I recently purchased my first home, which was built in 1969. I live in central Florida. After Huricane Frances blew through, I noticed that there was some water seeping into the front bedroom from beneath the wall caused by the fact that there was a lot of standing water on the outside of the house where that bedroom is. While addressing this issue by running some drainage pipe from that area out to the edge of the yard, I discovered that the the house does not seem to have a footer at all. It appears as though the foundation is just sitting on top of the ground with nothing at all to 'root' it in place and to distribute the weight of the house.
Now I'm at a complete loss as to what to do. Was this building practice normal in 1969? If not, what recourse do I have? It would seem that every house in my subdivision was built like this, as I have talked to a few neighbors who have had similar leakage problems, and another who explicitly said that he discovered his house had no footer either.
Any input at all would be great. Just buying the house was nerve racking enough. The prospect of possibly having to pay for repairs or modifications that I quite simply cannot afford is enough to give me ulcers.
Thanks in advance. Jeff