Serving Decatur
Groundwater & Basement Water Intrusion in Decatur, IL
Basement seepage, failed sumps, and hydrostatic pressure against the foundation are extracted and dried, and the path from the ground is identified so the loss does not repeat. Groundwater and basement seepage are extracted and dried only after the path from the soil is identified — a wall, a slab, a drain, or a failed sump. Drying the interior without stopping that path returns the same water to the same floor.
Frequently asked questions
On ground this level, what is actually available?
Not much in the way of carrying water off, because a pipe has to end somewhere lower and on a prairie that place may not exist on the property. What remains is stopping water arriving: roof discharge taken well clear of the building, the few inches of fall beside a wall used deliberately, and a pump chosen knowing nothing takes over if it fails.
Five inches in May and most of it in two afternoons.
Spring out here delivers itself in a small number of extremely intense cells rather than as steady rain. Anything comfortably sized against the monthly figure is beaten by an hour of one, and prairie ground takes in almost nothing after the first inch. Design against what sixty minutes can produce, because it has no relationship to the average at all.
The lake here is the city's water supply.
Which means its level is managed for supply first and everything else second, and it is drawn down or held up for reasons that have nothing to do with a forecast. Silt from the farmland upstream has also reduced what it holds over the decades. For anyone on the shoreline, the operating schedule matters more than the weather does.
This FAQ belongs to the Decatur page; it is repeated here.