The home inspector in Red Deer laughed at my downspouts and now I get it
When we bought our place outside Red Deer back in 2021, the inspector walked the whole perimeter and stopped at the back corner and kind of chuckled. He said the downspouts dump water about 8 inches from the foundation, which is basically feeding the basement a drink every time it rains. I kind of brushed it off at the time because the basement was dry. Fast forward to this spring and we got water seeping along the base of the wall in the laundry room after one of those big melt-offs. Nothing huge, maybe a half inch, but enough to get me moving. I went to the hardware store and got four of those cheap flex extensions, the roll up kind, and ran every downspout out at least 5 feet into the yard. Cost me about $60 total and an afternoon of my time. Two rainstorms later and the laundry room is bone dry, so the guy was right and I was just being stubborn. Now I'm curious how far everyone else runs theirs, because 5 feet feels like a guess and I'd rather not learn the hard way again.