Serving Somerville
Groundwater & Basement Water Intrusion in Somerville, 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
It started on the top floor and reached the bottom one.
In a three-decker the supply and waste run vertically through the building, so a failure on an upper floor wets everything beneath it before it wets the unit it started in. Drying has to reach all of those floors rather than only the ones reporting damage, and getting access to several units at once is usually slower than the drying itself. Establishing who holds keys, before it happens, saves days.
There is nowhere for the water to go on a lot this size.
That is the constraint, and it means the work is about direction rather than absorption. Roof water carried to the street rather than into the gap between buildings, downspouts that do not discharge within a few feet of a wall, and keeping the small amount of open ground falling away are close to the whole of what is available. Anything sold on the promise of soaking away here is worth doubting.
The basement apartment is the one that floods.
It holds the lowest openings in the building and receives whatever the drainage cannot take, and the contents in it usually belong to a tenant who may have no cover at all. Being explicit about what is covered, what is not, and what should not be kept on the floor is worth doing before a season rather than after an event.
Open the Somerville FAQ beside the housing and climate notes.