Serving Springfield
Groundwater & Basement Water Intrusion in Springfield, 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
The dike held and the basement still filled.
That is the normal result and it surprises people every time. With the outfalls shut, rain falling inside the protected area has no gravity route out and has to be lifted over by pump, and meanwhile the high river raises the water beneath the whole low ground. It arrives through floors and floor drains rather than over any bank. The dike stops the river; it does not stop the water.
The water came up out of the basement floor drain.
That is the main relieving itself through the lowest opening it is connected to, which in a house like this is that drain. What arrives is the street's water, not the ground's. Nothing done outside the building touches it, and the measures that do are a valve on the line or a rearrangement that puts the house's drainage above street level with a pump behind it.
Why does autumn do more damage than August?
Because of the state the ground is in when the rain arrives. By October the vegetation has stopped drawing water out, the profile stays full, and the heaviest single events of the year land on it. The same rainfall in August meets soil with room to spare and plants working hard. Timing accounts for far more of what happens in a cellar here than intensity does.
These questions come from the Springfield page.