Serving Spokane
Groundwater & Basement Water Intrusion in Spokane, 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
Why is drainage put into the ground here?
Because the ground takes it better than any pipe could carry it away. The gravels beneath much of this area are exceptionally permeable, so infiltrating storm runoff is more effective than routing it to the river. It is a sound approach on this geology and unusual in most of the country.
If the ground drains that well, what goes wrong?
The occasions when it does not. Frozen ground in winter takes nothing, and basalt at shallow depth in some neighborhoods stops infiltration abruptly regardless of season. A drainage approach that depends entirely on the ground accepting water has no fallback in the periods it will not.
Snow, not rain, is what this place actually gets.
For most purposes yes. Annual rainfall is small and a good deal of winter precipitation falls as snow that sits until it releases. The load arrives when that happens, particularly when rain falls onto existing snowpack, rather than from any individual rainstorm.
These questions come from the Spokane page.