Hello everyone and Welcome once again to
an edition of the Selling Greenville
podcast as always I am your host Stan McCune
realtor right here in Greenville
South Carolina and as always you can
find all of my contact information in
the show notes feel free to reach out to
me to talk real estate to shoot the
breeze whatever it may be let me know I
would be happy to to help you with
anything real estate related that I can
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through really helps the show and I
just want to apologize that I have
moved my microphone around a little bit
and I realized the last few episodes
have been a little echoey so
hopefully this one will be a little bit
better I tried to relocate my microphone
so it's not so close to the wall and
I'm speaking more into an open space
which I think will help there to be less
of an echo hopefully that helps to
make this a little bit more enjoyable
for you guys to listen to what are we
talking about today we are talking about
rain today because we have gotten so
much rain I'm recording this on
Friday May the 29th we have had flash
flooding not too long ago just what
about a week ago flash flooding we've
had that happen multiple times this year
we had a hundred-year flood earlier this
year I mean it has just been crazy I
I feel like I need to go out and build
an ark right not just for the flooding
but you know the ark also kind of
doubles as a as a good quarantine type
of type of place you know you can
just go out on the ark just float around
don't have to have any contact with
anyone and you know that could be a
really good business idea for someone
maybe there's someone out there that's
like yeah you know what I I sell
arcs you know and and it helps you to
survive all the hundred-year floods and
it helps you to to not run into people
that have covid-19 that can be really
helpful for someone and maybe one of
you out there will create a business
doing that me on the other hand I'm
trying to figure out how to sell houses
with all this rain and I don't have any
notes in front of me for this podcast I
am winging it because I just want to
talk about the rain with you guys I have
had real estate deals nearly fall
through I've had real estate deals fall
through and and a lot of other things
related directly to the rain so we need
to talk about this all right and here's
what we need to talk about when we have
flash floods it is is an unusual
environment and it's unusual for us to
have this many in one year all right
some of you might be saying well if
we've had multiple flesh floods this
year shouldn't we just be prepared for
it yes and no I mean it's unusual for
Greenville to have as much rain as we've
had this year I mean this has just been
nuts every single day we have rain
there are a lot of years where we've had
droughts so I'm not overreacting to the
flash floods and I'm encouraging you
guys not to overreact to the flash
floods guess what happens when there's a
flash flood every single cross space
gets water in it I had a client that
was under contract for a property that
got 4 Ines of water in it that was not
at all the most that I heard from the
past week I heard crawl spaces with six
seven inches of water in it people that
pest inspectors I know home
inspectors that went in several cross
spaces this past week noted that they
all had water in them the point of doing
these inspections and and the point of
trying to to look at moisture and all of
that isn't to determine what happens in
the worst case scenario right a flash
flood is a very unusual worst case
scenario what's more telling is what the
cross space moisture was before or a few
days after the flooding
so and and remember we just had this
flooding a couple of months ago so let's
say that you are under contract for a
house and you had an inspector down
there take moisture readings prior to
the flooding that happened and the
moisture readings came in Low by low I
mean probably lower than 20% right above
20% is when a lot of inspectors start to
get worried some will say maybe you know
17 18% you should start getting worried
most of them that I talk to they start
getting worried above 20% so let's say
that before all this flash flooding
happened it's still been very wet and we
had flash flooding like two and a half
months ago the the cross space
moisture was you know 17 18
19% that's indicative that the
moisture levels are drying out that that
space is drying out we've had a lot of
rain we have had flash floods for it to
not be over 20% that is a great sign
generally speaking now obviously you
need to talk to an inspector about
specific instance but I'm talking
generally speaking that's a good sign
that means that cross space is drying
out it gets a if that cross space
just got a bunch of water in it and
before you had measured it with decent
moisture readings and now it's got got
all this water in it personally I think
you need to to give it some time and
let's see if it dries out what what are
the moisture levels a week from now
maybe you might need to check two weeks
from now because the main concern as I
understand it is that you don't want the
moisture to get trapped down there it's
it's going to have moisture there's
going to be when it when there's a flash
flood you're going to have standing
