Meg,

I am not an expert nor have I had an experience with water cracks in the crawl space. I think it sounds like your crawl space could use waterproofing.

I have been told in the past and present that cracks in garage floors are common. I had one in my last house since it was built which never got any worse. I have one in my new house which has not concerned me. One year punch list was just completed. The masonary people just put some type of filler in. It really did not even need it.

You might want to try reposting this question on the "building a home" forum as I think there are more folks over there who think about and deal with structural issues/problems as opposed to aesthetic ones.

Thanks jerseygirl 1,

We're approaching our one-year warranty date so it's causing me to panic. I did read something online about water in the crawl space and, apparently, the tarp is probably being used as a vapor retarder. I don't know if it's the right way or not, but I suppose it makes sense that water is caught under the tarp. The good news is that the crawl space is not damp feeling.

We're going to schedule an inspection just to be safe. Thanks for your response.

We've dealt with the problem in a previous home and in our DS's current home. In both cases drain tile had not been put in around the perimeter of the house so water was running straight under the house and forming little ponds!

If you've been having a lot of rain lately, and you're in a low area, dampness under the vapor barrier isn't too uncommon, but you never want it to puddle.

Definitely get an inspector out..........and use an independent, not one recommended by the realtor.

Hmmm, Annz. I've already asked our realtor for the name of the inspector she likes to use. He wasn't available when we bought our house and the guy we used missed a couple things so I don't want to use him again. (Of course that guy was recommended by our realtor, too, so why am I going to the realtor again?)

Guess I'll send an email out to some of my friends and see who they recommend. Thanks for the tip.

meg
- What do you mean "one year warranty" is this new construction, new home?
- The plastic is there to act as a vapor barrier - since there is no foundation in that part of the home, the barrier keeps moisture from going up into the floorboards in that area

- Pooling water where there is gravel is cause for concern
- Have you had rain/snow melt in recent past?
- do you have gutters in that area of the house - are they properly installed, pitched, cleaned out, and draining away from the house
- has there been any recent construction in your area?
-Perhaps the person who had the crawl space done, hit some water, hence the reason for the pebbles? high water table there - any signs of water in the basement?

I would get an inspector - I gave a link below that may help

Here is a link that might be useful: good luck

THanks for the info and the link jejvtr. Yes, it's new construction so it's still under the one-year warranty from our builder.

Regarding our gutters, I have had them cleaned regularly although they're pretty clogged right now. (The guy is coming this week.) I did notice that because of the pitch of the roof, a lot of water is bypassing the gutters entirely. The water is running down the eaves (whatever that decorative board is called on our house) and is pooling in certain spots near our house.

My hunch is that is what is causing that one line of water down the cinderblocks under our house. (The other line looks like it's from a leak in a pipe below the house. The leak is where the pipe meets the cinderblock. Looks like more of a plumbing problem, not one caused by rain.)

When I pulled back the tarp (the vapor barrier), it is wet but I couldn't tell if it was puddling or just damp. We're outside Seattle and we've had lots of rain lately. My guess is that the water table is high in this area. It was wet even under the middle of our house which seems like a water table issue, but what do I know?

There is no foundation there, but there are cement pilings. I didn't want to explore by digging in the gravel but I hope they did something to keep the water from seeping into the cement footings. Is that right?

I do not know if you have a problem or not-but I do know that Seattle has had record rain. We are in Portland and have had 2.9 inches and we have so many road closures that it is awesome. Seattle has had 5.2 inches-breaking records. My friends in Seattle said their yard is a pond and their neighbors basements are flooded. So while you should have it looked at try not to panic-this is unusual even for the NW---and, again , not knowing that much, I do not think your ground needs to be dry under the tarp--damp or even wet does not seem like a problem with these circumstances....keep us posted!

Too funny noodlesportland. Now I understand your log in name! I always read it as noodle sport, and never knew what a noodle sport was. Now it makes perfect sense: noodles in Portland. Duh!

Thanks for the reassurance. I'm trying not to worry, or at least not to panic, which is hard especially since the builder still hasn't responded to an unrelated email from Friday. We have had lots of rain here, and even some snow. I think the entire area is drenched.

Stay dry!

As an example of the difference correct drainage can make...............DS's newly purchased home would get 6-8" of water under it with a typical rainfall. We discovered the builder (14 yr old home) didn't put any drain lines under the home or around the perimeter. An excavator installed a french drain, 4 ft. deep, on the back and one side of the home, added a drain line under the home and rerouted the drain line of the gutters.

We held our breath as we opened up the crawl space yesterday worried what we'd find after 3 days of heavy rain in the Portland area. The whole area was bone dry......even under the vapor barrier!

As mentioned in another thread, sometimes the problem is a gopher tunnel that runs under the home!

Meg, I remember your gutter placement (on the front porch) thread during your construction. One of the discussions was to make sure that there was sufficient gutter to handle the runoff from your roof. I also remember paved parking in front? Did your contractor attach the downspouts on your porch to an underground pipe to direct the water away from the house?

Ours did, but sometimes in a really heavy rain, the water couldn't flow fast enough through the downspout connectors. (We have a VERY steep roof) So it gushed back up around the tops of the connectors that fit over the downspout. We had to extend the connectors a lot higher on our downspouts to take care of the occasional problem. They aren't pretty that high, so we're concealing them with plants.

Now, we would appreciate some of that rain here in the drought stricken areas of North Carolina and other southern states!

Cameron

Wow Cameron! I am so impressed with your memory.

Ah, yes, our lovely dark brown gutters and downspouts. Such an architectural highlight. I decided not to mess with them because I didn't want any water problems.

The two downspouts that run down our front columns are in plastic footings, or what I call white plastic stockings. My understanding is that they are connected to underground pipes, which is why the builder wouldn't move the downspouts when I complained about the their placement.

I've never seen them backup, so I'm assuming the pipes can accommodate all the water. I think the culprit, in part, is the pitch of our roof as well. Water runs off the edge of the roof near the gutter instead of going into the gutters, so maybe they can add some flashing to the edges of the steep parts to better corral the water. (I'm not sure it's called flashing. It's bent metal.) Again, not an attractive solution but it beats the alternative.

I would love to send you our rain--all of it at this point! We're getting too much at once, and the ground is already saturated.

Noodle Sport-that made me smile and laugh! I also remember your front porch drain--it is dry and there is even some blue sky. I have decided NOT to go and look at our crawl space---we did look in the attic and all was good. When we first moved in we had a small area under the house that had just a little pooling after a big rain (we are on a steep hill. The builder (who if fabulous) came over and checked it out-but basically said with those particular conditions it was to be expected and not to worry. Ok-maybe I will have my DH go look but our builder has stood by every single issue-even after 5 years he came over to this week to discuss an issue in the garage that he is taking care of because it should have been "right" to start with. So-hope you are drying out-I am off to my Noodle Sport workout....