Wife and I found a house we are interested in, but a couple issues with the house concern us.
So, we live in WV where damp basements are basically a given. We looked at a house that has a fully finished basement. In the seller's disclosure they stated that the basement flooded twice in the 10 years they lived there (2016 and 2022), and after the last time they had a basement system with sump pump installed. There are floor drains in the basement that drain into the sump pump.
We had an inspector at the house yesterday whom I met up with, and while there with the inspector I noticed the sump pump was running and pumping out water every 10 minutes or so. It has only rained a couple times and not super heavy rain so I'm wondering where all this water is coming from.
Additionally- at some point someone dug a ditch around the concrete pad outside the basement doors and it has had standing water in it since we first looked at the house a month ago. I guess the ditch was supposed to help drain the water but obviously it is not working.
The inspector said there could possibly be a water table under the house and that his house was the same way. But this issue is nagging at me because I worry, how bad will it be if it is especially rainy? If the sump pump is working and doing its job should I not be concerned? I'm struggling with this.
There is also a spot in one part of the basement where the bottom of the drywall is wet. The company that did the sump pump is supposed to be coming out to fix the standing water and the wet drywall but not until October 2nd.
We are under contract on this house but one of our stipulations was that the water issue had to be fixed to our satisfaction. I just worry about continual water issues. Sorry so long, this is weighing on me right now!
Is a consistently running sump pump and standing water outside a red flag?
byu/ghunt81 inRealEstate
Posted by ghunt81