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Wood Foundations?


gixxer01

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Looking at a purchasing a home that has a wood foundation. I know nothing about them, other than it is code to use them. I am wondering what the pros and cons are. There was water intrusion in the finished basement at one time, but it appears there are no gutters and the ground slopes toward the house in that corner. No sump pump in the home either. Thoughts?

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Sounds like some potential problems with that one. You will need to assess whether the water intrusion has already caused issues or not and then you will need to grade the slope away from the house and it would be wise to Install a drain tile around the exterior perimeter of the house and tie it into a sump. It would more than likely be beneficial to have a drain tile on the interior perimeter but that can be expensive if the basement is poured and finished.Also, get gutters.

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as far as the wood foundation goes, I would not be afraid of it at all... It sounds as though as the system in general is not done correctly as far as drainage goes. So, These issues would need to be adressed if they still exist, and you probably would have the issue no matter the basement type.

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as far as the wood foundation goes, I would not be afraid of it at all... It sounds as though as the system in general is not done correctly as far as drainage goes. So, These issues would need to be adressed if they still exist, and you probably would have the issue no matter the basement type.

I agree with what you are saying in that the wood foundation is not the issue but what I would want to see is how much is it going to cost to upgrade this house to where it needs to be to function correctly as a system compared to a similar house that doesn't have these issues to fix.

My feeling is that unless the price is discounted so steeply that you can fix it and still spend less than buying a correctly built house in the first place this is one to pass on.

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is this on a walkout foundation, or possibly a drain tile to daylight somehow. There has to be some kind of foundation drain system with an AWWF, otherwise, its not a matter of whether it will get wet, its a matter of when it will get wet, and how often..

Wood foundations are notorious for being "dry" just because of the way they are out together.(assuming it was put together properly).

Proper backfilling, with the correct materials to the correct exterior levels is very important, and very dependent on the structural design of the AWWF.

Im not saying that gutters are part of the "system" Josh alluded to, but they are a very important component for any kind of a foundation that haas below grade living space. (not so much for a slab on grade, so to speak.)

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