Forum
« free vintage stove Sunset Park High School »
June 9, 2009
Urgent Buyer Advice Needed
Hi All,
I'm about to go into K on a brownstone that I love. The inspection went fairly well. There were some fairly small issues that needed to be addressed and the seller agreed to them all.
The inspector's main concern was with the roof and he warned me that he thought it was a bit unusual that the seller had placed sheetrock in the basement. He said they either did it for cosmetic reasons or to hide something. The bank did an appraisal this am. I decided to show up to see what kind of issues the house has after a heavy rain. I found several leaks in the basement:
1. The first one was in the front of the basement and after some investigation I found there was an unsealed trap door in the front year.
2. the 2nd leak I identified was in the back of the basement and it seemed to be seeping in from an uncapped pipe in the backyard. In addition there was noticeable mold on the wall and a part of the ceiling were this leak was. I'm very concerned. I last looked at the property last Friday and there was no sign of dampness or mold..so it has appeared over the last 3 days.
I immediately contacted my attorney. She advised me that she had just sent the contract to the seller's attorney and she would contact them to tell them to hold off. She also advised me to get a mold expert in their right away for further inspection. in the meantime the sellers have called me 3 times today asking about the contract and telling my they have another deal in the works.
I love this house but I don't want to inherit any problems with mold or water damage..especially since i feel they tried to cover it up. ANY advice on how i should proceed.
Its a 2-family house in bedstuy going for $520k....
Comments
If there were no signs of water "seeping" into the basement with the rains we've had in the last few days, that'd be a miracle. Don't sweat the small stuff. Also who "seals" trap doors? They usually have lips that minimize water entry but are not waterproof.
Posted by: cmu at June 9, 2009 2:25 PM
"uncapped pipe in the backyard"....a drain?
I'm not a mold expert, but I don't think there would be a noticeable problem within 3 days. Are you sure it wasn't there before?
Anyway, basements have issues and it sucks. Maybe your attorney can get some $ off, but are you willing to lose the house over this? These are issues that can be addressed.
Posted by: rh at June 9, 2009 2:32 PM
All houses have some problems...any advice you get here will likely not be helpful in deciding if this is an issue you can live with or not.
Posted by: Mrs. Limestone at June 9, 2009 2:34 PM
Mrs Limestone's right. There's always something!
1. Happens all the time . . . especially in my house ;-)
2. Potentially a bit more of an issue. But my guess is fixable. Obviously very difficult to know for sure via a posting on the intertubes, but again, something I get once in a while. I use the sealing paint on my back basement wall to control/hide the problem.
Posted by: Johnny at June 9, 2009 2:55 PM
Small amounts of "seepage" during that amount of rain are not uncommon with these old houses. I'm assuming this is a stone & mortar foundation. What would be more worrisome would be any "backup" from the soil pipe collecting water off of the roof.
How extensive was the mold? All basements have some to some degrree.
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at June 9, 2009 2:55 PM
Thanks for the feedback. The area of mold appears to be small. I was thinking of having the mold tested in the meantime.
Posted by: drbedstuy2 at June 9, 2009 3:23 PM
If they'll take off a few dollars, all the better. I wouldn't worry too much about the issues considering the amount of rain we've had. Every house has issues.
Posted by: yaakovdoe at June 9, 2009 4:41 PM
They don't have another deal in the works.
Posted by: lechacal at June 9, 2009 4:42 PM
My house gets a little seepage on the back wall when it rains hard. Some mold, too. I don't worry about it. We will eventually fix our gutter to get rid of the problem. Don't sweat it.
Posted by: dt at June 9, 2009 4:53 PM
agreed with the posters above
it's fine - it's normal for houses to get that - as long as the basement hadn't completely flooded and you see spores all over the place - it's normal!
Posted by: gemini10 at June 9, 2009 5:00 PM
Ok, now I feel better. I was in panic mode. This is a great resource. Thanks for chiming in and advising!
Posted by: drbedstuy2 at June 9, 2009 5:40 PM
a basement in a brownstone, if subgrade is not legally habitable space to begin with...everytime it rains i get water in the basement..get used to it and store everything down there in plastic containers
Posted by: eman1234 at June 9, 2009 7:18 PM
Sheetrock can be a petri dish for mold. There is really no excuse for a sheetrock ceiling in an unfinished basement.
Posted by: slopefarm at June 9, 2009 8:58 PM
there are lots of things you can do about wet basements - a simple fan can make a huge difference. subpumps etc for more severe problems. In any case, a quick way to get a sense of how wet/dry the basement is to see if they store stuff down there? if they don't, that is not a great sign. The basement of my brownstone was filled with the owner's belongings, NOT in plastic containers, and all in fine condition - which indicated that it was a very dry basement. However, we had a hugely wet basement in our farmhouse upstate - water poured through the walls when it rained hard - and we fixed it by digging trenches around the edges and putting in a subpump - sounded like a big deal to a lot of buyers (hence the dirt cheap price), but it really wasn't.
Posted by: gkw at June 10, 2009 2:09 PM
a dehumidifier can also help a lot in a damp basement.
Posted by: UnprotectedWrecks at June 11, 2009 11:40 AM
Here's a bit of an update. I went back to the house and the contractor had put up more Sheetrock on the ceiling. In fact he had cut down the mold and placed new sheetrock over the ceiling. What could they be trying to hide? I had a mold tester come in at the advice of my attorney to identify if there was more mold in the basement..what kind and where it was.
They found mold in the ceiling of the basement and the new Sheetrock the contractor has just put up was soaked and wet. The issue here is that I have an infant and don't want her to develop anykind of health problems from bad mold. The heat is forced heat which originates from the basement to the rest of the house (its a 2 -family).
The mold report just came back from the lab (they took actual samples from the mold and the air. According to EPA and CDC, certain kinds can make people very sick once its airborne and needs to be professionally cleaned. The report revealed abundant Penicillium and Aspergillus and a small of Stachybotrys (all toxic).
Not sure what to do now..should i just walk away??
Posted by: drbedstuy2 at June 12, 2009 9:43 AM
Call me naive drbedstuy2, but I firmly believe that there will always be certain issues when buying an old brownstone. We are first time buyers going through the process right now and the inspection turned up problems with the facade and roof (both will need redoing/replacing in the next 5 years). We like the place and have decided to go through with the purchase. Maybe in 5 years we'll look back and scream (hope not!), but my point is there will always be problems that will need to be resolved. Maybe this is something you can address when you buy the apartment? It doesn't really sound like a deal breaker. Best of luck :)
Posted by: kissiffer4 at September 9, 2009 9:52 AM
Post a comment
Please be patient while your comment is published. It may take a moment.