On Wed, 16 Apr 2014 08:08:06 -0400, wrote:

On Tue, 15 Apr 2014 22:46:03 -0700, Larry Jaques
wrote:

On Tue, 15 Apr 2014 22:32:25 -0400, wrote:

On Tue, 15 Apr 2014 20:48:04 -0500, Ignoramus21087
wrote:

On 2014-04-14, Cydrome Leader wrote:
Ignoramus16101 wrote:
A house is not a submarine. If it is sitting in a wet area with
improper drainage, water from outside will find its way in.

I had a leaky basement too. That house was next to a river. Sold it
and got one on a hill, with proper drainage. No more leaky basement.

you sort of have a point here about floods not really being too
surprising.

Here in Chicago if you're the lowest point on the block and your drains
are clogged, you're going to flood and that's that.

People still get shocked by this when it happens over, and over, and over
again.

Any place with a sump pit is also a warning the place has and will flood
again.


I have a sump pit in my house, and it never floods. The sump does work
during rains.

i
I won't buy a house that needs a sump pump. Period. If your sump pump
fails, what happens??? The house floods.
When does power fail? During storms.
When does the sump pump run? During storms.
1+1=2 It is THAT simple

Nor would I buy a house below street level. Both the driveway and
landscaping funnel water toward the house.
Not buying a house with a sump pump pretty well guarantees you won't
be buying below street level ---1+1+1+3

To clarify, I meant only that the building lot was below the street.
The first house we lived in California was on the side of a hill,
above the road, and the house across the street had a dipping
driveway. Their roof was just even with the roadway. When it rained
heavily (not often in Vista), even after they did some drainage work,
water came down the driveway in the front door.

'Course, I've never lived in a state where basements were a standard
item, either. The few I've been in were mostly cold, damp, and had a
feeling of closeness. One finished basement I recall was quite low,
7' less beams.

I guess that up there, in the Great White North, you have to build
below the frost level or the foundations are spit up out of the
ground.

--
Life is like one big Mardi Gras. But instead of showing your boobs,
show people your brain, and if they like what they see, you'll have
more beads than you know what to do with.
-- Ellen DeGeneres, Tulane Commencement Speech, 2009