Who is Responsible for Poor Drainage?
Quick Column Summary:
- Basement with water issues and mold
- Is it the builders fault
- Building code is for the minimum standard
- Research and detailed planning is required
David Fern has lots of water and mold in his basement. He's one unhappy customer and wants to know who should have paid to make sure this didn't happen.
I don't think he's going to like my answer.
"Our basement has water issues. The sump pump runs a great deal, especially after it rains, and there is black mold as well. I know that installing a french drain will help but I want to know what responsibility the builder or architect has with installing no drainage or insufficient drainage around the foundation? Seems to me that someone should be held responsible for fixing this problem, and it shouldn't be me."
Here's my answer to David:
David, I got my real estate salesman's license in 1975. I remember a Latin phrase taught in one of the courses:
"Caveat emptor"
"Let the buyer beware."
The bottom line is you're responsible for fixing this problem since you failed to do your due diligence BEFORE you bought or closed on the home.
I've had information here at my website for over fifteen years about proper drainage and foundation waterproofing. There are countless other websites that have good info too about this.
I'm going to assume this is a new home. If so, you should have provided lots of input into the plans and specifications ensuring the basement would be dry. You can't hope for things to happen. You only hope for things you can't control. You were in complete control of what would happen with your basement.
If you would have done your homework before you handed over the money for this house, you would have known then you'd never have an issue because you would have had the house built the way I, or other drainage experts, would have said to do it. You would have paid the extra money at that time for the upgrade.
I know what you're thinking, "Tim, I paid PROFESSIONALS to do it right. I paid to have the house built to the building code."
More bad news - the building code is a set of MINIMUM standards. The building code doesn't ensure dry mold-free basements.
Guess what? People get bamboozled each and every day. Didn't P.T. Barnum bloviate about this?
"There's a sucker born every minute."
If you didn't have the proper specifications in place before you built the home to ensure a dry basement, it's your fault. It's time for you to suck it up and get out your checkbook.
Sorry for the tough love.
That's the problem with building a new house. No one knows about material defects that don't exist yet. Legal requirements aside, the builder ill served his client by not assessing the site's drainage.
I blame the schools. Ouir schools ought to teach how to buy a house.
Hi Tim, BTW, love your website.
But I have to disagree with your tough love.
Not everyone who has a house built can possibly know everything to get the job done right. What if he were a single mother or father who has absolutely no knowledge whatsoever about the correct details on all aspects of building a house correctly? There's no way they could know everything especially if they've never had any interest in building things or their life never leaned them in that direction. Suppose they were in professions that never were related to building or construction-suppose they were nurses or doctors or accountants etc, they would have no clue about building details-yet they still want a house that was built correctly.
I myself know a lot about building construction and recently had a roof put on my house. I did everything to ensure that it was done correctly and, embarrassingly, I STILL had a problems with the roofer's quality of work. I got 3 estimates, references, testimonials, etc. everything they say you should do. The guy I chose, I had a good feeling about, he even did my sister's roof 4 years ago. His business said they were family owned and operated since 1969. However, when he showed up with his crew, the crew turned out to be a bunch of guys that have been working for him for 3 years, and I found out ,as they were working on the house, they were found on craigslist (he apparently has had trouble with crews before). I started to get nervous then. Well, after they left, they did it in a one day, my house is small, I walked the roof and found no less than 2 dozen roofing nails exposed outside the shingle! What a bunch of hacks! Needles to say, I only had paid him half the job with the balance due upon completion. AND there were other flashing details he failed to do adequately to my higher standards. He had to come back TWICE to fix the problems. I basically had to teach him the right way to flash a roof. What a PITA! The fact that I had only paid half gave me a lot of leverage. The problems were fixed adequately but I still would have liked them to be done better than they were-I will now always be nervous about the roof now and will always wonder. After the constant back and forth with this guy I had had enough and finally cut him loose, knowing I'd fix the last few things myself. If you want something done right you gotta do it yourself. I would've if I had the time but I have a day job and can't take so much time off to roof the house myself. Sheesh! I urge everyone I know now that even if they say "family owned and operated" they better really find out what kind of quality crew they will be using.
Paul,
If you don't want to do your due diligence, then you take the time to FIND A PRO. I've been selling CONTRACTOR HIRING GUIDES that help you find a pro for over 20 years.
Tim,
For the uninitiated in new construction, Independent Third Party Consulting Services are available to review, and to inspect, the areas of construction that an owner does not have a working knowledge of. Contracts with said services should identify the scope of liability in the case of a failure.
Tim,
I bought my house back in 1976 and learned from my closing attorney that I was buying it "as is" no warranties. Back then there were no professional home inspectors except that we had an exterminator do a termite inspection. In 2006 my daughter bought a brand new home and the bank recommended a home inspection which did in fact turn up several problems that were corrected before closing.
After buying my house I ended up having water infiltration into the basement after a couple of days of heavy rain. After many years of crack repairs and inside wall "waterproof paints" with the problem re-occurring every few years, I watched your French Drain video and did all the digging myself - should have hired some young people to dig, I'm 66 - and installed the French Drain and a soaker pit. Problem solved.
