Should we mention that our house has a French drain?

[Anonymous]

Should we mention that our house has a French drain? When we bought our house 5 years ago, we were having a lot of water sipage in the basement and the indoor sun pump was always active. Grading around the house didn't help that much. However once we installed and exterior French drain/exterior sump pump combo we have not had a single drop of water and the interior sump pump is 90% less active .

Or will listing it scare buyers?

We will put it on the disclosure form anyways, but we were just wondering if that's something to put in the ad as well or just let the home inspector flag it for more information.

[Anonymous]

Do not mention it.

[Anonymous]

Civil engineer here. People are scared of water for goof reasons. In most cases water issues in a home can be solved easily. When we bought 10 years ago, we specifically looked for homes that had water damage because they came with a significant discount. I built the waterproofing system for our house and not a single drop.

[Anonymous]

I know enough to know that I'd rather have a home with a French drain than not. Because at least you have cared about your home/put your money into it and improved it. But I wouldn't draw the eye to that in the listing by mentioning it specifically. You wouldn't specifically make a radon pipe a feature either; same thing. Glad it's there/don't want to hear about it.

[Anonymous]

Potential buyes will already see that the home has an interior sump pump, which will reveal the basement has had water issues. Given that, seems like it would only help to indicate that things have been fortified with exterior work as well. Wouldn't highlight it in the listing, but I would include it in one of those handy "recent upgrade" sheets that tell you what has been done to the house by current owners.

[Anonymous]

It’s good you fixed it. It showed you kept up with the maintenance.

[Anonymous]

Yes mention it. The new owners will need to know and most should see it as a positive.

[Anonymous]

I can’t imagine buying a house in the dc area and not asking about the basement drainage. I also try to find and understand where all the gutter, exterior drain and sump pump exits are and why.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Potential buyes will already see that the home has an interior sump pump, which will reveal the basement has had water issues. Given that, seems like it would only help to indicate that things have been fortified with exterior work as well. Wouldn't highlight it in the listing, but I would include it in one of those handy "recent upgrade" sheets that tell you what has been done to the house by current owners.

This is the problem, people are really ignorant about this stuff.

It doesn’t mean a house had “problems.” The building code requires that you have perimeter drains and unless the lot is sloped such that they can drain with gravity, you need a sump pump. A sump pump can also be there to handle an exterior drain below grade like at the bottom of basement entrance stairs.

A house in our area *without* a sump pump would be more unusual and you would need to look at why, probably a slope that lets the perimeter drains exit with gravity. But you’d want to look.

[Anonymous]

We had a house with a french drain and it worked as intended. Our neighbors all had sump pumps, but we had a bit more elevation and an expensively graded yard. I inquired about adding a sump pump for safety, and the engineer said, why bring water INTO your home and then pump it out? Don't mess with a good thing. We hooked up a dehumidifier too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Potential buyes will already see that the home has an interior sump pump, which will reveal the basement has had water issues. Given that, seems like it would only help to indicate that things have been fortified with exterior work as well. Wouldn't highlight it in the listing, but I would include it in one of those handy "recent upgrade" sheets that tell you what has been done to the house by current owners.

This doesn't make sense. In many areas literally every basement will take on water due to a low water table. It's not about ones house having "issues".
Thus if the basement is finished or semi-finished I would assume it has been waterproofed appropriately.
I'd only point out a French drain for an unfinished, dungeon basement so the buyers know they can finish it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Potential buyes will already see that the home has an interior sump pump, which will reveal the basement has had water issues. Given that, seems like it would only help to indicate that things have been fortified with exterior work as well. Wouldn't highlight it in the listing, but I would include it in one of those handy "recent upgrade" sheets that tell you what has been done to the house by current owners.

This doesn't make sense. In many areas literally every basement will take on water due to a low water table. It's not about ones house having "issues".
Thus if the basement is finished or semi-finished I would assume it has been waterproofed appropriately.
I'd only point out a French drain for an unfinished, dungeon basement so the buyers know they can finish it.

Assuming every that basements have been waterproofed is not an assumption that I would make. Many finished basements are not waterproofed.

[Anonymous]

No and don't disclose.
There was a problem and now it is solved.
Only answer if asked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Potential buyes will already see that the home has an interior sump pump, which will reveal the basement has had water issues. Given that, seems like it would only help to indicate that things have been fortified with exterior work as well. Wouldn't highlight it in the listing, but I would include it in one of those handy "recent upgrade" sheets that tell you what has been done to the house by current owners.

This is the problem, people are really ignorant about this stuff.

It doesn’t mean a house had “problems.” The building code requires that you have perimeter drains and unless the lot is sloped such that they can drain with gravity, you need a sump pump. A sump pump can also be there to handle an exterior drain below grade like at the bottom of basement entrance stairs.

A house in our area *without* a sump pump would be more unusual and you would need to look at why, probably a slope that lets the perimeter drains exit with gravity. But you’d want to look.

+1
Very unusual in our area too

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It doesn’t mean a house had “problems.” The building code requires that you have perimeter drains and unless the lot is sloped such that they can drain with gravity, you need a sump pump. A sump pump can also be there to handle an exterior drain below grade like at the bottom of basement entrance stairs.

A house in our area *without* a sump pump would be more unusual and you would need to look at why, probably a slope that lets the perimeter drains exit with gravity. But you’d want to look.

Agreed that sump pumps are common here, but many homes built before codes were stricter on drainage/pumps (eg many colonials) will not have them. They have the waterproofing technology of their day, which likely included parging and exterior drainage of some sort but not pumps (interior or exterior). If gutters / grading have been handled correctly and the home site is decent, many older homes here, including those with finished basements, don’t have/need pumps. So the presence of a pump does reveal something about water issues, at least if the house is old enough that pumps were not required by code when built.