Serving Charleston
Groundwater & Basement Water Intrusion in Charleston, WV
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
Which river matters more for us?
Whether they peak together matters more than either alone. They drain different catchments, so a storm centered on one raises it while the other stays low, and the level at the confluence is far worse when both come up at once. Following both gauge forecasts rather than a single downstream number is the useful habit, and the difference between coincident and staggered peaks often decides whether the flat floods.
We are up on the hillside. Does the river talk apply?
Barely. Hillside properties deal with runoff arriving within minutes of heavy rain and with water moving through the ground against an uphill wall, neither of which has anything to do with the rivers. The remedies differ too: interception uphill rather than gauge watching. Local advice tends to be written for the flat, and applying it on a slope spends money on the wrong problem.
The uphill side of the basement is the only wall that gets wet.
On a slope that is the expected pattern. Saturated ground sits against that wall and the water arrives under pressure rather than running across the surface, which is why interior sealing does not hold. Interception above the house, with a drain that discharges somewhere lower, addresses it at the source. On a hillside there is usually somewhere lower, which makes a gravity drain possible.
Read it with the local conditions on the Charleston page.