water in a cross space let's just be
real here but what we don't want to
happen is for moisture to get trapped
down there and for that moisture then to
evaporate into the wood of the house
the Flor joist and the the the different
framing that's down there not going to
get too In The Weeds on all of that but
the main thing you don't want your floor
to start you know having issues because
the floor joist the beams and whatnot
down there are damaged by wood
destroying fun
now my understanding is that as long as
your crawl space is is for the most part
under
28% moisture in the wood that you
should be okay that generally that
that's the level that the that we start
getting concerned about wood destroying
fungus like I said over 20% you should
start taking notes why is it over 20%
are there broader issues here once
once it gets over 28% you've got real
problems now you're going to start
having again if it's if it's over 28%
for an extended period of time you're
going to start seeing wood destroying
fungus most likely start to grow and
that can really cause damage to your
house now these things it's very
important to know these things are all
correctable and it really the main
concern is is it going to be expensive
but usually it's not I mean by expensive
I mean usually it's not going to be
$1,000 for instance even if you've got
wood destroying fungus down there that
can be treated crw spaces can be dried
out you put a vapor barrier that helps
to to keep the moisture that's in the
ground from going up to the wood you
can put a sump pump in there so that
when water comes in it just shoots it
back out back outside you can build
French drains in order to when the
water is coming towards the house it
goes into the drain instead and and is
redirected somewhere else are a lot of
ways to correct these things and
oftentimes they're not that expensive
often times even replacing floor joist
and whatnot as long as there's not a
ton that needs to be replaced oftentimes
that's not very expensive either you
might even have have to to jack up a
part of the of the foundation or maybe
jack up a for Joy these things sound a
lot scarier than they are often times
you'll be paying more to get a
professional pink pain for your house or
even a nonprofessional painter for your
house then you will to fix some of those
very basic moisture issues now what
what's frustrating is that you don't
benefit from the cross space from the
standpoint of of you know like being
able to to use that space you know that
that what you have what you're using the
cross space for doesn't tangibly benefit
you and so you don't want to have to
sink a ton of money into into a space
that you're not actually using for
anything other than you know that it
supports your house and you know you
might have a water heater down there or
a furnace down there or something like
that so I understand that and I get
that but a lot of people will
overreact to water in the crawl space
there is a whole lot more to consider
now how does water end up into inside of
a house or inside of a cross space I'll
tell you what the first thing you need
to look at and I have run into this
multiple times with homes I've flipped
I've run into this multiple times with
homes my clients have had the first
thing you look at is not the ground you
got to look up because those gutters are
probably more often than not going to be
the reason why there's water that's
that's going where it shouldn't go you'd
be shocked how frequently bad gutters
cause moisture issues in a home and
that is true also for a home on a found
on a slab Foundation just sold a home
just had a client Clos this past week
on a home that that was on a slab
foundation and guess what happened
during the the flash flooding we had
well we didn't see it but when we did
the final walk through we were in the
back of the house where there's an
exterior door and U my clients were
looking around and and you know I do
some basic looking around myself just to
make sure I don't see anything and sure
enough I noticed hm the baseboards near
that exterior door look a little bit odd
wonder what's going on there I walk up
to it they're discolored and swollen the
baseboards on either side of the door
and have a clear moisture pattern
spreading from the door down the sides
of of the baseboards I touched them sure
enough they were wet water had come in
through that door somehow we're not
exactly sure how it came in but we
thankfully because we caught that during
the walk through we were able to get the
seller to to replace those baseboards
if I had to guess I would guess it's
probably that the gutters are clogged or
that something is malfunctioning with
the gutters told my client make sure
that you clear out those gutters when
you get a chance get a leaf blower blow
those gutters out make sure that they're
clear when it rains look at what's
happening it could also be if the
gutters are are just not sloped
correctly they may not have the proper
slope to ensure that the water goes
where it needs to also gutters when
when there's flooding they can just get
overwhelmed you know they they might not
be able to drain the water quickly
enough and so water May overflow well
guess what if the water overflows it can
overflow one of two directions either on
