All Forum Posts by: Alicia Koback

@Alicia Koback I think I know your subdivision and don't think you don't have a high water table. This is a very fixable problem 9 out of 10 times, no laywer needed. Most likely you are recirculating the same water over and over, meaning you pump it out and it comes right back in through your drain tile system. When your house was built the exterior was backfilled with #2 stone, so it takes the water literally a few seconds to run back down to the base of the foundation. So the idea to run a pipe to the street is good. You said you disconnected it in December, is that correct? 

Ask you builder to also capture the water from the gutter down spouts in the same pipe and run it out to the street. Your roof is a giant water collector and during a hard rain you have literally hundreds of gallons of water shooting out of the downspouts (you are right to worry about spring). But it is easy to capture the water and run it out to the street culvert.

You can also get a backup sump pump with a battery backup for peace of mind. Your power lines are under ground, so you are probably fine with power outages, but it's good to have a redundant system (I have one in my house).

Feel free to send me a DM with some details, if you are cool with it I'll look at the lot next time 

Alicia first of all, I'm sorry you're going through these headaches with a brand new home. I'm sure this is very stressful.

I think we need some additional context to fully understand what is happening here. The more detail the better but just a few things to clarify:

It’s a large subdivision just going up. We are the first few houses and first street. The houses across the street do not have any water problems at all, they are closer to the street.Our side of the street  3 houses have the pump going continuously and except for one house that is right next door to us is not pumping water.  Wisconsin weather has cold winters and nice spring & summers but we haven’t reached spring yet when we have heavy rains, I’m worried about this time of year because of the rain. What bothers me is I’m no expert on sump pumps but this can’t be normal to have it pumping even in below zero weather, please correct me if I’m wrong and this is normal. This land used to be farm land, according to the builder they tested the land to see if it was dry or wet land. They must of missed our area. I agree that it’s probably time to get a lawyer. Thank you for responding, I feel like someone is listening to us, appreciate it!

-Give more info about this community (how many homes, who was the builder, etc)

-What is the terrain like?

-What kind of weather have you been having lately?

-Are your neighbors having the same problem?

-Is there something unique about your exact lot that is exaggerating this problem?

It's very surprising and unusual that the builder would be willing to move you to a new home. If you have already purchased and closed escrow on your current home, moving you is easier said than done.

You'll be best getting a real estate attorney. But you might get some good free advice here if you give more information.