Serving Jersey City
Groundwater & Basement Water Intrusion in Jersey City, NJ
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 building lost power and heat from water in the basement.
In a tall building the plant is usually below ground, so a flooded lower level takes out the elevators, the heat, the hot water and the pumps at once, and the damage is measured in weeks of service rather than in wet carpet. That is why protection at the garage entrance and the vents matters more than anything on the upper floors. The consequence of a foot of water down there is out of proportion to the amount.
Whose responsibility is water in a unit in a large building?
It depends where it came from and the governing documents rather than either insurance policy summary. Water arriving from a common element, a roof or a riser is typically the building's; water from within a unit is typically the owner's, and a unit below may have a claim against a unit above. Reading how that line is drawn before a claim is worth far more than reading it during one.
An inch of rain in twenty minutes did what an inch overnight does not.
The system here fails on rate rather than on total. A slow rain is absorbed and carried; a short violent cell delivers more in twenty minutes than the pipes can take, and the excess goes to the lowest openings, which in this city are ramps, vents and areaways. Watching for intense short-duration forecasts is more useful than watching for a wet week.
The same questions, in context, on the Jersey City mold removal page.