Frequently asked questions

We look at the outside first: grade, gutters, downspout discharge, window wells, driveways and patios, and what the neighboring lots do with their water. Inside, we read the walls and floor for staining, efflorescence, cracks and the condition of the cove joint, test the floor drain, and check any existing sump and its discharge. We ask when the water comes and how long it stays. The visit takes as long as the house needs; a small basement with one wet wall is quick, a large stone foundation with several problems is not. You get a written scope, and there is no charge and no obligation.

Because the water table under most of Buffalo and the Northtowns sits in the upper subsoil from December through May, according to the USDA soil survey for Erie County, and drops through the summer. NOAA's normals put about 95 inches of snow on the ground over a Buffalo winter, and most of it melts in a few weeks of March onto frozen ground that cannot absorb it. The clay backfill around your foundation saturates, the water table rises above your floor, and water comes in at the lowest opening. In August the water table is below the slab and the same openings are dry. That seasonal pattern is the signature of groundwater rather than a plumbing leak.

Efflorescence is the white, powdery or crystalline deposit that forms on block, brick, stone and concrete when water moves through the wall, dissolves minerals, and evaporates at the surface. It means water is passing through the wall, whether or not you have seen liquid water on the floor. A tide line of efflorescence a foot or two up a block wall is the wall telling you how high the water inside it has been standing.

Safety before anything: if water is anywhere near outlets or appliances, do not wade in until the power to the basement is off. Once it is safe, get water off the floor with a pump or wet vacuum, move wet materials out, and get air moving to dry the space. Note where the water came in and take photographs before cleaning up, because the evidence disappears fast. If the water came up through the floor drain during a storm, that is a sewer backup and the Buffalo Sewer Authority or your town's sewer department should hear about it. Then call us; the assessment sorts out the cause.

Interior work can. Cutting the slab, laying a drain, setting a sump and treating the walls all happen inside the house and do not depend on the weather. Exterior excavation and membrane work need thawed ground and a dry, above-freezing wall, so it is a spring-through-fall job here. Crack injection can be done any time the crack is accessible.

An interior drain requires opening the bottom of any finished wall along its path, roughly the lowest foot or so, and cutting the floor in a strip about a foot wide. Everything above that stays. Crack injection needs access to the full length of the crack. We are clear in the scope about what will be opened and what will be restored, so there are no surprises when the drywall comes off.

A dehumidifier controls humidity in the air. It does nothing about liquid water entering through the wall or floor, and running one hard all summer against a wet stone wall is treating a symptom. If the only problem is condensation on cold surfaces in humid weather, a dehumidifier is the right tool. If there is staining, efflorescence or water at the floor edge, the water needs a drain, and the dehumidifier becomes a finishing touch.

Look at an unfinished section of wall. Rubble stone shows irregular stones of different sizes set in mortar; brick shows regular small rectangular units; concrete block shows large rectangular units, usually about 16 inches long and 8 inches high, with mortar joints; poured concrete is a continuous smooth or board-marked surface with no joints, sometimes with round form tie holes in rows. The type decides the repair, and the assessment confirms it.

A backwater valve is a one-way check valve installed on the house sewer lateral that closes when the municipal sewer surcharges, so sewage cannot flow back into your basement fixtures and floor drain. In the city of Buffalo, where the sewer is combined and the EPA has documented heavy overflows during wet weather, a house that has had water come up the floor drain is a candidate. It is plumbing work, done by a licensed plumber, and it is a separate problem from groundwater; we identify which one you have and coordinate accordingly.

Yes, because clay cannot absorb the water that reaches it, so the only way to keep it out of the backfill is to send it somewhere else on the surface. Ground that falls away from the house for the first several feet, downspouts that discharge well beyond that, and hard surfaces pitched away from the wall keep a large share of roof and rain water out of the soil against the foundation. On the lake plain it is not a complete fix by itself, because the water table rises from below regardless, but it is the cheapest part of the job and it makes every other part work better.

A discharge line that runs full and then stops in below-freezing air freezes solid, and the next time the pump runs it has nowhere to push. Buffalo averages about 124 days a year at or below freezing at the airport. The prevention is a line that is pitched to drain empty after each cycle, exits the house above grade, is kept short and exposed where possible rather than buried shallow and long, and has a freeze-relief fitting near the house so the pump can still discharge if the line beyond it ices up.

Interior drainage and sump work sometimes does and sometimes does not, depending on the municipality and on whether plumbing connections are involved; structural wall repairs and exterior excavation more often do. Discharge connections to a storm sewer nearly always require the municipality's approval. We tell you what applies at your address as part of the scope, and permits that are required are handled before the work starts.