Walk Out Basement Flooding After Heavy Rains, Concrete Patio, Driveway, etc.

Water IN the house is a problem that is best dealt with from the outside, if still possible. Try to divert the water away from the house in a trench.

The wet spot is where? On the high side or the low side of the basement? Do you have cracks in the floor or walls structure?

You have stagnating water on the outside of the wall, that seeps through the wall. How is the drain of the roof? When houses are built, the fill against the walls is usually full of cavities and can easily store water.

That area can be very porous.

Normally underground walls should be made watertight. There are many methods available to do it. Doing it from the inside, leaves you still with a wet - rotting wall.

More info for more thoughts please.

As much as it pains me to say this, hire a lawyer, now. Take pictures and document every phone call and any communication you have with anyone concerning this house. You could be covered by some type of insurance, too.

Don't know where you are.

Document everything.

I am calling an attorney tomorrow. The contractor lives below me in one of the three unsold new houses; he is downslope from me. He just kept trying to divert water from the roof with a couple new drains. He had a landscaper come out Saturday who installed a sump-pump at the lowest point outside our patio door. The landscaper (who works for the developer who sold us this property) is coming by tomorrow to build a trench but I am going to call him to say that I need an independant engineer to look at it first. I have taken 40 pictures of when the house was flooded inside, every room. To answer a question, above our house, it goes straight up hill for apx 150 ft. at a 10-12% grade. It's all open space behind us. Also, after looking at the disclosure statement when we bought the house, where is says, "Sliding settling, upheaval, movement or instability of earth or expansive soils of the Property" he did NOT check NO, he 'wrote in', "Geotechnical reports were obtained and house was built in compliance with their recommendations." Do not have the geotechnical report. Can anyone recommend an engineer in the Colorado Springs area?

"he is downslope from me"

This may provide some poetic satisfaction, but that's about it.

I can offer no more constructive advice except, never loose your temper. Speak calmly at all times and look directly into the eyes of whomever you are addressing at the time.

Good luck.

Your going to need the Geo-tech Report if you are going to use a lawyer anyway so you might as well start there and see what their recommendations were.

Then you'll need a Geo Tech report to verify weather the contractor actually followed the recommendations. We've found out that around here most contractors think they followed the recommendations of the geo-tech but most don't really have any idea what they are looking at in the reports. And unless the geo-tech company had someone on site while it was being built chances are it was not built to their recommendations.

We had a convenience store here split in two pieces because the contractor did not actually follow the recommendations that were put it in the report. Also have had MANY subdivisions built on hill sides where the houses did NOT stay put because of the same reasons.

Unless you are very lucky. You have a long legal battle ahead of you to get this taken care of. Good Luck

Yes, get that lawyer and try to get any kind of subsidence insurance you possibly can. Your homeowner's policy normally doesn't cover that. Are you in a mined region? Sounds like you're getting ready to go downslope one of these days.

What's at the top of the slope?

Did they properly compact the fill?

Check with the realtor you used. The realtor should have been aware of any problems when they took the listing and they should have disclosed the problem to you. You may need a lawyer to go after the realtor and the seller.

I'M GONNA BE RUDE AND SHOUT. ASAP, CALL THE COLORADO MINE SUBSIDENCE AND ASK ABOUT MINE SUBSIDENCE! THE NUMBER IS 1-800-44-MINES. THEY HAVE MAPS.

Whew! I don't know if you're eligible for this insurance but if you are, it's cheap and possibly your only protection. A huge area of Colorado Springs is subject to mine subsidence (here is western PA, the cracked steps would be the alarm tocsin), and there is almost no chance your homeowner's insurance will cover. You also have the problem that the developer is probably only responsible for what he actually knew (That's the last little bit down where you sign on the disclosure form). I hope to heck I'm getting worked up over nothing and later find out they just used cheap concrete in your steps. Let us know.

Did she mention something somewhere i missed about differential settlement, or related problems? Where did this whole divergent discource on mine subsidence arise?

Maybe divergent, maybe not.

She's in Colorado Springs. Colorado Springs is heavily undermined and has had subsidence problems in the past. I live in a similar area.

In the absence of the world's crappiest concrete, cracks are a sign of earth movement. A 12% slope is steep and it might just be a slide from water. It might also be mine subsidence. It only takes a phone call to get a good idea.

I hope my post is full of it, but an ounce of prevention n'at.

The engineer will tell you to have the outside of the foundation dug around tarred, and trench piped to divert the water.

The builder will typically do whatever they can to keep a good name in the community.

While a sump pump may well help, it is not a good idea to depend on it since at the same time heavy rains come, the power may also be interrupted.

