Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with water and house

Odd basement drainage feature?

WowLookStars — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 11:00:08 -0800

We're thinking about making an offer on a house. However, it has an odd feature in the basement that may be related to drainage. Can anyone tell us what this might do or what could be behind the wall? Picture here - it's the 4" bumpout in the back left corner. There are small round vents at the bottom of the wall. The vents looked like soffit vents to me. We asked the current owner about it, and they said that the previous owner had some "moisture" after a storm and they installed this feature to fix it. (6+ years ago). The current owners say the basement has been dry the entire time they've owned the house.

There is no sump pump. The basement is fully buried on the left and back walls in the picture - the house is on a steep hill, so there's also an exterior door on the wall behind the camera.

We're in Oregon. It rains all winter here. Basements aren't common, but we have seen them in a few other houses.

Where is our septic system/leach field? Can we build/play on the lawn?

damiano99 — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:14:30 -0800

My wife and I have found a house and we love it, except that it's on a septic system. We don't mind that, but we're trying to find out if the septic/leach is going to make our backyard unusable or not. The house was built in 1952 and has a 750gallon concrete septic tank. The owner claims the leach field/lines run S/SW. However, I don't see how that's true with the tree cover he has. We don't want to purchase the house if we're going to have massive problems later. So our question is 1) Is 750gallons enough for a family of 2 adults and 2 children who do normal laundry/shower daily and 2) Are we going to be able to use backyard if the leach field is taking up the majority of the yard? The septic tank is backed against the garage and the lines run S/SW from it out the yard. We'd like to put up a swingset and a deck somewhere for summer days. Can we do that with the setup?

Here is the house on Google Earth.
4022 S. Columbia Tulsa, OK 74105
36° 6'17.29"N
95°57'1.92"W

Choosing a mold remediation contractor

Orinda — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 23:14:00 -0800

What questions should we ask while taking estimates from mold remediation specialists? I've offered to lend moral support to a friend who unfortunately has a very big mold (and water damage) problem to deal with.

The mold situation: My friend is responsible for a small, one-level house somewhere in Appalachia. The house got flooded with clear water (such as from a burst pipe; we are NOT talking about sewage or mud). The flooding went on long enough that the entire interior of the house is now covered in mold. The mold is on the walls, ceilings, interior doors, furniture, etc. It's bad—we assume that at a minimum, all of the drywall, ceilings, and flooring will need to be ripped out and replaced. All upholstered furniture will have to be chucked. The mold really is everywhere and the situation is way, way beyond spot treatment. The cause of the flooding is known and is being addressed.

The question: We will be meeting at the house soon with a couple different mold and water remediation specialists. We plan to get estimates from them, and then my friend will choose one company to do the cleanup. What questions should we ask while we have them on site?

Questions we've already thought of:

Can they offer a written guarantee? If mold problems persist after the first round of remediation, will they come back out and fix the problems for free, or will my friend have to pay for further rounds of remediation?

Can they tell at this point whether there is structural damage? Is it possible that structural damage will be discovered as they do their work, and if so, how will that affect the cost of the project?

Can they do everything but the interior finishes, and leave the drywall, flooring, and painting as DIY projects? How much money would this plan save?

What other questions should we ask? What should we look for in choosing a mold and water remediation contractor?

In or out of hot water?

Frasermoo — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 06:50:30 -0800

Exchanging a water heater with previous home-owner to avoid loan on unit, am I opening myself up to trouble later? We just bought a house. The owner tried to pass off the loan he had on his tankless water heater to us. The total loan value was going to be about $4500. I flatly refused knowing I could get a unit for under a grand. We signed papers saying we would not buy the house unless he left it to us with no responsisbility for the loan or took it away causing no damage to the property. Well, he wants it back. Fine. I went and bought the exact same unit for well under a grand, but offered to give him the new unit to save us all the hassle of taking out the old one. I will get him to sign a receipt showing he has accepted the new unit in place of the old one, but am worried now if he defaults on his loan, someone will come looking for that particular unit, regardless of any papers I show them that we struck a deal for an exchange with no liability for outstanding loans.
Am I right to be concerned ?

