Serving Charlotte
Groundwater & Basement Water Intrusion in Charlotte, NC
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
These creeks are small.
Their channels are small and their catchments are not, and almost every acre in them is now roof, road or parking. That combination produces a rise far out of proportion to the size of the stream, and it happens within an hour of the rain starting. The county has spent decades buying out properties along exactly these channels.
Why does clay matter so much here?
Because it sets how much of a storm becomes runoff. Piedmont red clay takes water slowly even when dry and effectively stops taking it once the top layer is saturated, so a second inch behaves very differently from the first. In a catchment that is already heavily paved, the clay removes what little absorption was left.
A hurricane made landfall hundreds of miles away.
Distance from the coast is a poor guide to the risk here. Systems that come ashore and track inland lose their wind quickly and keep their moisture, and when one slows over the piedmont it can put a month of rain onto saturated ground. Several of the worst flooding events in this area arrived that way.
These questions come from the Charlotte page.