Urgent: Going to buy a house with water in crawlspace

 Hi Experts,

I need an your expert advise urgently. We are looking at purchasing a
house. We had house inspection done. There was water in the
crawlspace. The URL to the pictures is:

http://www.geocities.com/tttwilson/

The first picture shows the backyard
The second one shows previous repairs and dried mud on the plastic
The third picture shows standing water.

The house inspector says that due to the improper backyard slope/grade
of the house and lot of rains in the last couple of weeks, the water
has gotten into the crawlspace. He says that to rectify this problem,
a french drain needs to be put in to the backyard that runs all the
way to the street. He also suggested soding (puting grass) into the
backyard to prevent the water from going in. The estimate on repairs
is about $3500.

The owner of the house says that the house is still under builders
warranty because it is less than 1 year old. Owner said that he was
not aware of any previous repairs. He says that he and builder have
looked at this and think that it is mainly due to water condensating
from the airconditioning unit. He says that the builder will put a
sump pump in the crawlspace. But they (owner and builder) will not pay
for sodding and french drain. The owner says that he already has
someone who is willing to pay more than I am paying and that the new
prospective buyer has looked at this and does not think that this is a
problem.

The inspector says that he is pretty sure that most of the water is
due to rain water getting in and that sodding and french drain will
take care of it.

BUT what I need to know is clear and experienced opinions/suggestions:

Shall I just stay away from this house?

Or do you all think that if I get the house, $3500 will take care of
this problem once and for all? Would anyone buy a house if it has sump
pump in the crawlspace?

Thanks,

Tom

 

Here in my part of Ct, a large percentage of homes have sump pumps in the
basement.  Its no big deal because if water gets in the basement (or
crawlspace) the sump pump takes care of it, no big deal.

I'm not sure exactly what french drains are, but in our yard we have large
(4"?) PVC pipes buried around the house that drain the water away from the
house, and they work pretty well diverting water.

Probably the biggest thing you can do to alleviate the water problem is to
regrade the land around the house so that things slope away from the house
instead of toward it.

We are currently in the process of buying a home that has the same problem
you are describing: there is some standing water in the crawlspace, part of
the property slopes toward the house and a drainage trench behind the house
is all clogged with branches and leave so the water has been overflowing the
trench and ending up in the crawl space.  Basically the inspector told us
that we should pump the water out of the crawlspace, once it is dry run a
dehumidifier in there to get it dried out well.  He also said that we should
consider a waterproof barrier on the floor (I know nothing about this, but
it sounds like maybe its a big rubber mat kind of thing from what my husband
said).  Grade the land away from the house (we will have to remove the deck
to do this, no problem because we want to make the deck bigger and
configured differently anyway.  He also suggested to rake out and maybe
deepen the drainage trench behind the house and perhaps put some gravel in
it.

 There is no way that much water and dampness in the bricks is from the AC.
A properly designed and installed french drain should solve the problem, but
it might cost more than the inspectors estimate.

You don't want to have water problems though, because the next thing you'll
have is mold problems.

I would walk away from the deal, let it be someone else's headache.

 I agree with mkm.  Plenty of fish in the sea.  Don't let your desire for
this house get you hooked into a bad deal.  Water problems are particularly
troublesome.  Aside from erosion/drainage issues, termites need water to do
their thing.  There are a number of things you can do to correct the problem
but if the guy is telling you he won't pay for the solutiuon that will make
you happy then to hell with him.  I would walk away.

 

Yeah, it's fixable if you throw enough money at it. I highly doubt 3500
bucks will cover it. I'd agree with the others- walk away. If you or anyone
in your family has allergies, RUN away. With a backyard slope like that, you
will always have drainage problems, short of putting in an actual drainage
ditch and culvert, assuming you have any low spot nearby to send the water.
I don't think all that leakage is surface water- looks like it is coming in
under the wall. Life Is Too Damn Short to mess with damp smells and mold,
IMHO.

aem sends....