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Similar issue— really could use suggestions.
We are renting the house we thought we wanted to buy IF we can get issues resolved
House sets in a valley on a small lot. It was moved here about 15 yrs ago. It sets too low to the ground. I’ve been told it should’ve had 2 or 3 more layers of conservative block under it. So to late on that note. It has rained consistently, it seems, in the 2 years that we’ve lived here. There is always water under the house. Our neighbor’s property on North side of us is at hill area, so the rain water drains down to our house and to our neighbor’s driveway, on south side of us, causing standing water.
So I have standing water under my house consistently. The homeowner has put fans in the crawl space (the kind that I can flip a switch to tur on/off). He wants them to remain on constantly, in hopes of “drying it out” under there. But the rain keeps coming.
So with the water problem, I am also seeing mold/mildew a lot which I am attempting to control with a lot of bleach. But I have got to get this fixed.
Similar issue— really could use suggestions.
We are renting the house we thought we wanted to buy IF we can get issues resolved
House sets in a valley on a small lot. It was moved here about 15 yrs ago. It sets too low to the ground. I’ve been told it should’ve had 2 or 3 more layers of conservative block under it. So to late on that note. It has rained consistently, it seems, in the 2 years that we’ve lived here. There is always water under the house. Our neighbor’s property on North side of us is at hill area, so the rain water drains down to our house and to our neighbor’s driveway, on south side of us, causing standing water.
So I have standing water under my house consistently. The homeowner has put fans in the crawl space (the kind that I can flip a switch to tur on/off). He wants them to remain on constantly, in hopes of “drying it out” under there. But the rain keeps coming.
So with the water problem, I am also seeing mold/mildew a lot which I am attempting to control with a lot of bleach. But I have got to get this fixed.
Does anyone have suggestions to help?
Standing water and it’s usually always there, you should absolutely not buy that house as well as getting out ASAP and finding a new place. It’s obviously a no brainer..!
That house should never have been built. I have seen a lot of this, people build houses down in a draw or creek bed or down in a hollow, and then surprise surprise there are ongoing incurable water problems. I have actually seen a house built maybe 20 feet away from a creek, maybe two feet above the normal water level of the creek, and there were earthen dikes raised all around the house. (We didn't buy that one.)
Rather than "dog pile" on why "Yellow House" should move elsewhere / that house should not have been built I will try to offer some suggestions:
#1 -- Try to get the local zoning authorities involved. Many jurisdictions do have rules about "storm water run off". Just because the adjacent home is higher does not mean that they are free to direct water TOWARD your home. Ideally they will be compelled to direct storm water toward some "wetland" or have their own 'detention area'.
#2 -- Determine if there are steps to control storm water through prudent use of normal gutters with extended downspouts. You might be shocked to see just how effective a few extra feet of downspout can be in moving rain water away from a house.
#3 -- Evaluate the grading of the lot and the potential to change the grading to redirect water to a "wetland" or other detention area.
#4 -- Install appropriate "perimeter drains". Determination of specifics of how to do this may require the help of professionals but the basics start with understanding that pretty much ANY lot can be made "water proof". In some cases the "french drains" may need to be dug down quite deep and wide. In the worst case scenario a large area may need to excavated and then filled with coarse gravel / rip rap or even a "dry well" installed to hold the surge of rain from a storm and then slowly released. The costs of any of these steps could be so high as to categorize it as "not economically viable" depending on the value of the home but you won't know until you consult with qualified professionals.
Well, since "Yellow House" hasn't bought the house, and since there are thousands of houses that aren't built in a sink hole, I would suggest that a long list of expensive fixes (not all of which will work) is a worse choice than simply choosing to buy a different house.
Similar issue— really could use suggestions.
We are renting the house we thought we wanted to buy IF we can get issues resolved
House sets in a valley on a small lot. It was moved here about 15 yrs ago. It sets too low to the ground. I’ve been told it should’ve had 2 or 3 more layers of conservative block under it. So to late on that note. It has rained consistently, it seems, in the 2 years that we’ve lived here. There is always water under the house. Our neighbor’s property on North side of us is at hill area, so the rain water drains down to our house and to our neighbor’s driveway, on south side of us, causing standing water.
