him documentation of what he missed, and tell him you want him to refund the cost of the inspection for that reason alone, water intrusion or not. However, you may need to prove that the porch issue caused water to intrude. You still have not said what the waterproofing company plans on doing about the water main issue, and the unknown source. Until you have definitive info on all of this, IMO, he will probably not comply as he can say that you can't pinpoint the cause as being the porch. Before spending huge bucks on the WP company, hire a professional landscaper to check the grade...as that could be your problem. You may also want to hire a forensic HI, to see if he can determine where the problem is coming form...as water has a funny way of appearing no where near the actual source of entry. Expect to pay at least $500.00. Last but not least...what state do you live in? I can check for you to see if they regulate the HI profession..if so, you should report him to the licensing board..or at least tell him you will..as that has far more impact than the BBB. .
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marie_ndcal
10 years ago
I agree, you need some specializing in basements. Is there drainage tile installed? Sump pumps? What kind of walls? Our basement was plastic blocks, reinforced rebar filled with cement. We also keep all plants away from the house so the water does not accumulate We put rocks about 3 feet out, with inserts for plants. We also put rebar in the flooring so it would not shift during our bad winters.
.

This post was edited by marie-ndcal on Mon, Nov 10, 14 at 13:57
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User
10 years ago
musicgold,
Please have an expert check out the basement before you buy it.
Water on floor is bad.
Don't buy it without a good contractor looking at it.
Ask the seller if you can remove some carpet and paneling to see what is going on.
It could be as BAD as the foundation, or as simple as gutters, but a contractor will let you know.
Are you sure it was coming from a corner of the house and not up from the floor?
Just a question you have to have answered.
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jmc01
10 years ago
Is there wet insulation behind the wood panels? Is the framing behind the wood panels wet?

If it was me, I'd definitely want those answers.
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vnw232
10 years ago
Sounds very similar to a house I once owned. Grading didn't work. A contractor inspected the basement and quoted thousands of dollars for drain tiles and a sump pump.
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Acadiafun
10 years ago
When we bought our house there was evidence of water instrusion in the unfinished basement.The basement had paneling, ceiling tiles but a cement floor. It is made of cement block walls, and there was like your house a grading issue that was easily fixed with adding soil to that area and around the house and removing three large shrubs that were very close to the house. The biggest issue I suspect was that the gutters were not kept clean.

In May the area experienced the most rainfall in two hours that it had seen in over 100 years. Many waterproofed basements were flooded (two destroyed), as well as our neighbor's who had recently waterproofed her basement for the second time and added French drains. She had a foot of water in her basement. This was the second time that she had to rip out her "mother in law suite." We had a small puddle of water.

When you ask how big the real problem is I think that is unknown. Did you see evidence of water marks on the wood panels? How long ago were they put up? Can you take one down to look behind it and see water marks on the studs? Can you live with having an unfinished basement that might have a puddle every so often after heavy rains? I would never trust a basement to not leak again after it has shown evidence of a leak which is why I removed the paneling, the ceiling tiles, and keep mine unfinished even though it is has been dry except for that one rain. If you are counting on the basement as true living space then it may be an expensive and ongoing problem.
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Home inspection - basement leak

ncrealestateguy

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