IF you are buying a house, and you suspect water has been in the basement

you love the upstairs, love the neighborhood, love the view

the basement is finished with tile, and dry..however

some of the baseboards in the finished basement look like they have a little bit of deterioration (possibly from a moist wall behind it?) but no evidence of heavy flood

the garage foundation looks like it is "moist" after a heavy rain - but also, no flood evidence

would this completely turn you off to a house?

what would you do?

eta- there are sump pumps in the basement

Message edited 6/24/2011 1:29:13 PM.

Re: IF you are buying a house, and you suspect water has been in the basement

When we bought our house our inspector told us it was a "dry basement". Well we've been in the house since November and we've had several instances where the basement was NOT dry, esp during heavy rain.

Looking back, had I known the basement had water issues it would not have turned me off completely, but I would have lowered my offering price. We've now had to pay several thousand dollars to correct the water issues.

If the basement has sump pumps then you can guarantee they've had water issues.

Re: IF you are buying a house, and you suspect water has been in the basement

Idk that it would turn me off entirely, but you should definitely look into sealing the foundation. You just don't want to run into a mold issue.

Is the basement finished?

Re: IF you are buying a house, and you suspect water has been in the basement

I would walk away unless I was absolutely in love with the house or the seller agreed to a price decrease matching the cost of a new foundation to address the problem.

DH and I were looking a large home by the bay a few months ago, the price was in our range and the property was substantially larger than what we have now. I knew something was off when I walked in and saw scented candles burning in every room and Glade airfresheners in almost every open outlet. Something just wasn't right.

We spoke with some other realtors in the area about it and they told us that particular house had a HUGE water problem (ie mold, severe damage to the foundation, walls, etc) but I was POd that neither the seller not the realtor mentioned anything. Our realtor from the home we're currently in was appalled when he found out the seller's realtor hadn't revealed the water damage to us.

Re: IF you are buying a house, and you suspect water has been in the basement

We bought a house, by the water, with a basement.

We've had flooding down there several times.

I would never buy a house with a basement again at this point.

Just our washing machine/dryer is down there anyways and we don't store too much.

It will probably cost a few thousand to "water proof" it down there, however, living so close to the water I don't know if it's even worth it to do that.

It's such a PITA to deal with, and smells so gross down there after it gets wet.

Re: IF you are buying a house, and you suspect water has been in the basement

I would walk. Water is evil. Sometimes it is near impossible to figure out where it comes in, can cost a ton to fix, the mold potential would scare.

Just not worth it.

Re: IF you are buying a house, and you suspect water has been in the basement

There could be a number of reasons why water is getting into the basement. How are the gutters? Are they clear? What about the foundation around the house? Is the soil pitched towards the house? These are all factors that would cause flooding in the basement in heavy rains.

Re: IF you are buying a house, and you suspect water has been in the basement

Re: IF you are buying a house, and you suspect water has been in the basement

Re: IF you are buying a house, and you suspect water has been in the basement

I would pass.

Re: IF you are buying a house, and you suspect water has been in the basement

I think you need to assume that the basement had water in it at some point and may again. You will have to take some preventative measures but it's not the end of the world, basements get water in them...

Re: IF you are buying a house, and you suspect water has been in the basement

it's a pain in the ***! We just spent 3k on french drains.
If you suspect it, make sure it's inspected properly, ask them to lower the price since you'll spending money water proofing it now . .

BUT it's a basement and well, it can happen.

I will say the fact that it's tiled down there makes me def. suspect it had water issues. (not true in all cases, of course!) BUT after we just put in our french drains we talked about getting rid of the pergo and doing tile instead.

Re: IF you are buying a house, and you suspect water has been in the basement

The simple fact that they have sump pumps down there would turn me off.

Re: IF you are buying a house, and you suspect water has been in the basement

we just started looking at houses and this has been a reason why we just walked out of a couple. I did get a suggestion and as a previous poster poster said have it carefully inspected. That is if you absolutely love the house and adjust your offer according to the findings you get. Good Luck!!

Re: IF you are buying a house, and you suspect water has been in the basement

I would pass on this house. If that's all you saw, imagine what you didn't see?
We LOVED a house and ended up walking b/c the inspector was able to find that a lot of the damage was covered up. And inspectors don't go into the walls so I can only imagine what else was wrong. SCARY! If you have any hestitation, I would pass. This is a HUGE investment. I know it's hard to walk away from some thing you like but in the long run, it will be worth it.

Re: IF you are buying a house, and you suspect water has been in the basement

I disagree with most here, I think it's a stretch to think you are going to find a house that has NEVER had water in it on long island. We are surrounded by water and most of the house have older block foundations. Long as it's dry now and isn't an ongoing issue you are fine.

Re: IF you are buying a house, and you suspect water has been in the basement

Well if they have sump pumps I think it is pretty safe to say they def. have water problems. If the pumps aren't new and you are seeing damage that looks new then I would be even more concerned.

And, yes, we did walk away from a house that was pretty perfect for us for a few issues but, the primary one was water. They also had a french drain but, water damage seemed to be there as well. Also b/c the house was priced at the top of our range and we weren't going to be able to shell out tons of money if there was a water problem and, from what I know from friends and family some water problems can be a huge $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ headache to fix correctly.

HTH!

Re: IF you are buying a house, and you suspect water has been in the basement