It’s only an inch of rain, how bad could it be? It may not seem like a lot, but when all the rain is being collected by your roof funneling into two or three downspouts, that’s a very concentrated amount of water. Just an inch of water on a 1,000 square foot roof could be upwards of 600 gallons of water and its all being discharged near your foundation.
Tune in to this week’s KFGO Morning Crew podcast with Lars Knobloch of Nordic Inspections. Lars explains how drought followed by late-season rain affects the Red River Valley’s clay soil. He also covers what that could mean once the freeze-thaw cycle begins, and how it can impact homes across the Fargo-Moorhead area.
More on the clay soil in the RRV, check out our bog post, How Clay Soils Affect Foundations in the Red River Valley.
Schedule a professional home inspection with Nordic Inspections. Book on our website or call us today at 701.566.1446 ext. 0
What All This Late Season Rain Can Do To Your Foundation.
Nov 3, 2026
(0:02) Good morning, 643. (0:04) It’s the morning crew, Doug, Robbie, (0:05) and our friend Lars Knoblauch. (0:07) Good morning.(0:08) Hello. (0:09) Lars, it’s always so much fun to hear your insight (0:11) and your wisdom on some of the things that happen. (0:14) And I do a lot of walking and throughout this drought, (0:17) I saw driveways and walking paths (0:21) and everything that had huge gaps in it through the drought.(0:25) And then once you start getting rain back, (0:28) it’s amazing to see like a correction as to, (0:32) I don’t know if the land expands again, (0:34) or how does that impact a homeowner, Lars? (0:38) Yeah, it’s ridiculous, the amount of movement (0:40) and the force we have with our soil in our region. (0:44) And it’s interesting now because we have, (0:47) we’ve gotten quite a few rain, (0:50) quite a bit of rain recently compared to our standards. (0:54) Right.(0:55) And yeah, we had a little bit more than an inch yesterday (0:58) and it’s gonna rain more this week. (1:02) So, and we’ll see how much more will rain (1:05) and when the frost hits, (1:07) but we might end up with a situation (1:10) where the soil next to the foundation (1:11) could be pretty saturated or pretty wet when it’s freezing. (1:16) And that alone- (1:16) What happens then? (1:18) Then yeah, now there’s an expansion happening (1:21) and that could result in all kinds of structural movement.(1:24) You bring up a really good point (1:25) because one of the things I thought of (1:27) when it was starting to rain is as dry as it was, (1:30) should I put my downspouts up so that some of that water, (1:33) instead of moving water away from our house, (1:35) like we’re always trying to do, (1:37) should I allow it to set up next to my house? (1:39) But what I’m hearing you say is (1:40) if we get into the freeze cycle of fall, (1:43) that might not have been a good idea. (1:44) Well, if you have an inch of rain (1:47) on a thousand square foot roof, (1:50) that’s about 620 gallons of water. (1:53) And all that water comes out (1:56) at usually two or three downspouts, right? (1:58) So it’s very concentrated.(2:00) So you can just imagine how much water (2:03) that’s being dumped at the corners of your house (2:06) when it’s just raining an inch. (2:08) So I think it’s critical to have them on still, (2:12) keep them on until we don’t have any more rain (2:14) in the forecast and things are starting (2:16) to become more wintry. (2:19) But what we see, and well, another thing now, (2:22) we had pretty high winds as well.(2:24) So some of those extensions may have blown off (2:27) on a lot of houses. (2:28) You might wanna look. (2:28) You might wanna take a look at that right now.(2:31) Other thing is, your window wells, (2:34) often what happens is that we have all the leaves (2:37) and the debris falling into your window well (2:39) if you don’t have a cover, (2:40) and now you’re restricting drainage. (2:43) So you end up with pooling water. (2:44) That caught us one year.(2:45) We didn’t realize it had gotten into one of our wells (2:48) and all of a sudden we had a little bit of a leak (2:50) on the wall in the basement. (2:51) We’re like, wait a minute, where’s that coming in? (2:53) And that was what had happened. (2:54) Yeah, that’s what you wanna get, window well covers.