Scranton Pa Homes - Water In Your Basement?
In North East Pa water in basements is not an uncommon occurence.
One of the greatest sources of this aggravating nuisance can be remedied very easily by redirecting downspouts.
All downspouts MUST discharge water away from the foundation wall. As they say, denial isn't just a river in Egypt.
Anything else simply sets the house up for disaster over time.
This is the downspout on the front corner of the house.
This house is situated on a hill, with the front foundation wall completely buried.
This has been discharging against the foundation for some time.
Someone even put a plastic cap on the end, apparently to dress it up!
And a cute piece of slate to "divert" the water downward.
Cute...
Notice the hole being dug into the soil. Somewhat hard to see, it is there!
Here is the corner beneath that fine downspout!
It had rained the night before this inspection.
And not hard!
But, with about 800 square feet of roof surface draining down one downspout, and against the foundation wall, it will find its way in if it can.
And to get inside the house, water needs about one billionth of an inch of a crack.
In addition to coming into the house, this is what continued water pressure against a foundation will do.
That is a double, horizontal foundation crack.
That's a foundation's version of a double wide!
Pressure from outside, combined with clay soil expansion, and a lot of time to work with, will wreak havoc on a masonry foundation wall.
To the right of those cracks there is a finished, drywalled wall.
But it is certain that cracking continues behind that drywall.
And the entirety of the wall measured over 30% moisture, indicating active moisture intrusion.
My kingdom for a downspout extension!
Perhaps a tad late at this stage...
My recommendation: it is easy to extend downspouts away from the house. And far easier than any damage that follows if they do not!
Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC
Based in Bristow, serving all of Northern Virginia
Comments(2)