Central Ohio Wet Basement Quiz…
Thursday, January 10th, 2008I have a spam email in one of my mailboxes from a water-proofing company. It has a basement quiz… I am going to dissect that spam and put it to use… on my blog for a series about wet basements.
I am not going to give a link to the company who spammed me. That may or may not be kosher in blogging but I sure don’t want them spamming my blog. I do not know this company so I am not using their information to give them any authority or business. They may be a great water proofing company or they may be all wet. Sorry I could not resist.
Here’s Questions Number One on the basement quiz…. from a contractor who does water proofing:
“BASEMENT QUIZ:
Question #1:True or False: A leaking basement usually leaks primarily due to poor grading/negative slope around the house ?Answer: False, absolutely not. Proper grade only eliminates one of the three basic ways water affects a basement. While surface runoff can affect a foundation it is usually only a significant factor when the entire property is affected by SIGNIFICANT GRADE CHANGES. By this we means that the land itself is significantly affected by neighboring topography (i.e. your neighbors house is on much higher ground than your own). On basically flat property Surface water is actually the least of the 3 ways water affects the basement. Both capillary water and”
The response to question number one just ends there. Question number two is right after it. Not sure what more was part of the answer. So maybe this is not a good basement question to start what I plan to do as a series on ColumbusBestBlog.com but it’s supposed to rain today isn’t it?
It does seem obvious though that depending on topography a house with perfect grading could have a wet basement.
My big experience with wet basements in Central Ohio is obviously showing homes, home inspections (as an innocent bystander) and negotiations regarding defects, as necessary.
I certainly am not an expert on wet basements but I have seen a few.
I had a home inspector guest blogger here for a real short time. Two or three posts only…. come back David Tamny… I love home inspection blogging for some reason. I would love to hear a home inspectors response to that question and answer…
I went to a great home inspection presentation by one of my favorite local home inspectors a few years back. I attended the presentation (for home owners or buyers not for the real estate industry) at the Library in Clintonville. Obviously a lot of people in the audience were from Clintonville. The topic of the presentation was the 10 biggest problems found in home inspections in Central Ohio. It was fun when Art of Criterium -Lizkay Engineers got to basements. The crowd perked up and asked lots of questions!
Anyone want to talk about wet basements and water proofing with me?
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