the house side of the gutters or the
non or the yard side of the gutters
often times they will overflow in both
directions and so this will result in in
a separate thing that I saw happen
during the flooding which was we went
into a
house and there was actually standing
water on the
floor and it wasn't very clear where it
was coming from I mean it was near an
exterior door but the long story
short was that those gutters did you
could tell that those gutters had
problems on that house and we were there
in the rain and we saw we saw that
happening and what I think happened is
that the gutters got overwhelmed they
were clogged and water seeped up above
the fascia and safit and then seeped
down the door and basically came out of
of the wall and into the home and I've
seen that now on a few homes this year
so that is not an uncommon thing
right now in this crazy wet environment
to run into if gutters aren't the
problem it could be the grading of the
home and what I mean by that is is the
soil is the dirt around the home sloped
so that when water hits it it just runs
away from the home rather than running
to the home if it runs to the home we
call that a negative grade the grading
of the home is is negative it's supposed
to be a positive grade supposed to be
able to let that that water just goes
away from the home we we don't want
water coming towards your home that's a
problem and you might need to also
you might need to to put soil up to
to do that to correct the grading issues
you could also run into an issue with
your down spouts if your down spouts are
not pushing water far enough away from
the house you might want to extend those
you might want to put Splash blocks down
there's a lot of different things out
there but you need water to be going
away from your house if it doesn't go
away from your house it's going to cause
problems and it doesn't matter if you're
on a crawl space or a slab Foundation
moisture can cause problems now slab
foundations are a whole lot lower
maintenance in this regard but again
like I said on that one home that was a
slab Foundation what happened when the
moisture came in it didn't have the
option of going down so it just went
into the baseboards and because modern
day baseboards are not made out of solid
wood the materials that they're made
out of they just soak that water in like
a sponge and they just swell up and
and and it doesn't look good when that
happens so you've got to be on the
lookout for that in these homes there is
a lot that can go wrong if the water
pools around different areas of the
house it can actually cause the some
more settling of the house so it's
normal for a house to settle right it's
normal in my house upstairs there's a
section where you can see settling that
has caused a part of the crown molding
to kind of where where they connected
two pieces of crown molding together one
piece is a little bit lower than the
other that type of settling that's
normal but you don't want your house to
be settling like a it should only be
settling so much right
and most of the settling happens
right away it it you don't want a
house that is you know say 40 50 years
old to be you know settling I if
you're seeing substantial
settling on an older home you might have
an issue let me say it that way and I
ran into a situation recently with a
home that had a brick veneer and the the
there were cracks in the brick cracks in
the mortar joints a lot of different
things like that and I actually talked
to a structural engineer about this and
he you know discussed with me thing a
lot of things that I already knew but in
his words the brick veneer is less
flexible than the the framing of the
house and again I'm not going to get
into all the construction lingo but
the brick veneer is not what's holding
up the house for the most part there is
actual Framing and that's the part of
the house that's important the brick
veneer though is not very flexible and
so when there's a little bit of settling
that brick you're going to start seeing
some cracks in it that doesn't mean that
the framing behind it is necessarily
damaged the framing behind it is more
flexible has more give than the brick
does in part because the framing is
made out of wood wood expands and
contracts with moisture naturally anyway
and and brick doesn't in the same way
his recommendation if you see that and
you're concerned about it go look at the
drywall on the on the inside of the
house on that same area of the house
in other words you see let's say that
you see crack brick on the the West
side of the house go to the wall on the
inside of the house on the West Side see
if that wall is cracked is that showing
signs of settling if so then that's
that's not a good thing right that means
that possibly that the crack that the
settling issue is more than just a brick
veneer problem is actually coming all
the way through and into the house
and maybe impacting the the actual
framing of the house the actual
structure of the house that's one thing
just to look at that's not a you know
a guaranteed method for determining that
a house is having some Foundation issues
or or what have you but but that's
something to look for He also mentioned
look in the crack in the brick itself
see you know is there dust