Tim, wet basements and I have been competing for 50+ years. The first two rules I learned were 1) clean gutters &downspouts and 2) get water away from foundation walls. Slope earth away from walls and prevent pooling - add a strip of heavy mil plastic sheeting in the angle of wall to earth. Add extensions to the discharge ends of the downspouts. These measures are easy and inexpensive. The next step would be to paint the inside of the exterior walls with a water barrier paint such as Sta-Dri. My current project is my 1846 Federal in CT. It has a laid stone (cut stone vs rocks) foundation with zero mortar. When I bought the house, it had been professionally landscaped and basement moisture proofed (???!!! Hah!) Guess drainage is not a core subject, probably an elective. Anyway, application of the steps I listed took my basement from a Niagra Falls during rain to occasional wet floor. I can predict conditions by the type of storm. Oh yes, I have a dehumidifier for general moisture control. Patience and tight purse strings do pay off. Oh, this house would make a dandy topic for a how-to seris. Doug
I do not have the problems cited here, but my basement has a sump with a sump pump (came with the used house). Water is always in the sump to some extent, but when we get heavy rains, the pump works almost continuously (high water table). However, it would still get damp and you could smell mildew. I solved the problem by adding a fairly high capacity dehumidifier. It works great, although over 25 years, I have had to replace it four times. I keep the humidity at about 40% and the basement stays dry. I know this will not work for leaky basements, but it has saved me a lot of grief.
I have a drainage issue but it's not in my house we are on a slab with no basement. Our issue is the drainage ditch in the front yard. It appears that the builder didn't put any pipes in the ground for any of the water in the ditch to do. Is that the builder or the city that would deal with that? I would appreciate any feedback on this matter in that there is a huge hurricane headed for the east coast and we are due for A LOT of rain here in Virginia.
It depends on who owns the ditch!
have issues with water under my screened in porch with a little rain heavy rain goes under and in crawl space I have round things in the yard where water comes out of and the neighbors is about 15 ft their water spout comes directly toward our back house our house sits lower to their and water cannot run up it runs into their gutter and then the builder has spounts that water is draining out instead of to the street my yard stays saturated till it finally drains same as under my deck the neighbors like my self have problems too it appears as though the one neighbor got the builder to put a French drain under their deck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmZkelWmC68
Michele,
You need to order my Linear French Drain DVD.
Put one in as I describe and your water problems will disappear.
http://shop.askthebuilder.com/linear-french-drain-video-series-dvd/
Hi Tim, We are in the process of building our new home. We are trying to do our due diligence. Written several emails about potential flooding due to improper drainage. We are pointing out to the builder that the building code is set to minimum. However the builder would not listen and keeps pointing us adhering to minimum building code. We haven't closed the house yet but they won't listen and are threatening to charge $500.00 each day for the delay in closing. How do we get this addressed and have our interest protected for future.
Lots of moving parts in this situation and I need to see photos. This is why I developed my phone consult service.
BEST $$$$ you can spend at this point. You can go with the RECORDED call or the you-take-great-notes call. LOOK HERE:
http://shop.askthebuilder.com/products/15-Minute-Phone-Conversation-with-Tim.html
Hi, Tim,
We had a home built and it was completed in 2016. It is one floor with a crawl space beneath. Everything was perfect with the house. The grading was perfect and we had no water issues until the developer developed the property next to us a year later. They raised that property so high that our property flooded. Also, our house was flooding underneath. Finally, they installed drains that took the runoff from the roof to the back of the property and they installed a sump pump. The final work was done 2018. Though the flooding is not as bad in the back yard, the sump pump goes on and off every 5-10 minutes when it rains. We did not buy the home or the property in this condition. What can we do?
Donna,
Please go read all of my Linear French Drain columns.
Disagree. If found to be the fault of improper installation or failure, and/or negligence on the part of the architect, grounds for a lawsuit.
Wow came to read this after experiencing a flood in my home and just wanted to say, your "tough love" isn't tough love at all--it's insensitive and rude.
Mike, the fruit roll-ups and juice boxes are over on the shelf by the coloring books. You need to be tough to accept responsibility and blame for decisions.
Hi, not sure if you still check this site.
We had a new home built here in Brooksville Fl, it is NOT in a community. It rained last night and this morning we noticed an inch and a half of water sitting along side of the house. Who is responsible for that, the builder or the county for not building the pad higher?
Will we end up getting damage quickly before we install a drain. Basically is there damage now?
Thank you,
How can a new out of state homeowner know what is going to happen on a newly, developed property when it rains the first big rain when they are not the paid expert (builder/city etc.) unless they they are trained in that sort of thing? It would seem that the builder for sure would want a good record on his home building for future sales.
What if you moved in from out of state and no one offered any upgrades on drainage at that time? I am still under the one year contract of getting things fixed here at the new build. Can the drainage situation be a part of that correction?
Our yard is at the bottom of the hill for all the homes built in this section. We have drainage issues. We brought this up and were aware before we closed and have been fighting it ever since. What can we do?