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Old 03-13-2010, 01:43 PM
 
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My daughter is buying a home (foreclosure) with an FHA loan. We just noticed that there are no gutters on the home. (There is a sump pump?) out back of the home that has something to do with the drainage. Is having gutters on the home an FHA requirement? She has just signed the loan app and sent it back along with the money for the appraisal that was required by the lender. We live in Carroll co. GA. Thanks for any information!
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Old 03-13-2010, 01:58 PM
 
Location: Watkinsville, GA
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Gutter help to move the water away from the foundation. I would recommend them whether they are required by the FHA or not. I have my downspouts piped underground to the drainage ditch in the back of my property.
Are you sure it is a sump pump out back? I've only seen them in basements & crawl spaces. Could it be a septic pump?
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Old 03-13-2010, 02:39 PM
 
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I would highly recommend getting a home inspection and the other poster is absolutely right in regards to the gutters. You want the gutters to shunt the water away from the house and its foundation no matter what the FHA requires.
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Old 03-13-2010, 02:50 PM
Status: "Mistress of finance and foods." (set 12 days ago)
 
Location: Coastal Georgia
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I hardly ever see gutters on houses in GA or the Carolinas. I'm told this is because the soil is so porous that water is quickly absorbed, and there are also no basements to flood, unlike here in the north.
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Old 03-13-2010, 02:53 PM
 
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Being a resident of GA and a previous resident of NC, homes do in fact have gutters here. The soil in NC and GA is clay is not porous. Many houses especially in NC are on crawls and you must keep them dry and many houses in GA are on basements. Even on a slab you want the soil graded away from your home.
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Old 03-13-2010, 03:42 PM
 
Location: Mableton, GA USA (NW Atlanta suburb, 4 miles OTP)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gentlearts View Post
I hardly ever see gutters on houses in GA or the Carolinas. I'm told this is because the soil is so porous that water is quickly absorbed, and there are also no basements to flood, unlike here in the north.
The soil in the southern part of Cobb (Atlanta metro) seems to be a reddish clay which is largely impermeable to rain, making the thin layer of good topsoil on my front lawn turn into a waterlogged sponge when it decides to rain hard.

The fact that we get so much hard/heavy rain in the Atlanta means that we end up seeing a lot of water flowing along roads, down hills, etc. I'm sure it's also why there are so many large stormwater catch basins located on the sides of restaurant parking lots, etc.

A surprising number of houses in the western and NW metro have basements, even older ones. Before we moved here from MN, I had the impression that basements in the south were somewhat rare, but the older rental house (a brick rambler) we stayed in initially had a full basement, our own house has a basement, and I have the impression that a lot of the homes in our area (old and new) have at least a partial basement.

The rental house had gutters all around, while our home has gutters on the front and back, and both have long plastic hoses/tubes which let the water flow a considerable distance from the downspout.

With non-porous soils and with twice the annual rainfall (50" versus 25") that I was used to seeing in the Twin Cities, the water handling part of the house can be somewhat more important down here.

I would also recommend that you get a good home inspector to check out the house before purchasing it.

The one we had was able to explain several things I didn't know about specific materials and techniques used when building our particular house, and he was able to explain why certain things were done. He was also able to identify a number of minor issues which we had the sellers fix before buying.
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Old 03-13-2010, 07:36 PM
 
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The sump pump? outside seems odd. I would definitely want to find out what that is all about and make sure the site does not have a flooding problem.
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Old 03-14-2010, 12:00 PM
 
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First of all thank you for the quick comments!
There are underground drainage pipes that run along the home and also down to that pump(all I can tell you it is round and is about 24" high) which I was told that if too much water accumulated an alarm would sound and it would begin pumping the water to a drainage ditch (way away from home). This home does set lower than the neighbors and has a full basement. With all the rain we have had, we have gone to the home numerous times and the water seems to be draining the way it should and no water or signs of water in the basement. The walls are not finished, so we are able to look at the actual concrete block. There seems to be minor moisture in the block, but it drys pretty quickly. This is without the electric on so the pump would not be running at all. The backyard slopes toward that ditch also. There was major flooding rains this past year and so I think that would be an indicator that things are working like they are supposed too? We were definatly planning on gutters, but may have to wait a few months depending on cost.
Any thoughts?
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Old 03-14-2010, 05:01 PM
 
Location: Watkinsville, GA
388 posts, read 1,119,397 times
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I would say that an exterior sump pump is a red flag that the home has drainage issues. Get a home inspector to check it out before you move forward.
You need to see the home during/after a MAJOR rain event to see if there are obvious (to a laymen) signs of water/drainage issues.
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Old 03-14-2010, 07:08 PM
 
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You may want an engineer or someone who specializes in waterproofing homes to look at the property to double check it for drainage problems and to inquire about the damp block walls. I don't think moisture on the interior block walls although the floor is dry is a good sign.
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