So I have standing water under my house consistently. The homeowner has put fans in the crawl space (the kind that I can flip a switch to tur on/off). He wants them to remain on constantly, in hopes of “drying it out” under there. But the rain keeps coming.
So with the water problem, I am also seeing mold/mildew a lot which I am attempting to control with a lot of bleach. But I have got to get this fixed.
I live next to a small drainage area. Under most normal conditions my house is fine, but if we get a crazy amount of rain (around 5 inches) the drainage area will back up into my back yard. On one occasion a downstream culvert plugged and water reached the back of my house about 4 inches high.
I have a "partial garden" lot in that most of my house has the grade go up to the top of the basement. This prevents the water from getting to the house in those areas. One side of my house, however, is a "garden" grade, so it is essentially dug out about 3 feet deeper than anywhere else. It is this part of my house that had water reach it.
I am looking for some solutions to prevent the water from reaching my house if the culvert ever would plug again. It has been a real challenging situation and I am no expert.
My first thought was to simply shore up the soil around the house and turn the garden windows into egress windows. The problem with that is the foundation doesn't go up high enough and I know you are not supposed to shore dirt up against siding.
Another possible solution that has been tossed around is the construction of a flower bed along the side of the house, about 3 feet from the edge of the house, about 2 feet high. The idea is that the flower bed would be connected to the corners of the house and some PVC holes with check valves would need to be built into it in order to allow water to drain, but not flood toward the house. Of course, if the check valve were to fail, I would need to have a few sand bags ready to try and plug the hole.
I am more than open to any other solutions the community can come up with.
Thanks,
Josh
I like the raised bed idea to create a levee around your house. However, maybe there could be a walkway instead of the PVC holes if you have enough lead time to know when to deploy sandbags across the walkways?
Would something like a patio there work? Surround the patio with the raised bed planters with only one or two walkway entrances. Hmm, wonder if there's any way to engineer some sort of floating boards that would self seal the walkway entrances when the water rose? Otherwise, keep some sandbags nearby for flood control.
I like the raised bed idea to create a levee around your house. However, maybe there could be a walkway instead of the PVC holes if you have enough lead time to know when to deploy sandbags across the walkways?
Would something like a patio there work? Surround the patio with the raised bed planters with only one or two walkway entrances. Hmm, wonder if there's any way to engineer some sort of floating boards that would self seal the walkway entrances when the water rose? Otherwise, keep some sandbags nearby for flood control.
Yikes!
Yeah, put dikes all around your house!
And exactly how do you propose to acccess the house itself by foot or car (into the garage) without making a cut in the ****, which will render it ineffective?
And when there's a heavy rain the dikes will keep the water in, too. Sandbags? Really?
The solution is simple: don't buy a house down in a hole. If you own one, get out as soon as you can and count yourself lucky when the sale closes. Making your house into a boat, or the Netherlands, is not a sustainable corrective action.
This is the OP's house, not the "Yellow House". OP's description of the problem is different since it's only on one side of the house which is three feet lower than the rest. The OP also already owns the house. Here's a quote from his first post:
"I live next to a small drainage area. Under most normal conditions my house is fine, but if we get a crazy amount of rain (around 5 inches) the drainage area will back up into my back yard. On one occasion a downstream culvert plugged and water reached the back of my house about 4 inches high.
I have a "partial garden" lot in that most of my house has the grade go up to the top of the basement. This prevents the water from getting to the house in those areas. One side of my house, however, is a "garden" grade, so it is essentially dug out about 3 feet deeper than anywhere else. It is this part of my house that had water reach it."
That's the house which may benefit from a patio with raised beds around it to act as a levee. He already owns it and the problem is when there's a torrential downpour AND the culvert is blocked. Occasional checks to make sure the culvert isn't blocked before a downpour may be helpful, although technically it's outside of his scope of responsibilities. Perhaps finding out who is responsible for keeping it functional and keeping them updated when it needs maintenance might be something the OP would want to do.
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