Home Wreckers
The signs can be subtle, the damage huge. Here’s how to protect your greatest asset.

BY STUART FOXMAN

How much time do the average homeowners spend on home maintenance? Far less than they spend on their car, suggests Tracy Gosling, a home inspector in Abbotsford, B.C. “People get a tune-up or change the oil in their car, but neglect their most expensive purchase—their home.”

A home isn’t just a big investment, it may also be the best one you’ll make. From 1998 to 2002, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the average price of a home in this country rose by 23 percent. But how many of those homes have potential problems that could affect their value, yet be identified with a little detective work? “A hundred percent of the ones that I see,” says Toronto home inspector Kirk Iredale. “There are no perfect homes. People ignore the signs because they don’t understand them.”

Even if they do recognize the signs, many homeowners don’t understand how bad a problem can get if left unattended. Here’s how to find and fix five of the most commonly overlooked structural threats to your home—and investment.

1. Chalky powder on basement walls; persistent puddles outside.
Basement dampness and floods can occur when a home has poor underground drainage and can’t handle the runoff from rain and thawing.

If you find a heavy coating of whitish powder on the interior foundation walls, the soil outside is likely saturated, and moisture is penetrating your house. Other warning signs? Dark watermarks or blistering paint on basement walls, rusty nails in baseboards, rusted metal feet on appliances, rotted wood near floor level and lingering puddles along exterior walls days after a rain.

Even if your basement isn’t submerged just yet, these signs can indicate urgent problems behind the scenes. For example, persistent wetness can rot wood studs, rust the bottom of metal columns or even cause deterioration in some older foundation walls.

One basic precaution is to ensure the ground outside slopes away from your house at a rate of about one inch per foot for the first six feet. Check, too, that downspouts extend at least three feet away from the house.

Iredale mentions one homeowner with a wet basement who spent $5,000 on an interior drainage system, but neglected to fix the grading outside. The pooling in her basement ended, but water still entered through the foundation wall, with the potential of damaging it over the years.

Sewage lines are another potential problem. When Barry and Wendi House of Grande Prairie, Alta., bought their first home in 2003, their inspector noted the mature trees on the lawn and mentioned that roots could sometimes grow into a sewage line. “Six days after we moved in, sewage backed up into the basement and came up through a drain into a shower stall,” says Wendi House. “We couldn’t believe it.”

They called a plumbing and heating company, and the repairman used an auger to shave the roots off from inside the main drain. The repair cost just $90. Had the pipe collapsed, it would have meant a $1,500 bill. House considers herself lucky: “We could easily have had a flooded basement.”

Complex problems can cost much more. When Peter and Irene Szabo of Guelph, Ont., bought an 80-year-old house in 1999, they could feel dampness in their unfinished basement. There were also white mineral deposits on the wall, a telltale sign of moisture penetration. After a thaw, the Szabos noticed a large puddle in the basement. Following heavy rains, water seeped in elsewhere.

With Iredale’s help, the Szabos learned that they had a high water table under their basement. They installed a sump pump, which helped, and received an estimate to dig up the floor, install a new drainage system, and replace the concrete. The cost—$10,000 to $15,000. Instead, with the help of a local handyman, a cement contractor, a dozen students and two do-it-yourself guides, the couple decided to tackle the job themselves. The cost: just over $5,000.

“If the problem had gone on a few more years, we might have had to pay $20,000 to $30,000 to replace a foundation wall,” says Peter Szabo. “At the first sign of basement dampness, get it diagnosed and dealt with.”

2. Musty odour; lingering dampness; dark markings on a wall or ceiling.
Mould is a microscopic organism that grows where there’s moisture and a food source, such as in damp wood, carpeting or shower grout. Depending on its type, if a significant mould colony is growing, it could be cause for concern.

“Up to 30 percent of households in Canada have humidity problems and possible mould. That can be a particular problem for people with respiratory illnesses,” says Karen Gregory, a senior research consultant with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Mould can also have ill effects on people with allergies or weakened immune systems, or infants and the elderly.

How do you eliminate mould problems? You can usually clean small areas yourself with soap and water, or a detergent or mild bleach solution. Wear rubber gloves, a dust mask and safety glasses. Using a dehumidifier can also help keep the area dry.

For large areas, or if the mould returns after cleaning, think of consulting a mould removal specialist. Look under “air quality” in the Yellow Pages.

Mould isn’t just a health issue. The high moisture that helps mould grow can also rot wood and damage drywall. When a Langley, B.C., couple moved into a farmhouse, they noticed water running down the wall when the shower was on. In the family room below, the drywall had become soggy. A large patch was black, and it smelled dank. The husband, a handyman, eventually had to rip out an entire wall, bleach down a pipe behind that was covered with black film, reinsulate, and put up new drywall.
Getting rid of mould is only half the battle; you must address the moisture sources that allow mould to grow. Look at fixing leaks, using the bathroom fan during and after your shower, opening windows more often, and servicing your furnace and air conditioning to ensure that chronic moisture isn’t an issue. Air exchangers can refresh the air and lower humidity in your home to about 35 to 45 percent.

