Serving Sterling Heights
Groundwater & Basement Water Intrusion in Sterling Heights, MI
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 channel behind the houses is a county drain rather than a creek.
It is, which is a legal status rather than a description: an established work with its own office, records and assessment roll. That is confusing until you know it and then it is useful, because which drain serves a parcel, when it was last cleaned and who is assessed for it are all matters of public record.
The city went from farmland to a hundred thousand people in twenty years.
It did, and the drainage crossing it was largely inherited from the farming era and extended piecemeal. Channels sized to take water off fields now receive what a dense suburb sheds, and they were never rebuilt for it. That is why upstream capacity rather than the pipe at a boundary is usually the constraint.
The clay here takes in almost nothing.
Once its surface is wet a lawn on it sheds the rest of a storm much as a driveway would, so regrading alone disappoints: nothing is soaking in regardless of the shape of the ground. The water has to be given a route to somewhere rather than a slope to run down, which is a more expensive proposition.
The Sterling Heights overview carries this FAQ with the city research.