Do you have copies of the original plans for the house build? Did the contractor do as told?

The problem can be fixed. The question is who is actually supposed to pay to fix it.

Trans. I give you a good answer. I remember working for a client in Florida who hired a lawyer too for similar problems. Even while it was proven that the contractor didn't work according the book, he paid the lawyer for 6 years already. Lawyers will not come and dig and fix it.

Suzetri, I do understand you have a major problem, but living in Auckland, New Zealand many people face the same problem. It is called leaky home simdrome, this problem has cost billions of dollars here in New Zealand. I dont know if the problem you are having is related, but for now I will presume it is. Within the building industry over the last 20 years + we have had a problem withbuilding contractors employing apprenctives and the building codes have changed. The trades people that you employed a long long time ago have now retired, it is like their experience has been taken to the grave. The building trade has turned to shit, there is not enough experienced trades people doing the work these days. This has been a problem in New Zealand for many many years now.

Get a good lawyer, dont waste money on any lawyer, get one that has a special interest in leaky buildings.

Or get rid of Mum, but I dont recomend this action, as it dosent solve the problem, it would only ignor the problem, and it wont go away.

My heart goes out to you, my friend, if I had spare cash I would fund redevelopment for you, but my hands are tied.

I only hope that that this problem is resolved quickly and with little more pain and stress.

Most of all, dont give up, stand up for your rights.

May The Force Be With You!

Best Regards

Joe

Even an engineer's report is at best a guess about possible damage and mitigation in view of the current problems; it cannot accurately forecast the possible severity of problems should a period of time with much more moisture than the house has been exposed to up until now. There should also be a soil report filed along with the engineering report, or it will be part of the engineering report.

Bentonite clay soil(expansive soil)is something that people from out of the region or from areas where the water table is high all the time ... and the soil doesn't dry out, shrink, and then expand again when wet ... don't understand. This includes architects, engineers, realtors, builders, and many others who simply don't encounter this type of problem.

No matter how well intentioned, some posters may have no clue or reference to the fundamental STRUCTURAL problem that this house is experiencing due to the local soils/moisture issues. It's not a cosmetic issue.

The only way to properly address the bentonite soil issue is to properly install a site drainage system that keeps water away from the soil around the foundation and isolates the foundation from the native soil. This may include a larger excavation for the foundation, installing drains/sump pumps outside the foundation, backfilling with stable fill (rock and sandy soil), and pouring free floating interior slabs with appropriate moisture barriers. Landscaping and site drainage/slope must be carefully planned to avoid pooling water or sub-surface stream flow by the foundation.

Please note that a site considerations extend to the adjacent properties. If your neighbor's property drains down to yours, that may be enough moisture flow to create problems on your site. Some subdivisions were platted and graded to minimize downslope site moisture issues, but the result was to create a lot of unuseable space in the backyards. First homeowners were (maybe) cautioned not to re-grade the sites, but it's not unusual for later homeowners to re-landscape the lots to make their backyard more "user friendly". That's fine until a season of heavy rainstorms hits and possibly floods the soils of the houses downstream with moisture and foundation damage. You must have local specific plat knowledge or obtain (which may be difficult...see need lawyer comments above) the original site plats to determine if they've been altered. In some cases, there are homeowner's covenants not to re-grade sites and you may have to pursue a neighbor to restore their original site grading to protect your property (at risk of damage to their landscaping, etc, they may not be very cooperative about this expensive responsibility). After the fact water caused soil damage to your house will be expensive for you to fix, so you've got to be pro-active about this.

While it is possible in a subdivision to have some homes with the problems and some without, overall, the entire subdivision value will be much lower because the problem is "in the area".

Are any other residents in the area having problems? I would not settle for a sump pump fix. It is a cheap and dirty way to fix the problem, but not a permanent fix. One other thing to keep in mind is, if you apply too much pressure to the contractor/developer, he could just declare bankruptcy and go out of business. That would be a no-win situation. Personally, I would try to get out of the contract and move to another house. It's like owning a car with a bent frame. It may drive ok, but it can never be the same. Some other problem will pop up years later.

This seems like it should have been disclosed to you prior to purchase. A French drain, properly installed should take care of the problem. A quick word about calling your insurance company. My neighbor called his homeowners insurance company, just to ask a question about whether damage from a fallen tree limb would be covered, ( he filed no claim), within a few days his policy was cancelled. He went without homeowners insurance for almost two years. Bottom line, unless it is a REALLY BIG claim, involving a lot of damage, I would not call them. They are also coming up with some nasty tactics to dump people, particularly around the Gulf area and Fla.