The water is probably "wicking" upstairs from the crawlspace and basement;
you need to really have someone check it out further--what did the engineer
say? If he's not an actual house inspector, I would have one check it
out...
Kirsten
"JAG" wrote in message
om...
I am looking into buying a house and had an engineer inspect it today.
Here's what happened. Can someone please make sense of this or find
any way to explain this. I'd really appreciate it.

Firstly, it's a split level on Long Island. The house is 49 years
old.
This part of LI is notorious for ground water problems and seapage
through
basement walls. This house has seapage thru the basement walls (and
the crawlspace under the other half of the house too). The basement
has a french drain around the perimeter of the inside and there's a
sump pump in the crawlspace. The engineer said this should take care
of any groundwater problems but he said I should have someone
waterproof the basement and crawlspace walls to keep water from
permeating the walls. He said I could do it from the inside (cheaper
and easier) or the outside (more expensive and requires digging around
the house). He thought the interior job would be enough but it seems
to me to make more sense to stop the water outside before it ever gets
into the house. Any comments on this?

Now here's where it gets weird. Upstairs, on the main level (above
the crawlspace) and the bedroom level (above the basement), some
corners of the walls (in different rooms, some adjacent to foundation
walls and some not), the bottoms of the walls are wet. Not soaking
wet but wet enough that his moisture meter picked up active moisture.

Two things to mention here now. THe homeowner moved out a week ago
and he had cats in the house (the house smells from it). He couldn't
explain the moisture in the corners except that maybe the cat(s) liked
to urinate in the corners. There are no pipes nearby and roof looks to
be in good shape (no moisture in the attic at all).

This sounds really idiotic to me and wouldn't it have dried up in a
week's time anyway? I'm wondering if the moisture in the foundation
walls is soaking up into bottoms of the interior walls. That would
explain why only the bottoms show moisture. But why are only the
corners wet? He checked the middles and they came up dry.

Can anybody explain this? Firstly, is it possible for foundation
seapge to be so bad that it actually soaks all the way up into the
house (the crawlspace is about 3 to 4 feet tall and the basement is
about 7 feet tall)? And if so, why would it only show up in corners?
And why would show up in corners that aren't adjacent to foundation
walls? Most of the corners he tested (he didn't check every single
one) that were wet were above foundation walls but two were not.

I ran this by the engineer. He did not think that the moisture from
the basement would be coming all the way up into the house. But then
again, he couldn't find any other reason to explain it except that
maybe the cats were ****ing around the house.

This moisture also raises the concern of the mold inside the walls.
There is no evidence of mold on the walls or paint so should I suspect
that it's inside? Could it be inside without showing any evidence on
the outside of the wall?

I'd appreciate any insights. I'm strongly considering just walking
away but I'd like to make some sense of this.