I performed an inspection of a house in Baldwin NY yesterday for some clients who wanted to move from Brooklyn to Long Island. I found the usual stuff such as miswired GFI's, sloppy old windows, and termite damage, but one thing that just didnt seem right was a fresh coat of paint on the basement walls.
When I first got there, I found an empty can of 'Drylock' hidden behind the garbage pails outside the house, and then put 2 and 2 together.
Drylock is that miracle paint that everyone loves to paint basement walls with, and the miracle is that people buy it expecting it to work, and keep out water.
If you have water that is penetrating through 8 inches of concrete, a coat of paint, no matter how thick or expensive, isn't going to do didley squat!
This situation is remedied by digging out the foundation from the exterior, and fixing what needs to be fixed, then waterproofing the exterior wall.
A quick coat of paint from the intereior - any paint - is a waste of time and money, and in this case made me suspicious about the real problems the house has.
It would have been better to have the house inspected, so I can find out what the real problem is, then I can make suggestions as to how it can be alleviated. To try to hide something like this is going to cause unnecessary doubts, and masks the real problem.
In the future, it is a good idea for the seller to call a professional to assess the problem, and then there can be a work order on the table for what really needs to be done to fix the problem, as well as an approximate cost to repair.
Just knowing what something will cost is a big help to a buyer who doesn't have a clue as to the price of repairs for such a thing.
In my next blog, I will show you what I did on my house to fix a similar problem.
- Ray
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