St. Louis Real Estate - Building Inspection - Grading and Drainage

GRADING AND DRAINAGE by Harry Morrell, Allied Building Inspections

A big part of the foundation and structure inspection involves getting a real close look at the grading and drainage on the site that the house was built on. Home inspectors will have all their red flags up when they drive up to a house below street level sitting in a hole. Inspectors will not be surprised when structural issues are discovered under these type conditions.

The initial exterior inspection will usually begin with site conditions, including, drainage, grading, landscaping, large dead trees, vegetation hindering drainage or too close to the house, water ponding, and soil erosion. If these conditions are present and improper, the conditions may result in foundation and structural defects. Concrete foundation walls do not crack, leak, or fail by themselves. Concrete foundation walls are rated for 200+ years of service life. However, if drainage problems cause water to run into the foundation of a house, over the years significant damage can result. It should also be noted that Americans do not do maintenance well pay attention well. Homeowners that do not pay attention to and maintain their homes, sometimes ignore warning signs and defects indicating significant problems will be on the way if corrections are not performed, or until their home is inspected during a real estate transaction.

When an inspector observes cracks, displacement, bowing walls and leakage in the basement it usually does not end there. When concrete foundation walls begin to fail, the defects usually follow straight up to the top of the house. Starting with cracks and displacement on the walls, leakage and standing water in the basement, wood structural components, i.e., floor joists and wood built up beams can rack, split or move, the dry wall in the living spaces above will show signs of cracks around the windows and doors, windows and doors may jam and bind, interior ceilings will crack, wood structural components in the attic will be affected as well, trusses and rafters will move crack or rack.

The source of this nightmare scenario can be traced back to the grading and drainage issues that were neglected for all those years. It should be noted that these defects can be overlooked by a buyer that loves the location, design, and color of the house. The inspector will find these defects on the real estate transaction inspection though. As well as documenting the foundation defects the inspector will identify the source as well.

All these foundation defects can repaired, but anticipate pricey repair costs. Grading and drainage can be improved as well. Grading, re-grading, adding fill , cutting fill, installing grade swails, French drain, downspout drain pipe extension, and interior drain tile sump-pump system are just a few improvements that can eliminate grading and drainage issues.

My advice is for buyers to ask their inspectors about any further concerns they have on these issues and for sellers to have an inspector perform a pre-listing inspection on their house before their house goes on the market to identify these issues and avoid these deal killing issues during the transaction.

Harry O. Morrell
Allied Building Inspections, LLC
ASHI Certified Inspector

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 13th, 2007 at 4:38 pm and is filed under Building Inspection News, First Time Home Buyer, For Buyers, For Sellers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.