accumulating there like is this an old
crack is this a new crack I mean most
homes with brick veneer in our area
are 40 50 years old now they they do
build some newer homes with brick
veneer but that's something that if it's
a 50 or 40y old home that crack may
have been there for 30 years and so
if you own the home and you see a crack
like that you can go ahead and fill that
in with more mortar you don't want to
use caul but but fill it in with more
mortar like that and see if that
continues to crack that might show you
that that there is a current problem
rather than an old problem ultimately
if that is the case it may all be
related to the way water is running off
because water
can do different things to the ground
can cause ground to to become more
compact or can cause you know runoff
of the soil a whole lot of things can
happen that ultimately cause a home to
start sinking or a part of the home to
start sinking you don't want that to
happen it's happening in Venice the
entire city is going to be underwater or
so we're told that's really sad
and it's really sad if it happens to
your home as well so just keep all keep
all of that in mind what I'm telling
to buyers and sellers right now is don't
freak out when there's a flood these
things are all correctable you have
options of fixing gutters you have
options of adding vapor barriers if you
need to put a sump pump into the crawl
space to shoot the water back out that
is an option those cost like $500 to put
a sump pump in
you know if you need a French drain
French drains can be expensive but it
depends on how how big the drain needs
to be it might not need to be that big
in which case you know you're paying
by the linear foot of the French drain
so if it's a small French drain you
might not have to pay that much
overall it's just something to keep in
mind if you're a buyer don't let the
fact that there is moisture in a cross
space during a flash flood
immediately caus you to freak out there
is more to consider it may be the kind
of thing where okay this is a problem
like I said there's you've got to put
the entire puzzle together if you're a
seller and you get a bad cl00 due to a
flash flood I would personally go back
to the buyer and say listen you need to
to wait a week and do the cl00 when we
don't have a flash flood cuz this is not
this this is not normal conditions we
need to see what what the moisture
levels are in this home during normal
conditions but you need to look at
what is happening if you do have
moisture issues look at what happens
when it rains walk around your house in
the rain look at the gutters is water
overflowing the gutters maybe they just
need to be cleaned out maybe they need
to be
reinstalled look at is there a negative
grade is water flowing towards your
house in some way in that case you might
need to have someone come and and do
some some grading around your lot you
may need to put in a French drain but
everything is
correctable and you need to be come
at it from a levelheaded approach
understanding okay it's not the end of
the world we we want to make sure that
that fungus doesn't grow in the crawl
space right that is the ultimate goal we
want to make sure no f fungus grows in
the crossface we want to make sure no
water comes in our home you know outside
of where we want it in the bathtub in
the shower in the toilet we want to
make sure that water is not coming into
our home from the outside and so
there are a few things to look for and a
few things to do if that happens these
are correctable issues and so don't let
these conditions freak you out these are
unusual ual conditions for the upstate
and if you run into an issue with
water get the right people involved that
are levelheaded that won't freak you out
remember a lot of
contractors that you have come look
at at your home they're going to try to
to give you a worst case scenario
because they want to jack up the price
right they want to get you to to pay as
much as possible in order to get the
biggest job as possible in order to make
the most money so if you have a
contractor come out you might need to
have a few different contractors come
out to get a few different opinions they
all say something a little bit different
because they all have different
experiences and some might be more
ethical than
others me I have to be careful what I
say as a realtor because there is a
common sense issue here but at at the
end of the day I'm not an inspector and
I'm not a structural engineer so I can
give some common sense advice but I
also have to be careful with what I say
and I have to defer to inspectors and
contractors but here is hopefully this
episode has given you some some common
sense advice some common sense things to
think about and to look for hopefully
you don't run into a situation where
you or someone buying your home is
overreacting or feels pressured
because of the moisture issues because
of the water issues and the flash
flooding that we're having that's not
the way to go about it because these are
for the most part unusual conditions if
you have any questions about any of that
please feel free to let me know as
always my contact information is in the
show notes and until next time I hope
you guys stay dry and stay safe take care
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