Water Intrusion mystery at the beach

It was an unbelievable home on Ocean Boulevard in Coronado, California. As with a lot of homes at the beach, because lot sizes are so small, many homes have basements. This particular home was only about three years old and had always had trouble with water leaking into the basement. The contractor that built the home had been trying in vain to find the source of the water intrusion since the beginning.

The homeowner was introduced to me by a local contractor that had worked with me on a custom home project where I was responsible for funding control and quality assurance and he was the General Contractor. Through that experience he learned to trust my background in defect investigation.

Within weeks of starting to investigate the problem with the basement water intrusion problem I found the foundation wall was built too low and the adjacent yard had poor drainage. When it rained and sometimes just from irrigation, the water went under the siding, up and over the top of the foundation wall and into the basement.

I designed a repair that involved raising the waterproofing on the basement wall above the level of the top of the foundation wall. Additional drainage was added to the yard to the street and the problem was solved. I was also able to work with the contractor that built the home and he in turn paid for many of the repairs on the home. Typically, this situation may have turned into a law suit that would have dragged out the repair process and resulted in bad feeling on both sides.

Right now, the contractor and homeowner still remain friends.