How big a deal is it if water drains towards the house instead of away from it?
I live in the desert, so rain does not happen that often. However, I am interested in buying a foreclosure and the home inspection report came back showing some issues with the landscaping. Saying that water runs towards the house instead of away from it, and that this can be alleviated by eventual landscape repairs to the ground. Is this that big of a deal, and does an issue like that create long-term damage to the house that I should be cautious about? It does not have a basement or anything like that.
- Mitchell (Question from Yahoo Answers)
DEAR MITCHELL: Improper lot slope can be very destructive to a home for several reasons. Water will migrate toward the home if the topography is incorrectly sloped toward the structure. If you have a crawlspace below your home, the foundation wall, or the concrete wall running around the perimeter of the home can suffer from "efflorescence" occurring when water flows through concrete and leeches some of the salts and lime from the concrete making it brittle over time. If your home is on a slab, the water can flow under the concrete and vapors can and will permeate up through and settle on the underside of your tile, hardwood, laminate or carpet. Water is a universal solvent and will dissolve anything over time. So the tiles will detach from the substrate, mold can grow under your carpet and laminate, etc. So long story short - it is a big deal. But fortunately the solution is usually an easy one. Contact a licensed landscape professional for advice. The total solution may include an improve guttering system at your roof, French drains around the home, removing vegetation and irrigation systems that are too near the structure and gently grading the lot so that water can naturally flow away from the home.
Good luck! Please keep us posted on your progress.
