Inches of water on patio against house

I don’t know if anyone here has any expertise on this, but I’m under contract to buy a house and the owner just disclosed previous flooding through the back door.

20 minutes into moderately heavy rain I went by and took these photos. The water is several inches deep on the patio against the house and moving rapidly.

I have a chance to get out of the contract based on the disclosure before wasting money on an inspection, assessment, etc., if I do so quickly, but wife and kids really love the house.

The shear amount of water looks to me like it would easily overflow any French drain type system, and the back yard beyond what you can see slopes significantly towards the house.

I’d appreciate any thoughts or advice.

The following is a link to the photo album in Google Docs:

https://goo.gl/photos/q46RsiHzDX1NxP6n8

Thanks.

could be possible to dig a trench and install like a 12 inch pipe under the patio so the water can just keep flowing downhill.

I don’t know anything about this stuff–can you install a pipe under a patio without digging through the patio itself?

I don’t know anything about this stuff–can you install a pipe under a patio without digging through the patio itself?

looking at your pictures again, it wouldn’t have to run directly under the patio. Just a drain before the entrance and a pipe running parallel to the patio until you clear it, then just pop it out somewhere downhill where the water can continue on. Now, if there isn’t a lower point for the water to go, theres the option of a storm water leaching system, where one creates a dry well for the water to flow into; and it’ll naturally discharge into the water table after a few days.

So if you look at those first 2 pictures with water in them, that’s looking from the patio up into the neighbor’s yard. What you can’t see there is there’s a significant grade towards the patio from both the left (front yard) and right (back yard) of the house itself.

The lot is basically the lowest of 20 lots on that street that have V’s in their own yard, with their front and back yards sloping down to a point in their back yard generally 10-20 feet behind the house, but with the V itself sloping down towards the next neighbor’s yard.

This lot has the same V, but where the higher lots have the bottom of the V somewhere in the backyard, this house has the V hitting right at the back of the house, and it has the water from all the houses above it pouring into that V. Looking from those first two water photos, you can see the stream in front coming from the higher neighbor’s yard, so that slopes down, the left and right also slope down, and the only point lower is behind the shots, past the patio and deck. The house faces East, from the patio it is uphill East, South, and West, then downhill North to a creek.

So if you look at those first 2 pictures with water in them, that’s looking from the patio up into the neighbor’s yard. What you can’t see there is there’s a significant grade towards the patio from both the left (front yard) and right (back yard) of the house itself.

The lot is basically the lowest of 20 lots on that street that have V’s in their own yard, with their front and back yards sloping down to a point in their back yard generally 10-20 feet behind the house, but with the V itself sloping down towards the next neighbor’s yard.

This lot has the same V, but where the higher lots have the bottom of the V somewhere in the backyard, this house has the V hitting right at the back of the house, and it has the water from all the houses above it pouring into that V. Looking from those first two water photos, you can see the stream in front coming from the higher neighbor’s yard, so that slopes down, the left and right also slope down, and the only point lower is behind the shots, past the patio and deck. The house faces East, from the patio it is uphill East, South, and West, then downhill North to a creek.

And I don’t think the photos convey the sheer volume of water. https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOx714MXBAwi0Bx9DbZTG7EEfx5e5OFIjro1tJ9LT7w0a9_TwsMDIVdwJgY6je69Q/photo/AF1QipP10GRaHbjzy5ENexcSNC0rjX_zm0vDwTFDLrI?key=MmlYcno4ejRvdnlpZnpUTFBoMURVX201bWRhaE9R is showing a 4 foot wide 6-8 inch deep stream going under the deck that abuts the patio. The 4 foot wide 3-5 inch (3 inch against the house siding) stream in the patio is the water in addition to all that water going under the deck. If I’d had a full sized barrel, I could have filled it in less than a second without making a dent in the stream around it.

And I don’t think the photos convey the sheer volume of water. https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOx714MXBAwi0Bx9DbZTG7EEfx5e5OFIjro1tJ9LT7w0a9_TwsMDIVdwJgY6je69Q/photo/AF1QipP10GRaHbjzy5ENexcSNC0rjX_zm0vDwTFDLrI?key=MmlYcno4ejRvdnlpZnpUTFBoMURVX201bWRhaE9R is showing a 4 foot wide 6-8 inch deep stream going under the deck that abuts the patio. The 4 foot wide 3-5 inch (3 inch against the house siding) stream in the patio is the water in addition to all that water going under the deck. If I’d had a full sized barrel, I could have filled it in less than a second without making a dent in the stream around it.

https://goo.gl/photos/9JdWx65eG9AP8FRh7 is the photo I mentioned in my last post, in case that link doesn’t work.

https://goo.gl/photos/9JdWx65eG9AP8FRh7 is the photo I mentioned in my last post, in case that link doesn’t work.

I am not a RE lawyer but in my mind, this is pretty material. You have the lowest lot, lots of sloping, and serious collection of water, with inadequate drainage. Get a professional in to take a look and give an estimate as to what needs to be done — regrading, drainage, etc. — and ask for a price concession based on the estimate. You don’t want to be stuck with this after closing without knowing what you are getting yourself into.