Anchorage: buying a house - areas where no sump pumps needed (Seward: apartment, renting)

[Reish]

Hello neighbours! My family have been renting an apartment in Anc for last 4 years, and now we are ready to buy a house. One of the issues we ve faced while looking for house is that a lot of places have sump pumps, that are being used all the time (not just for emergency cases). Now we are trying to find out what areas in Anchorage generally "dry" and dont usually have water issues (high water table).

Where do YOU live? Do you have to use sump pumps at your house? What about your neighbours?
For example we loved the house right south of Russian Jack - but sump pump was running there all the time, plus it had issues. Now we are looking at few options: house south of Dimond around Campbell lake, and couple of houses between Northwood and Minnesota.

Maybe someone knows good forum for homeowners only, where they can help us? I wasnt able to find one so far.

Thank you!

[GnomadAK]

What you need to find is an area that is up a hill a bit. Both of those areas you mentioned, but especially Northwood/Minnesota, are built on filled in swampland. The land on the other side of the International/Minnesota intersection should be fairly dry.

A lot of Anchorage is built on fill. Sears sits on a site that used to be Blueberry Lake. Pretty much everything along the Seward Highway south of Dimond to Rabbit creek is filled swamp. You almost need to be looking at the hillside to be 100% sure.

[equinox1]

I'm new to Anchorage, so have limited input. I looked at places (condos) in the University/hospital (and a couple in midtown) area and didn't see any evidence of water issues or sumps. I bought on the lower level off Boniface and there are no sump pumps there (it's on a hill though). I have friends off E. Northern Lights/Mills and they've had no sump pump or water issues at their place. Another friend has owned a place in the Dimond/72nd street area and hasn't had water issues.

Edit
I'll add that one friend has two children with places not far from Russian Jack and neither have water issues or sumps. I'd only heard of water being an issue in one place my friends had looked at when they were buying a couple years ago, so didn't get the idea it was a widespread problem. That may be because of areas we looked in.

Have you discussed with agent?

[Reish]

Originally Posted by GnomadAK

What you need to find is an area that is up a hill a bit. Both of those areas you mentioned, but especially Northwood/Minnesota, are built on filled in swampland. The land on the other side of the International/Minnesota intersection should be fairly dry.

A lot of Anchorage is built on fill. Sears sits on a site that used to be Blueberry Lake. Pretty much everything along the Seward Highway south of Dimond to Rabbit creek is filled swamp. You almost need to be looking at the hillside to be 100% sure.

Thank you!

That s one thing we didnt consider at all as "must have" when we were screening through our very first "batch" of houses to go see - being up a hill... First time house hunters - learning every day

[Reish]

Originally Posted by equinox1

Have you discussed with agent?

Thank you!

Honestly as first time home buyer we didnt think of water/sumps issues at all. We found houses online that we liked, contacted the agent that our friend recommended and asked him to show us those houses. We picked one of them, and agent pointed at sump pump - but he couldnt tell if it was neighborhood problem, or just this house (he wasnt very familiar with that area: near Wesleyan street- between Northern Light and south of Russian Jack)). He told us that 25% of houses in Anchorage have sump pumps. So we didnt even think of it as a big deal, until we made an offer and brought inspector. Entire sump pump set up in that houses needed to be re-done: digging trenches and stuff. Plus couple of other serious things. So we started to read/research more about how bad it is if sump pump is running every 15 minutes etc, and eventually called off the deal on that house. Now we increased budget by 10% and looking for more houses. We will make sure to to discuss with agent that we need to know all that he knows about area/water - before we fall in love with another hopeless house again

[jdhpa]

Originally Posted by Reish

Thank you!

Honestly as first time home buyer we didnt think of water/sumps issues at all. We found houses online that we liked, contacted the agent that our friend recommended and asked him to show us those houses. We picked one of them, and agent pointed at sump pump - but he couldnt tell if it was neighborhood problem, or just this house (he wasnt very familiar with that area: near Wesleyan street- between Northern Light and south of Russian Jack)). He told us that 25% of houses in Anchorage have sump pumps. So we didnt even think of it as a big deal, until we made an offer and brought inspector. Entire sump pump set up in that houses needed to be re-done: digging trenches and stuff. Plus couple of other serious things. So we started to read/research more about how bad it is if sump pump is running every 15 minutes etc, and eventually called off the deal on that house. Now we increased budget by 10% and looking for more houses. We will make sure to to discuss with agent that we need to know all that he knows about area/water - before we fall in love with another hopeless house again

If you find any areas that are particularly good or bad about needing a sump please post, that's good info

[bongo]

Near Campbell Lake we had a sump pump.
Wesleyan/Mills, no sump pump.

[AK-Cathy]

Hills are not necessarily always dry. There are ANC hillside properties with all kinds of water problems, mostly from underground water movement. I have lived all over Anchorage and have not had to have sumps but have neighbors that have. It is site specific. Depends on whether the house has an operating foundation drain system, area water tables and the like. This year basements and crawl spaces that haven't had water suddenly did. Like others have said, avoid old and new fill areas built over old swamps or low lying bowl areas. Even then this is house specific. We had a house in a flood zone in Westchester that had a high and dry crawlspace that we added a drain system to, to make sure that it stayed that way. Neighbors had water, some chronically, some just in wet years, some like us had none.

Even an area as seemingly dry as Spenard has underground water movement that undermines slabs, foundations and parking lots from east of Arctic to Spenard Road around the 27th Ave area. Looks as dry as toast on the surface.

Good luck in your house search.

[dcbrewmeister]

It's not going answer your question or be what you want to hear but - If you have a basement, you should not rule out having a sump at all... water is always a possibility no matter how high up on a hill you live. The last thing you want is some kind of water in the basement (from almost any source - pipe, broken window etc) with nothing to get rid of it, remember any kind of basement is nothing more than a pool without a fancy paint job...

[Reish]

Originally Posted by dcbrewmeister

It's not going answer your question or be what you want to hear but - If you have a basement, you should not rule out having a sump at all... water is always a possibility no matter how high up on a hill you live. The last thing you want is some kind of water in the basement (from almost any source - pipe, broken window etc) with nothing to get rid of it, remember any kind of basement is nothing more than a pool without a fancy paint job...

I guess we are not opposed to having sump pumps - as long as it s for emergency situations, exactly like you said - to have it available when/if you need it.
The very first house we made an offer for - had sump pump, and it was running. We could see/hear it pumping water to the lawn every 15 minutes... Looking at more houses now - we are paying attention and trying to stay away from "active' sumps

Considering a house at Northwood/Strawberry road (south part of that intersection) now - crawl space seemed dry, and place itself was decent...