Serving Bothell
Groundwater & Basement Water Intrusion in Bothell, WA
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
Water appears from the bank behind the house rather than over it.
That is a soil boundary rather than a spring. Permeable material sits over dense till here, so rain soaks down through the upper layer, cannot pass the till, and travels sideways until it daylights on a slope. A house built at that contact takes water through its uphill wall under pressure. A curtain drain uphill is the standard answer, and it has to be designed for that particular slope.
Our house is new and the crawl space is still damp in February.
New construction does not change what the ground does. Through the wet season the soil beneath stays close to saturated and moisture moves continuously into the framing above, often with no standing water at any point. Check the ground barrier first, since a torn or incomplete one accounts for a great deal of crawl space dampness in newer housing here.
Is February really a better time to inspect?
Considerably better, because it shows the conditions that cause problems rather than the ones that do not. A crawl space or a basement looked at in August tells you almost nothing about how it behaves when the ground is at its wettest. If an inspection is being paid for anyway, timing it for the wet months roughly doubles what it is worth and costs nothing extra.
The same questions, in context, on the Bothell mold removal page.