Help me stop my windows from dripping

bq — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 14:36:18 -0800

I need advice on fixing condensation on aluminum window frames. My house has a ton of aluminum window frames. Now that the weather has turned cold water is condensing on them, puddling at the bottom of the frames, and causing problems. How can I fix this? The house has a large number of windows and they all seem to be aluminum frames. The frames get very very cold and water condenses on the inside of the windows, then runs down the windows and puddles. A few nights ago there were even strips of ice on the inside of the windows!

I have found the following resources and others, which advise me to reduce humidity by dehumidifying the house or by sealing the windows with that temporary shrink-wrap. Unfortunately the house is already pretty dry and it's not possible to shrink wrap the windows because of the way the shades are installed. What about putting foam tape over the exposed aluminum to prevent condensation as suggested in my third link? Does anyone have any experience with this? I would love to hear tips, tricks, brand name suggestions, etc., or any other possible solutions to solve this problem.

Glacially slow hot water

Spyder's Game — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:50:23 -0800

Master bathroom shower takes FOREVER to get hot water. The hot water heater is outside, less than fifteen feet from the actual shower. Other faucets in the house are much farther away (up to 30-40 feet away) never fail to get us hot water in less than 15-30sec. What gives? How do I fix it? It takes almost four minutes to get hot water in our shower, even with the hot on full blast. I usually wake up in the morning and turn on the shower first. Then brush my teeth, pee, and usually weigh myself. Sometimes I have time to scoop the cat litter. By then, the water is usually warming up. I am really hoping this isn't an expensive fix. I'm just trying to figure out WHY it takes so long to get to the shower, when the heater is so close by? Is there a cheap (ish) fix? I feel like I'm wasting water, but not sure what to do about it.
We've been in this house for a year now.

Moldy Walls

silasjones — Wed, 09 May 2007 01:16:12 -0800

My family has mold growing on the lower portions of inside of the walls in the central area of our 15-year-old home. We're getting the house sprayed, but the price the contractor gave us seems extremely high. What should I expect? My family's house has had many problems in the years that we have had it - small leaks and huge torrents of water - that have left the house in a state of disrepair. We decided to repair the damage and get the house sprayed for mold at the same time. However, I have a feeling that we are kind of being gypped, and I'm wondering if anybody else on here has had their house sprayed for mold and would be able to let me know what it cost them or should cost, and what I should expect as a reasonably good job.

I'm not sure that the entire house needs to be sprayed, by the way - There's just a central area in the house, a bathroom, that has leaked water into the living room, master bedroom, and one secondary bedroom (under carpet - we're having that replaced as well) as well as the space beneath the bathtub.

Water damage on a wood floor--hurry, it's still damp!

werty — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 18:23:56 -0800

I just discovered a bottle of water has leaked onto my hardwood floor. What can I do to minimize the damage while the floor is still damp? Some details: the water was about 8 oz. of San Pellegrino from an apparently busted screw cap. It dripped over the last 30 hours or so. The floor is a small parquet hardwood. I have cleaned up the surface water but some of it has seeped into the cracks and is darkening the wood.

Short term, what do I do to pull as much water as possible away from the wood as it dries? Long term, what can I do to minimize any discoloration?

How to get the funky smell out of my hot water

Saucy Intruder — Tue, 30 Aug 2005 06:30:16 -0800

Moving into an apartment that was built a year ago and never lived in. How do I get stale water out of the tank and pipes? This is a townhouse unit; water is heated by gas in a boiler that sits in the garage. Cold water is piped in from the city; hot water comes in through the tank. The latter smells metallic and has likely been sitting in the tank for months; I want to get rid of it all and start over with fresh water running through the heater.

What's the best way to flush out the system? I ran hot water through the kitchen sink for a while and ran a dishwasher cycle, but the smell is still there. Should I keep running hot water until the smell goes away? Are there any safety concerns that remain after it does?

For what it's worth, the manual attached to the hot water heater contains a diagram that looks nothing like the actual boiler; the landlords are not very handy or knowledgeable. I don't want to tinker with the thing too much lest my house asplode.