Serving Beaverton
Groundwater & Basement Water Intrusion in Beaverton, OR
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 rain here is never heavy.
It is rarely intense and that is exactly the mechanism. Ground can cope with a heavy hour if it gets a week to recover, and here it gets steady rain for months with no such interval. Saturation is reached in December and simply maintained, so the ordinary condition through winter is soil that can accept nothing more.
Water sits in the crawl space but the yard drains fine.
There is usually a dense layer a foot or two down across this valley, and it perches water above itself. The surface looks acceptable because the top layer drains into that perched zone, which then moves sideways until it meets a foundation. The wet crawl space and the reasonable-looking lawn are the same phenomenon seen at two depths.
Does a single storm matter much here?
Far less than in most climates. Damage here follows the cumulative position rather than any individual event, so the useful question is how long the ground has been saturated rather than how much fell yesterday. A modest storm in February after three wet months does more than a larger one in October.
These questions come from the Beaverton page.