Serving Ithaca
Groundwater & Basement Water Intrusion in Ithaca, NY
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
Are the flats or the hills better?
Neither, and they need entirely different thinking. The flats sit on saturated lake sediment with a high water table, so basements there take groundwater and the sump is the critical system. The hills have thin soil over shale, so water travels laterally along the rock and arrives at uphill walls under pressure, and interception above the house is what works. Advice from a neighbor at the other elevation is usually the wrong advice.
The gorge stream rose and fell within an hour.
A stream dropping hundreds of feet over a short distance responds almost immediately to rain on the hills above, and it drops just as quickly. That leaves no useful warning time and it means the flow carries a great deal of energy and debris rather than simply rising. Anything in the path has to be protected permanently rather than moved when rain starts, because there is no interval in which to move it.
The house is rented and empty over the summer.
That is the configuration where a small failure becomes a large loss. A supply line or an appliance connection that goes in an empty house runs until someone arrives, and a summer break is long. Shutting the water off when a unit is vacant caps the volume, which is what determines the size of the loss. A low-temperature alarm covers the winter version of the same problem.
This FAQ belongs to the Ithaca page; it is repeated here.