Storm & Flood Damage Recovery in Lewiston, ME

In this climate and this stock that is usually frost rather than settlement. Water in the soil behind a rubble or granite wall freezes and expands, pushing on the wall, and repeats every winter. Over many seasons the wall bows or courses displace. Keeping the soil behind it drier is the only real remedy, since you cannot stop the freezing. Repointing or rebuilding without addressing the water means the same movement resumes.

Because of what the ground is doing. October rain falls on unfrozen soil that can absorb and move some of it. The spring melt releases a whole winter of precipitation over a couple of weeks while the ground a foot or two down is still frozen solid and cannot take any of it. All of that water travels at or near the surface, and a cellar wall is the first thing it meets.

It is one of the most common causes of winter loss in this housing. Older tenement construction frequently ran supply lines in outside walls with minimal insulation, which was survivable when buildings were heated hard and continuously. In a modern setting, with lower thermostats, vacant units, or a heating interruption, those lines freeze. Rerouting them inward during any renovation is worth far more than any amount of pipe insulation left in place.