3. Dark stains under the eaves or on a ceiling; water in light fixtures.
When water seeps under the shingles or tar paper on your roof, it pools in the eaves or on your ceiling. Poor attic ventilation and insulation can also cause ice damming—ice will develop at the eaves, and during thaw cycles, water will back up under the shingles.

If you see signs of water entry, don’t go onto your roof yourself; it’s easy to slip and fall. Call a home inspector or roofing contractor, who will probe the surface for moisture and any missing shingles or damaged areas.

That’s what Daphne M. of Coquitlam, B.C., did when she noticed watermarks in her family room, and a windowsill filling with water. Vic Finnson of Ridge Meadows Leak Consultants in Maple Ridge, B.C., came in and quickly sized up the problem.

“It was a poor roof-tile application,” says Finnson. “There were huge gaps.”

Finnson replaced ten tiles that were either missing or cracked, and also sealed some joints on one exterior wall where water could seep through. The job cost just under $1,000 and potentially saved Daphne much more.

“If rot had started in the wall she was looking at a minimum of $6,000 to $10,000,” says Finnson. “With stucco walls, even if only a relatively small area is damaged, you have to resurface the whole wall because you can’t match the pigment.”

It’s a good idea, suggests Mike Lancop, a Calgary home inspector, to routinely clean your gutters and clear branches that touch the roof, and to have a roofer inspect your roof when it’s about a dozen years old. The roofer can assess if there’s any damage that needs immediate repair, and how much time is left before the roof will need to be replaced.

“Some people’s attitude,” says Lancop, “is if the roof isn’t leaking yet, it’s fine. But if you’ve had a worn-out roof for five years, you’ll likely have to replace rotten sheathing, and you may have damaged insulation and even some rotten framing. All that can at least double the cost of your job.”

4. Diagonal cracks above doors/windows; cracks that recur; sloping floors; windows/doors that are out of square.
When your house is settling, it means that at least part of your foundation is moving and your house has lost some stability.

One major cause is excessive weight on your home’s footings, often due to the loss of a key support wall or post. Brian Crewe, a Montreal home inspector, tells of one client who removed support columns in a basement he was refinishing. Above, ceramics in the front hallway started breaking, the doorways were off square, and the mouldings didn’t fit anymore, as the house slowly sank in the areas where the columns had been situated.

“People don’t realize that posts are strategically placed,” says Crewe. “And the more modern the house, with open spaces and fewer walls, the more strategic the placement of the posts.”

Settling doesn’t mean that your house will spontaneously topple over. In a worst-case scenario, if the entire house is tilting because you’re on unstable soil, you’d have to dig up around the foundation, hydraulically lift it onto pilings and then backfill. That would run $20,000 and up, says Crewe.

But most of the time, the problem isn’t as severe and the solution is much less expensive. For instance, installing an additional support post runs to about $500. If a post has been removed, it costs even less, under $100, says Crewe, to return it to its original spot. If you suspect active settlement, it pays to call a home inspector, foundation repair contractor or a structural engineer to determine your area of weakness, the cause and the potential remedy.

5. Cracks along the inside of a foundation wall.
If you examine the concrete of just about any basement wall, it’s not unusual to find a crack. After all, it’s unreasonable to expect that hundreds of square feet of foundation will never move during the life of a house.

While one crack may just need a small patch to prevent water entry, another might indicate a potential structural problem. You can call an inspector or foundation expert to assess changing cracks.

If you’re handy, you can patch small, unchanging cracks yourself. You’ll need professional help if the repair is more complex, such as pouring new footings or adding support to older ones, which can cost around $3,000 for just a single corner, says Shawn Carr, of the Toronto-based home inspection firm Carson, Dunlop & Associates.

Nicholas Goboly of Toronto received a quick education in foundation cracks, and not just because he’s a budding home inspector himself. While staining the siding at his summer home near Trenton, Ont., a few years back, he noticed that one wall of his home had buckled at the bottom. Goboly entered the crawl space and found the wall bowing at its mid-point, and with a 5-1û2 metre-long horizontal crack along the cinder block foundation wall.

He replaced the mortar along the crack, and figures he can hold out a bit, as the problem hasn’t worsened in the last two summers. But a repair job is inevitable.

Goboly has already been told it could cost $10,000 to $15,000 to dig out a rock garden to expose the end of the foundation wall down to the footings, put up a “house jack” to resupport the main interior beam, take apart the wall, and put up a new wall. Fortunately, Goboly has worked in the renovation business and figures he is skilled enough to do some of the work himself. For dismantling the old wall and erecting a new one, he will hire a professional mason. Goboly figures that his own efforts will cut the cost of the job by at least 50 percent.

After taking his home-inspection courses, Goboly concluded that his foundation damage resulted from hydrostatic pressure—when the ground freezes, it expands, applying force against the wall. “Other than the pyramids, nothing is built to last for 10,000 years,” he reflects. “In most houses, something is going on. And the clues are always there.”

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Adapted from an article by Marc Myers