Serving Belleville
Structural Drying & Dehumidification in Belleville, IL
Commercial dehumidifiers and air movers remove moisture from the structure, with daily readings logged from the material itself for claim documentation. Structural drying brings building materials back to a documented dry standard using air movers and dehumidifiers rather than surface evaporation alone. Moisture readings are logged through the process so the substrate, not just the surface, is confirmed dry before anything is rebuilt.
Frequently asked questions
Sewage came up through the basement drain during a storm.
In the older part of the city that is the combined sewer rather than your plumbing. One pipe carries sanitary and storm flow, and during an intense cell it surcharges and relieves through the lowest connected opening, which is often a basement floor drain. A backwater valve on the building sewer is the standard remedy. It has to stay accessible and be inspected, since one that has silted open provides nothing.
Water arrives in the basement with nothing visible outside.
On bluff-top ground with solution features beneath, water travels along routes set by the rock rather than by the surface, so it can arrive from outside the property with nothing showing along the way. That is why grading improvements sometimes change nothing here. Interception at the wall, with a drain and a sump, is the usual practical answer, and it is not an admission that the grading work was poor.
Is basement water here contaminated?
Assume so if it came up through a drain rather than in through a wall. Combined sewer relief carries sanitary flow, so porous materials that were submerged should come out rather than be dried, and hard surfaces need cleaning rather than only drying. Groundwater seeping through a wall is a different and much smaller scope. Establishing which happened is the first question a contractor should answer.
This FAQ belongs to the Belleville page; it is repeated here.