jsdewald
August 30th, 2005, 09:31 AM
We are looking at buying a home built in the mid-50's. The front lawn slopes down from the street (maybe 1' below street level, then level for +/- 50'). Under the main house there is a full basement, with cinderblock walls over a concrete slab. Crawl spaces under the 3 wings off the main house, with big access hatches to basement (3' x 4').
Half of the basement is an open workshow / storage area; nothing on the walls and no real obvious evidence of moisture.
The other half of the basement is a playroom that we will want to demo and rebuild if we buy the house. Vinyl tiles on the floor (I am guessing directly on the slab), and pine panelling on the walls. There appears to be moisture damage to the panelling and floor (especially in the corners), with black mold on the panelling. The mold follows a triangular patter, with the peak in the corner maybe 3 1/2 feet off the floor, dropping to floor level 4 - 5' out from the corners. I am guessing this may indicated wall seepage in the corners, rather than standing water (but what do I know?)
We were told the previous owners installed French drains; however, the panelling felt damp to the touch on Saturday. My questions are as follows:
1. Is there an inherent problem with cinder block on slab construction? (We won't want to buy the house if waterproofing the basement will be a huge problem / expense).
2. Can you give us a rough idea of the range of expenses we might be looking at? Total basement area is approx. 30' x 40'. I know you can't be precise without seeing the house, but it would help if we knew whether we were looking at a $10,000 job or a $100,000 job.
3. Since we may not buy the house, I would not want to ask you to inspect it for free. However, do you ever come out on an inspection for a fee, then credit the fee against work done? That way, we would feel like we hadn't taken advantage of you.
Realtor is pushing us to make an offer (gee, there's a surprise!), so we'd like to move this along, if possible.
Thank you!!!!!
Half of the basement is an open workshow / storage area; nothing on the walls and no real obvious evidence of moisture.
The other half of the basement is a playroom that we will want to demo and rebuild if we buy the house. Vinyl tiles on the floor (I am guessing directly on the slab), and pine panelling on the walls. There appears to be moisture damage to the panelling and floor (especially in the corners), with black mold on the panelling. The mold follows a triangular patter, with the peak in the corner maybe 3 1/2 feet off the floor, dropping to floor level 4 - 5' out from the corners. I am guessing this may indicated wall seepage in the corners, rather than standing water (but what do I know?)
We were told the previous owners installed French drains; however, the panelling felt damp to the touch on Saturday. My questions are as follows:
1. Is there an inherent problem with cinder block on slab construction? (We won't want to buy the house if waterproofing the basement will be a huge problem / expense).
2. Can you give us a rough idea of the range of expenses we might be looking at? Total basement area is approx. 30' x 40'. I know you can't be precise without seeing the house, but it would help if we knew whether we were looking at a $10,000 job or a $100,000 job.
3. Since we may not buy the house, I would not want to ask you to inspect it for free. However, do you ever come out on an inspection for a fee, then credit the fee against work done? That way, we would feel like we hadn't taken advantage of you.
Realtor is pushing us to make an offer (gee, there's a surprise!), so we'd like to move this along, if possible.
Thank you!!!!!