Sump Pump Inspect: Fill & Download for Free

I recently went into contract to buy a home that had multiple offers and required me to up my offer not once, but twice. I was so set on buying this property for the location and the look that I went over my budget convinced it was the one.I also offered aggressive closing terms including a 7 day removal of contingencies, and I would personally perform the home inspection. I knew from the disclosures there was a sump pump under the house that was there for when “torrential rains” (rare) would happen.I drove 4 hours to the property on the day of the inspection ready to look up and down, inside and out for any items that were either minor or major. I saved going under the house for last. Upon entering the crawl space I noticed the sump pump that had been there for a long time, but it was dry in that spot. As I crawled further towards the center of the house the ground went from damp to wet - so wet my knees were getting muddy. While there wasn’t standing water, there was far too much dampness considering it hadn’t rained in months.There was some debris under the house - not uncommon to see, but some of it had mold growing on it. I really thought I’d be simply checking the foundation and plumbing and maybe electrical - all of which were in good shape, but the dampness was a huge red flag.When I came out from under the house, I walked over to the two Realtors waiting for me and said “take a look at my clothes, it’s really muddy down there”. I couldn’t believe it when one agent asked if that was a problem.There was no quick explanation for the dampness, but I drove back home that day thinking I had been deceived. I lost all sense of trust with the sellers and their agent. Even still they explained later it was due to a broken sprinkler pipe near the foundation that was recently repaired. But they blew it by not disclosing that upfront.I probably could of got a price reduction after discovering the issue of dampness and mold under the house, but I was not convinced it was merely a broken sprinkler. I walked from the deal.

I bought my house in Blythewood, SC, as a short sale. I never met the owner. I bought it for about $80,000 under market. Everything looked in good shape.After living there for a few months, I found three spots under the house that had springs flowing periodically. My house was built on a slope going from the road to a pond. It seems that any water on my front lawn exited under the house. That was going to undermine the foundation!To remedy that, I had to have a French drain put in at the front of the house and have the area below the house sealed with heavy plastic sheeting. The flow from the springs was redirected to a sump pump. The total cost of the remediation was $11,000.About a year later, I had to have the heat pump replaced, both the exterior and interior units, at the cost of $6000.

