what do you think would cause this? - moisture in garage

[Road Guy]

Well were trying to get our house sold and had a god awful inspection monday. the kind where you think the inspector doesnt want the buyer to purchase the house. lots of nit picky things that are easy but this one I cant figure out, in the garage (which is the front of the house ) we have tons of moisture in the baseboards inside the garage, i never really noticed it but take a look at the pictures from the report and see if you can come up with a possible cause. I cant really think of anything unless there is somethign under the siding that didnt get installed correctly?

 

[Road Guy]

picture below

 

[snickerd3]

your down spout is right there...how well does the water flow out of it?

 

[snickerd3]

actually where does it flow is the better question

 

[Supe]

Are the baseboards below grade? Is it only on the side where that patio is?

 

[snickerd3]

my parents had that issue with their down spout but their wall was cinder brick stuff not drywall so they had an easier fix of just extended the down spout so it didn't drip on the concrete at the house

 

[snickerd3]

we had similar issues with having concrete right up to the house. It started angling toward the house and we were getting water in the laundry through the holes for the well and such. we removed the concrete to give the water something to absorbs it aka soil and no more water.

 

[MA_PE]

the siding looks flush to the concrete. there should be some weep holes or place for moisture trapped behind the siding to get out. Also what is above this spot, is there a way for water to get in behind the siding at the top?

 

[Road Guy]

we are on the top of a hill so it all flows down pretty fast..

here is the google street view the area is the window on the botton right (closest to the prius)

 

[Road Guy]

pic

 

[snickerd3]

just because you are the top of hill doesn't mean locally that slab isn't tilting slightly towards the house...

 

[snickerd3]

i like the house btw...how old 10-15yrs?

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

I know it's not what directly caused it, but is there any chance the injury is related to overuse at work? I had this numbness shooting from my elbow through my hand at one point that was due to excessive typing/drafting and crappy posture.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Leak in those windows, maybe.

 

[MA_PE]

It looks like backyard slopes to the back of the house and what is the slope of the flat top portion of the driveway? bottom line appears that area is not drying out after getting wet.

and not for anything but, as a buyer, I'd really appreciate a thorough inspection like that. I'll bet most home inspectiors don't carry a moisture meter with them. Nice house. that's about $700k+ in the suburbs of Boston.

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

I know it's not what directly caused it, but is there any chance the injury is related to overuse at work? I had this numbness shooting from my elbow through my hand at one point that was due to excessive typing/drafting and crappy posture.

wrong thread but yeah it probably could. my over use issues are on the top side of the wrist which points to tendonitis vs carpal tunnel ****.

****, sorry. not sure how my threads got crossed.

 

[snickerd3]

It looks like backyard slopes to the back of the house and what is the slope of the flat top portion of the driveway? bottom line appears that area is not drying out after getting wet.

and not for anything but, as a buyer, I'd really appreciate a thorough inspection like that. I'll bet most home inspectiors don't carry a moisture meter with them. Nice house. that's about $700k+ in the suburbs of Boston.

in our area, that house on a lot with no yard would be $230K, put any sort of land with it and bumps to $260K for in town. you move the incorporated part by us and you will be closer to $300-320K

 

[Supe]

^^^ About the same here.

 

[TouchDown]

yeah, what would bother me was already mentioned where I haven't seen siding setting directly on the ground like that. Most often the slab of house / garage floor is above grade of the driveway, so there's a slight uphill ramp into the garage.

With this (and maybe it's on the North side of the house?), maybe it can hold water up against the house since you have a downspout over there. Water may drain, but not fast enough, and the siding is holding it up against the house.

Was the driveway poured too high?

Can the siding be cut back a little at the bottom to get it up off the ground?

Take a hose to the downspout and see where the water goes?

 

[snickerd3]

i forsee a labor day weekend project in the works since you aren't home to deal with it now