Mike May 26, 2020The 2 G’s! A Cedar Rapids Home Inspector and Your Home’s Worst Enemy.
Water damage is your home’s worst enemy! Here is a perfect example of what I see as a Cedar Rapids home inspector. Gutters that are full of debris and are either clogged or will be clogged at the first rain fall and grounds that slope towards the foundation walls.
As a Cedar Rapids Home Inspector, a part of my mission is to educate people about why keeping their gutters clean and their grounds properly sloped is important. It may seem like a small thing, but at Eastern Iowa Inspection services we view it as a very big deal.
What Do Gutters Do?
Your gutters serve to get water off of the roof and away from the foundation of the home. Many hundreds of gallons of water run down the roof during an average rain here in Cedar Rapids and Waterloo Iowa. You don’t want all that water running down around the foundation walls.
If your gutters are clean and functioning properly they will carry the majority of that water through the down spouts and away from the foundation.
What Can Happen?
As a professional home and commercial property inspector I see many wet basements in Cedar Rapids and Waterloo Iowa. There’s nothing worse than a damp, unusable basement. High moisture levels and seepage in the basement are conducive to Mold Growth and rot.
One thing about being a home inspector in Cedar Rapids and Waterloo Iowa is that you get to see a variety of problems. These problems vary greatly in severity. Clogged gutters and poor perimeter grading really can be your homes worst enemies!
Here is an example of what happens when the slope of perimeter grading is negative. This home had the gutters but not the grounds, which has over time caused the dirt to wash away. Fortunately for the home owner’s, they have a good sump pump to pump that water away. Once they get the grounds sorted out that sump pump will certainly run a lot less.
Be Proactive!
Instead of waiting for problems to appear, be proactive and contact us. We’ll come out and perform a professional home inspection that you can use as a road map to getting your house in shape.
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I doesn’t matter if I am in Waterloo, Cedar Rapids, Cedar Falls or anywhere in between. The principals remain the same. Keep your gutters clean and the grounds properly slopping away from the home. Otherwise, you may have foundation issues over time that are irritating and costly to repair.