Bellingham Home Inspector (King of the House) Perimeter Slope

One issue, often found to be present during the course of a home inspection, is perimeter pavement or soil that slopes toward the home. Here in the northwest, more often than not, houses have crawl spaces and not basements. I have even seen soil or pavement slope directly toward a crawl space vent. Below is a shot from an inspection, this is my indicator to myself, often displayed in reports, to get the point across about the slope of the soil.

This is, in most cases, not difficult to correct by grading soil. But, if the problem is not corrected, it may not be a benign issue. It can lead to water entering the crawl space or the basement, when a basement is present. Soil should, as a guideline, be graded with a slope away from the house. A slope with a drop of about 1" per foot for 6 to 8 ft away from the house is beneficial. And, if it is pavement sloped toward the house, not allowing water to soak into the soil at all, this problem can be exacerbated and it will be necessary to re-slope or replace the pavement.