quote:

Originally posted by greco:
We have a buyer already to go, but the deal may fall through because the loan may not be approved due to the water.

I'd avoid projecting what may happen, and fully disclose, "we have a wet basement; it has always been like that". Since you are asking for suggestions, my advice is: if you have to knock $10k-$20k off the price, do it and walk away.

If the house is built on a hill, you could dig a trench around the house and a retention pond at a lower elevation. Using pipes and gravel route the ground water to the lower area. The gravity drainage system will probably eliminate the Zoeller pump cycling.

Water takes the path of least resistance. Seal the floor and hydraulic pressure will find another way.

If the basement will only fill up 2", it does not sound too bad. It's not like the basement fills up with three feet of water.

You could improve drainage around the interior basement floor into a larger sump, into a duplex sump pump system, for increased capacity and reliability.

https://www.libertypumps.com/Category/control-panels

quote:

Originally posted by Woodman:
I'd avoid projecting what may happen, and fully disclose, "we have a wet basement; it has always been like that". Since you are asking for suggestions, my advice is: if you have to knock $10k-$20k off the price, do it and walk away.

I nearly made the same recommendation (we did that with a boat), but that was before I learned about the sump pump running continuously and still not keeping up, the thing with the plugs in the floor, and that the buyer will attempt to get a mortgage.

That home has more than a "wet basement." That home has a serious water problem. I see the OP is in Michigan. Assuming the same is true of the home, the OP's family is obliged, by law, to appraise any prospective buyers of this condition.

ICBW, but I doubt any lending institution will do a mortgage on a property in such condition, nor any title insurance company issue a policy.

It may be, as I wrote, earlier, that it's relatively easily mitigated. But it is my non-professional, inexpert belief and opinion it will have to be mitigated before any sale will be possible.

The OP needs to post pictures of the house site to get an evaluation of the problem.

The only way to fix the problem is to put interior drain channel back to the sump pump. When water is coming up through the floor there is already a ton of hydrostatic pressure that spot fixing will not take care of.

The structure is on a flat plain. Not even any small bumps or rises for a half mile in any direction. Stops at I-75 at the rear of the 10 acre lot. Left to right is about 600 ft. All slopes very gradually to 1-75 in the back. Hardly a 6” fall from front to rear of property.

This his been an exceptionally wet fall and winter. I have seen seasons at this house where the sump didn’t run for long periods. My own house has a seasonal pond right now that keeps the sump pump running about once every 5 minutes. A month ago my pump ran once every 90 seconds for a couple of weeks. This is the worse water I have dealt with here in Michigan in early 50 years of home ownership.

Guess you can turn the basement into a crawl space. Raise the floor three feet.

I like the idea of full disclosure. Seasonally high water table. It’s probably not that uncommon in this area.

We have informed a potential buyer. When he came by we took him down to see the situation. We have disclosed it in the real estate agents descriptions. Not trying to hide it. This is an exceptionally high water level.

Maybe a retention pond at the back of the property to give the water somewhere else to go?

You are correct: This has been an unusually wet fall and "winter" in S.E. Michigan.

So do you have a septic field?

They hired a company to come in, dig up the floor and redirect the water to the pump somehow. At least it’s not sitting on top of the floor. The buyer is satisfied with the fix, so that is that. It cost $3700 for the fix and $400 previously. I was thinking it may cost a lot more to fix. As long as everyone is happy, enough said. Thanks for the advice. I learned a lot from the replies.