The Water Fiasco (Part 1)

Nothing is better for a home inspector’s ego than spotting a potential problem, then seeing it come to fruition before your eyes, and more importantly, your clients eyes. This happened not too long ago while doing a home inspection for a client, I was elaborating on some not so obvious issues with the way the yard pitched towards the home’s foundation. Fortunately for the client this home inspection took place the day after a long heavy rain. I pointed out & documented that the exterior grade rose approximately 3-5” about 3’ away from the foundation. I also noted & explained to the client that the gutter downspouts ended too close to the foundation. In a nutshell, when it rained the water from the downspouts was forced to stay close to the basement walls because it was trapped by the 3-5” dam. I told the client, “I would be very surprised if this 1950s vintage home had not had some wet basement issues in the past”. He responded that there were no indications of water problems on the Seller Disclosures. Much later during the inspection, when we walked down the basement stairs, voila, there was nearly 1” of standing water covering the entire basement floor. More on that, in a later blog post.