Drainage and septic tanks
The gulley at the foot of a downpipe is cracked and water pools beside the wall. What foundation risk is that pooling, before anyone mentions subsidence as a fact?
The foundation risk, before anyone calls it subsidence, is water pooling beside the wall where the gulley is cracked. The downpipe is delivering water, and the cracked gulley is not taking it away, so the ground at the foot of the wall stays wet. The survey can see the crack and the pool. It has not found movement, has not monitored the building, and has not said the foundations have shifted. Subsidence is not a fact on this note. Persistent wetting at the wall base is.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
Downpipes should deliver roof water into a gulley that carries it off. A cracked gulley lets that water escape at the wall. Repeated wetting can soften the ground beside a shallow foundation, which is a risk, not a measurement of movement. Subsidence would be the building having moved because of the ground. The survey has not seen that, unless it separately records cracks of the kind that show movement. This paragraph is the gulley. Keep the pool from being promoted into a structural verdict.
Repair the gulley and stop the pool. A builder can do that without a subsidence claim. Tell the solicitor the note is defective rainwater goods and standing water, not a declaration that the house has subsided. If the report has no movement cracks, do not add them in correspondence. If it does, they are their own finding and still are not proved to come from this gulley. The survey has not made that link.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Where is the cracked gulley, and where does water pool?
- Did you record movement, or only the wetting at the wall base?
- Have you kept subsidence out of this note?
What are the typical next steps?
- Describe pooling from the cracked gulley as a wetting risk.
- Do not state subsidence as a fact from this pool.
- Repair the gulley so the downpipe water is carried away.
Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.
Also asked about this
If the wall above has no crack, is the pooling still worth naming?
Yes. The risk is water sitting against the base, which the survey can see without a crack overhead. No crack means subsidence has not been observed. It does not make the broken gulley harmless. The wetting is the finding to record.
Should the gulley be described before any word of movement?
Yes. The cracked gulley and the pool are what was seen on this visit. Movement, if it is ever mentioned, needs its own evidence. This note stops at water beside the wall. That order stops a drainage defect becoming a subsidence story.