Serving Boston
Groundwater & Basement Water Intrusion in Boston, MA
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
Why does a nor'easter leak when ordinary rain does not?
Direction and duration. Rain driven sideways at sustained speed gets behind siding laps, around window seals, and through masonry joints that shed falling rain without trouble, and it keeps doing it for many hours. The assembly is not defective; it is being tested on an axis it was never designed for. Extract the wet wall cavity; then flash and seal the windward details before the next coastal storm repeats the same horizontal drive.
What is an ice dam actually doing to a triple-decker roof?
It is turning a shedding roof into a holding one. Heat escaping the top-floor rooms melts snow higher up; the melt refreezes at the cold eave, and the ridge of ice holds standing water behind it. Shingles shed water running down; they do not sit in a pond, so the water works under and into the ceiling below. Extract the wet ceiling and map the deck; attic air sealing is what stops the next dam.
The basement of this 1890s row is wet and the tide is high. Related?
It can be. Nineteenth-century masonry cellars here were cut close to a coastal water table, so a storm surge or a high tide lifts that table against walls that were never damp-proofed. A sunny high tide and a wet cellar is the signature that the water is the table, not a rain leader. Extraction still comes first; a sump and perimeter drainage manage the table the tide is setting.
The Boston overview carries this FAQ with the city research.