Go Look at Land When the Weather Is Bad (Land That Failed #7)

The video

What happened

This one did not fail before the project. It failed after it was finished, which is worse.

Flat open field. Cleared easy, graded easy, nothing in the way. Every check passed and the site work went smoothly, which should have been the first clue that nobody had seen it under load.

Nobody was out there after a hard rain.

The low end of that field held water for two days every time a storm came through. That is where the pad went, because the pad goes where the land is flattest, and the flattest part of a field is very often the part that drains into itself.

What you end up with is a wet crawlspace, a driveway you cannot use for two days after weather, and a yard that will not grow. None of those are catastrophic on their own and all of them are permanent. You are living with that property for as long as you own it.

Drainage is not on anybody's checklist because it is not a permit. No office issues you a document about it and no inspector fails you for it.

Go look at land when the weather is bad. Not on the nice Saturday — go back when it has been raining for a day. That is when a property tells you the truth about itself, and it is the only time it will.

Separately, check whether any of it sits in a mapped flood zone. That is a different question with different consequences, and it is worth asking too.

The four checks

This property passed all four. It failed on something that is not on the list.

1. 1. AccessPassed

   Can the home physically get to the site? The road, the driveway, every bend, the width, what is overhead.

2. 2. ZoningPassed

   Will the county allow a manufactured home in this district?

3. 3. WastePassed

   Will the soil take a septic system, or is there sewer at the road?

4. 4. RoomPassed

   What is left after setbacks, easements, the septic area and its repair area?

5. 5. What is not on the list: drainageFailed

   How the ground behaves when it is wet.