I'd say Kingston/Belleville. But they are so on bedrock there often are no basements. Keep the dehumidifier going to reduce humidity whenever necessary. This prevents the growth of mildew/mould--"the basement smell". Cut out the bottom few inches of the drywall so it doesn't wick up moisture and repair wherever liquid water is coming in. Major changes to rubble foundations, unless absolutely necessary, can create more problems than they solve.

The inspection was performed, and other than normal wear and tear, the unit is in very good condition. New AC, air ducts, adequate insulation. All the appliances in working order. The garage is in average shape; the garage door opener appears to the be an older chain driven unit. The exterior wood trim sags a bit, but he says that is normal. The floor is ever so slightly sloping in one direction; again within the "normal" range. I suppose because it's on the second/top floor. Double pane windows all have the airtight seals compromised, unfortunately, including the sliding door and the French door. Fixable but not-so-easy. And the tile tub surround is in bad shape around the knob and has to be repaired, including the backing wall. But hey, for $75K? Not too terrible in my opinion. He says he doesn't see any foundation issue that would warrant me backing out. This post was edited by richardlyon33 on Tue, Aug 19, 14 at 23:46

Basement stairwells usually have a seperate drain to the sump as do each run of tile from the perimeter of the building. There is filter cloth which is used to line drainage systems of the type you describe. It was not always used. If the cloth was not used, silt from the backfill and years of soaking rain will infiltrate the stone surrounding the tile and eventually the tile itself. Settlement will also cause dips in the pipe itself which will cause some water to "belly UP". Some of this silt will serve to level out those bellies and allow the water to drain. So a little silt at these points is ok. Rather than throw the most dire probelms at you and try to scare you with the more complex and worse case scenarios, I'll stick with the simplest and most affordable action. I think this would apply to your situation for a couple of reasons. One, the house is 24 years old and if it were a "really bad" problem, you would be complaining of flooding, not slow water drainage. Two, I've seen the problem you describe many times and the easy fix has always worked, with the soil composition you've described. If you had clay soil, it would have been much more complex. In my experience, I think the drain tile from the walk out stairway to the pump has a 24 year buildup of silt in it. There are a number of ways to clear it. It will be a little time consuming (a few hours) but it is a DYI job and will be is as good as new when you're finished. Remove the drain screen and put a garden hose without a nozzel into the cellar drain and let water run into it at a rate it will readily drain (you will increase rate as you clear the silt). At the sump end, insert another garden hose with a nozzel into the pipe where the water drains from. The nozzel should be the single cylinder type and locked into the heavy spray position. Start inserting the hose further into the pipe, the further the better, while running the water at full pressure. Silt will start washing out. As the flow increase, increase the water pressure to the outside hose. If the outside hose can easily be inserted further into the drain, do it. Keep working it this way until the watre runs clear. This method will keep you from clogging the pipe with silt. I don't recommend you do this but, once complete, you could put a ping pong ball in one end and a shop vac at the other and the ball would pop right through. Now how did I know that?

I am familar with the soil but more important your story has a familar ring to it. All these things the city,builder and builders agents are telling you is what they should have told you BEFORE YOU BUILT. Farthermore,any issues with the lot which city and/or builder knows about is supposed to be corrected BEFORE granting a permit and/or building on it. I don't intend to rub salt in the wound but instead just tell you that unless builder is footing the bill for all this that he should have done and rolled into his homes,he's the last person I want advising me on who to hire and what to have them do. We have a saying in Tx that imo may be true in your case "they saw you coming" and are milking you. It sounds obivous they knew your house was being built in a pond. Another thing that sends up the red flag is the importance being attached to "where the smooth facade of the foundation transitions to the rough facade which should be underground), ". That is simply improper backfill around the foundation that can be taken care of with a truck load of top soil and some sweat. Wherther the foundation has shifted is concluded by one engineer graphing the intire home. Takes 15 minutes and is free from most foundation companies in your area. Tarrant and Dallas counties have more foundation repair companies per capita than fast food stops. Have one give you a free inspection then decide wherther to get a secound opinion,fix it or leave well enough alone.