Drainage Nazi, The Remake

Anyone who has ever hung around me on an inspection knows I'm a drainage freak. I have adopted the term "Drainage Nazi".  I hold to this term like a baby monkey holds onto monkey mama; Now lest there be any mistake among us Gringos, Baby Monkeys hold tight - here's why: let go, and you're snake food. The same applies as relates to drainage. 

Here's Why - Again

Clay and water make a train through the kitchen 

So I was at a home in Spanish Fork yesterday. A Realtor friend had called me out to take a long hard look at things in her basement. The drainage pattern in the back yard wasn't what it should have been, and then - a rainstorm. That's all it took. The clay soil washed into the window well, then flowed into the basement kitchen, giving the floor the kind of polish it's never had.

$10 Fix or $10,000 Fix? Pick One
I talk a lot about how home inspection issues can result in a 10 dollar fix, or a ten thousand dollar fix, depending on what you know. This is yet another example of that. A little bit of grading may have done wonders. Instead, now it's time to do mold remediation. The cost of that? Priceless. Somebody's getting a big payday.

But She Can Just Call the Insurance, Right? 

So in this home is a mom, living in the basement of her daughter's place. The daughter lives in an other state. She's "taking care of it'. But this is  no problem, right? Can't she can just call the insurance?

Nope. 

The insurance company told her they think it's not an overland flood, hence, she's between a rock and a hard place. Either she gets to eat this cost which she certainly can't afford, or pass it on to her daughter.

The train continues under the bookcase and rug

Yeah. The daughter who is letting her live there out of kindness. That daughter. Dumping that on your own family would be absolutely inhumane.

The Inevitable Moral of the Story

Drainage can be brutal. If you haven't read my Home Maintenance Guide yet, please do so asap. It can be found at www.homeguidez.com/ebook.htm.  It outlines all the ways you can get hammered by drainage issues, and lets you know how to deal with them. In this case, a simple berm, or swale, could have performed miracles. Don't let this happen to you.