(2:58) But another quick reminder is to switch your sump pump (3:03) discharge to winter mode or to the inside (3:06) if you have the option to do that. (3:09) But what gets me inspecting houses in our region (3:14) for over 15 years is that people don’t understand (3:21) or care about this kind of thing. (3:25) They don’t understand it.(3:27) How important it is. (3:28) How important it is. (3:29) And I wanna bring up some stats.(3:30) And these are stats from our inspections that we have done. (3:37) So 62%, and this is for Fargo-Moorhead, West Fargo only, (3:42) 62% of homes built prior to 1980 (3:49) have significant, what we consider significant movement (3:52) of the foundation. (3:53) 62% of the homes.(3:55) And 55% of these have inward movement. (4:00) So 55% have movement, meaning your foundation wall (4:04) is leaning in. (4:05) 23% settling.(4:08) And only 33% have installed bracing to repair these walls. (4:13) So there’s a gap there. (4:14) And it doesn’t matter what type of foundation (4:16) it is either.(4:18) Well, it does a little bit. (4:19) So for Port Concrete, we have significant movement. (4:25) We will look at my stats.(4:29) You know, and it’s interesting (4:30) because when I’ve been looking at houses, (4:32) I’ve also seen like, just because something has braces, (4:35) if it’s a block foundation and it’s braced, (4:38) well, just because there’s braces there, (4:40) are they been installed correctly? (4:42) Are they actually working? (4:43) A lot of times they are, and a lot of times they’re not. (4:45) It’s like a hit or miss. (4:46) So you just say, well, it’s braced, it’s blocked, (4:48) but has it been installed correctly and are they working? (4:51) Yeah.(4:52) Well, what I was gonna say is that for significant movement, (4:56) 46% of the Port Concrete, (5:01) and Concrete Block is 83%. (5:03) So it’s a clear difference between Concrete Block. (5:06) It’s not a good foundation for us in our soil.(5:10) And the same with brick. (5:12) So it seems like the older it is, (5:14) the worse it is. (5:15) And that has to do with our soil, of course, (5:18) but it has to do with how people are not taking care (5:20) of the water and maintaining the water, (5:22) bringing the water away from their house.(5:24) I think they just get nervous about it. (5:25) And it’s one of those things, it’s overwhelming. (5:27) So they just assume, put it over here, (5:29) than to even think about it.(5:31) I really do. (5:32) And they’re worried about the cost and what it’s gonna be. (5:34) And it’s not often, like people associate having, (5:38) you know, poor drainage with water in their basement.(5:42) So if they don’t have water in their basement, (5:43) they tend to not do anything about it. (5:45) But that’s kind of the problem, right? (5:48) Because it’s out of sight, out of mind. (5:50) But if you look at houses built prior to 1940, (5:56) 79%, 79% of houses built prior to 1940 (6:00) are experiencing significant movement.(6:02) And this is based off of thousands and thousands (6:04) of houses we have inspected. (6:05) Sure, sure. (6:06) And then if you go between 1940 and 1951, it’s 63%.(6:11) And if you go to 1960 to 79, it’s 33%. (6:15) So it’s like, so this kind of gives you a heads up (6:18) as a home buyer too, like what is important to you (6:22) when you’re looking at buying a house (6:24) and who do you wanna hire? (6:25) You wanna hire someone who understands structure (6:28) and identify foundation problems, (6:30) because it seems that that is one of the most common things (6:35) and most important things that has to do with the house. (6:39) Boy, no doubt about it.(6:39) Lars Knobloch, Nordic Inspections. (6:41) If someone wants to get on the list (6:44) to have their home inspected before they sell it, (6:46) if they’re looking at buying a home, (6:48) if they want mold check, radon check, (6:49) how can they get on your project list, Lars? (6:51) Or if you skipped your inspection over the last five years (6:54) when you bought it, this is a good time to have us (6:56) come out and check it out for you. (6:58) There might be some things lurking in the corner.(7:00) Yeah, great point. (7:01) Give us a call, 701-566-1446, (7:04) or check out our website, Nordic Companies, Inc., (7:06) where you can also schedule your inspection. (7:08) Thanks so much, Lars.(7:09) Take care.