First thing you should do is “Homestead” your house; if your lawyer doesn’t recommend it at the closing then you should go to town hall and do it yourself. The Homestead laws prevent creditors from seizing your house for unpaid debts. It’s always a good idea to Homestead.Follow up on all those imperfections that the Home Inspector found and reported in his book. You paid 750 dollars (or whatever) for it so don’t ignore what he found. If he says the circuit box is overloaded, get it replaced. If he thinks the roof needs work, plan on getting it done. The job isn’t over because you own it now - it’s just begun.Meet The Neighbors - many people don’t do this. Make a big effort to go and meet the neighbors. You’re going to be stuck with them for a long, long time. You want to make friends and avoid troubles.Walk the property lines and make certain your stakes and corners are real and accurate. At some point it is worth paying an engineer to survey the plot and put in orange stakes so you know exactly what you own - and are paying taxes for. I’ve seen many people lose their property to neighbors who encroach for years and years. I had an aunt who lost a significant part of her property when a neighbor plowed a driveway on her land and she didn’t do anything for “n” years, after which the town said it was too late - she had “abandoned” it. Don’t do that.Hire cleaners and clean, clean, clean that house. Clean it up before you move in! It will be too difficult to clean while you’re moving in and impossible to clean afterwards, not to the standards you like.Same goes for plastering, painting, etc. If you can manage it, paint it before you move in. It’s a pain in the ass afterwards.Change those locks! Hide an emergency key somewhere. You WILL need it eventually.Have a tradesman you trust inspect your furnace, hot water tank and AC systems. You don’t want that furnace to crap out in the middle of your first winter, as mine did.If you’re on city sewerage, consider having the soil pipe reamed. It’s only 250 dollars; you don’t know if the old owners ever did it and it’s cheap 5-year insurance to get it done now so you know what you’re facing. If a sewer line is clogged or collapses, it’s hundreds or thousands of dollars to get it fixed as an emergency. I’ve been there. It’s worth getting that sewer line checked.If you have a brick chimney and your inspector suggested repointing or recapping, now is the time to get it down. The top bricks on chimneys fail and fall over over time, especially with oil heat which is corrosive to masonry. Keep on top of that.Get those gutters and downspouts cleared.Check your casement windows for rot and replace with modern, secure windows. It’s easy for a burglar to get into the house through an old casement window. If they are rotten, it’s much easier. And usually they are low and hidden so no one sees him doing his dirty work.Know exactly where the furnace cut-off switch is.Know where the furnace filter is and change it right away. If you have water filtration do the same thing. Then you know what you’re getting and that it works.Know exactly where the main water cut-off is - and any other valves that cut off water. I guarantee that sooner or later you will need to cut off the water in an emergency and that is no time to be hunting for the right valve. Not many homeowners realize that the weakest link in your house is the hoses that go to your washing machine. If they are rubber, they WILL fail eventually. If they fail when you’re on vacation - congratulations - you will have a new indoor pool in your basement when you get home. If you move in your old appliances in your new home, replace those hoses. Replace them with braided metal hoses. When you go on vaca, turn off the water to the washer.If your new house has a sump pump, for god’s sake replace it at once. If you don’t want to replace it because a new Goulds costs 250 bucks then at a minimum hand-test the trigger to make sure it fires. There are few things more discouraging than depending on a sump pump that fails when it is needed most. And DO NOT skimp and buy the 69 dollar Home Depot special. Buy the quality model. You do not know heartbreak until you go down in your basement after a big storm and find all your precious photo albums floating around and the carpet and furnace ruined.Check the connecting pipes between the valves and faucets in the kitchen an bathrooms and see if the nuts are plastic or metal. If the nuts are plastic replace them with pipes with metal nuts. The plastic degrades over time and results in a leak. I have had happen twice. I even go as far as using braded steel pipes if available.Know exactly how to pull the main electrical breaker. If someone is being shocked or there is an electrical fire that doesn’t trip a fuse, you cannot stop this event without killing the electricityGas company doesn’t often let you turn off the gas - but you can if there is an emergency. Find the gas meter and know where the valve lug is located. It may require a pipe wrench. If you have gas appliances, know where the cut-offs are.If your house was built before 1974 then you have lead paint, almost guaranteed. You had to sign a lead paint waiver at closing. If you have small children then it is absolutely critical you deal with the lead paint. Children are drawn to eat lead paint because it tastes like sugar. You cannot cover it with paint; you have to encapsulate or remove it and encapsulation is sometimes forbidden by law. Removing lead paint is an expensive and intensive effort. The same goes for asbestos. Asbestos is found in outside shingles, floor tiles and pipe insulation and removing it is expensive; screwing with it yourself is dangerous. You have to look to your inspection report for their determination and recommendation. I have steam pipe insulation on one of my apartment buildings; as long as it’s not disturbed, it’s okay. Once it’s disturbed it requires an expensive remediation process.This will most certainly come out in the inspection report but one thing you absolutely should check is the age and condition of your oil tank if you have oil heat. If just five gallons - even fewer sometimes - spill from the tank, it requires hazmat remediation at enormous expense. Tanks are not that expensive and should be modern with modern piping to the furnace. If your tank has oil stains on the bottom, it could be ready to fail and when they fail it is a disaster; the smell of the oil alone will drive you from the house, even in small amounts. Check that tank!Make sure your smoke detectors are in place and work. If not there, put in a combo, CO/Smoke detector hot wired in the basement near the furnace.This is something to consider too. If you have a stone or cement unfinished basement then before you move in buy a 15 dollar insect sprayer and fill is 1/4 with bleach and the rest with water and spray the basement thoroughly. Make sure all windows are open, all doors and work backwards towards a door. It’s best if you have a respirator. Bleaching the basement will kill or reduce incipient mold build up and you want to do this before you move in because the strong smell of bleach will drive you from the house. After a day it will be gone and your basement will smell clean, not like bleach.Please remember that if you do get a contractor to do a job you never, ever, ever pay him the full amount until the job is completely done. Many contractors will ask for a sizable deposit to start the job. That’s usually ok as long as it does not exceed half the estimate. Then when the job is “nearly done” they will want the remainder of the money. IF YOU PAY THEM, THEY WILL DISAPPEAR. If you want, give them half the remaining money and tell them you will pay the last on completion. It doesn’t matter how much you like or trust the contractor - once you pay him, he will disappear, never to be seen again.There is no end of stuff you can and should do - almost all of it requires money. All of it requires effort. But you sleep better at night knowing that something is done because you did it than depending on people who were moving out and knew they were moving out for awhile to do the maintenance before they left.