Water Damage

[Kevin A. Richardson]

The sellers on this inspection disclosed that the basement flooded due to a back-up on an exterior entry door drain. They pulled all of the carpets up and placed two de-humidifiers in the basement.

My clients did not know the extent of damage until I showed them these images. The sheetrock was soaking wet at least 4 feet up from the bottom of all the walls.

Kevin

[John McKenna]

Wow.

[rmaday]

What did the moisture meter read?

[Kevin A. Richardson]

Originally Posted by rmaday

What did the moisture meter read?

Very high.....

The first image was high on the wall and the second was low. When I firsted turned on the camera and scaned the walls, I thought I was looking at the temperature difference between a non-insulated wall and an insulated wall. Sometimes on older homes the basment insulation will not go all the way to the floor. However, I started paying close attention to the patterns in the image, then broke out the moisture meter.

I confirmed that what I was loking at was in fact moisture and that there was no insulation behind the walls. Personally, I have never come across a basement this wet before.

Kevin

[jrivera]

Originally Posted by krichardson

The sheetrock was soaking wet at least 4 feet up from the bottom of all the walls.

Good thing you didn't press to hard with the moisture meter, they might have said something like ......."oh look, you've put a hole in our sheetrock, now who's gonna fix it !?"


Mic

[Charley L. Bottger]

Its amazing how dry wall retains the moisture for as long as it does. I was called to do a scan one week after this basement had flooded with approximately 3 inches of water. Owner for legal purposes want images showing how far up the wall the moisture had wicked. At the time these images were shot the free standing water had been removed along with the carpet. Dehumidifiers had been operating for a couple of days and my meter still topped out at 100% moisture