Serving Altoona
Groundwater & Basement Water Intrusion in Altoona, PA
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 street outside is a stream in a heavy storm and the inlets do nothing.
On gradients like these the flow has real speed by the time it reaches a grate, and speed is what stops water dropping into one. Most of it goes straight over. The inlet is not blocked and it is not undersized; it is being asked to catch something moving too fast, and the work that helps is at the property boundary.
The damp band on the wall is well above floor level.
Water showing partway up a wall came sideways out of the slope rather than up from beneath it. It travels down through the soil above, meets the masonry and finds whichever joint gives first, and the floor slab stays dry throughout. So the money belongs uphill of the building, catching the flow before it ever arrives, rather than on anything done inside.
The mortar in the cellar wall crumbles when you touch it.
On a wall of this age that is the lime washing out of the joints after a century of damp, and it is why repointing with modern mortar so often makes things worse. Hard mortar in a soft wall forces the moisture out through the stone instead, which then spalls. The material has to match what is already there.
The Altoona overview carries this FAQ with the city research.