Give the water somewhere else to go
French drains, curtain drains, footing drains, sump pump systems with battery backup, dry wells, downspout work and regrading.
The oldest fix in the trade, and still the most effective
A French drain is a trench, a bed of washed stone, a perforated pipe and a fabric wrap, pitched so gravity moves water away from where you do not want it. That is the whole idea. It works because it gives groundwater a path of far lower resistance than your foundation wall.
It also fails for a predictable handful of reasons: not enough pitch, the wrong stone, no filter fabric so the pipe silts up, or the pipe discharging somewhere the water just comes back from. Those details decide whether a drain still works in ten years.
- Footing drains at the base of the foundation, tied to daylight or to a sump basin
- Curtain drains that intercept hillside groundwater before it ever reaches the house
- Yard and surface drains for standing water, soft lawn and saturated garden beds
- Washed stone and filter fabric so the system does not silt itself shut in five years
- Correct pitch shot and verified, because a level French drain is just a buried trench
- Proper discharge: daylighted, into a dry well, or into a pumped line run well clear of the house
The device your finished basement depends on
A sump pump is the last line of a drainage system, and in most homes it is the only mechanical part of the whole thing. It is also the part most likely to be undersized, incorrectly plumbed, or sitting in an open hole full of silt.
A complete system is more than the pump itself. These are the parts that matter.
- Pump sized to real conditions: the volume your basin sees and the head height it must lift
- Sealed basin that keeps silt, debris, humidity and radon out of the basement
- Check valve so the column of water in the discharge does not fall back into the basin
- Battery backup for the storm that takes the power with it
- Dual pump configurations where losing the basement is not an acceptable outcome
- Discharge run properly, far from the foundation, legal, and pitched so it will not freeze shut
- High-water alarm so a failure tells you before the carpet does
Most wet basements start above ground
Before anyone excavates your foundation, the cheap stuff should be ruled out. A surprising number of basements dry up when the roof water stops landing next to them.
Gutters and downspout extensions
A single downspout can put well over a thousand gallons a year straight into the soil beside your footing. Extending it ten feet is one of the highest-return repairs in the business.
Dry wells and catch basins
Underground storage that takes concentrated roof and surface water and lets it disperse slowly, well away from the structure.
Regrading and swales
Re-establishing positive pitch away from the house, and shaping swales that carry surface water around the building instead of into it.
Window well drainage
Wells drained into the footing drain system and covered, so they stop functioning as buckets against your foundation wall.
Driveway and areaway drains
Trench drains at garage doors and basement entrances, which are the two places water walks straight into a house at floor level.
Discharge and freeze protection
Discharge lines routed and detailed so they do not freeze solid in January, which is when a blocked line turns a working system into a flood.
Water does not wait for business hours
A failed sump pump during a storm, a cracked foundation wall letting water across the slab, a roof opened up overnight. We offer emergency and same-day service, because standing water does more damage the longer it sits.
Drainage and sump pump questions
How deep does a French drain need to be?
It depends entirely on what it is draining. A footing drain sits at the base of the foundation wall, alongside the footing. A curtain drain intercepting hillside groundwater before it reaches the house is set at whatever depth the water is travelling. A surface drain handling yard water can be shallow. The depth follows the water, and the pitch matters more than the depth does.
How big should my sump pump be?
Bigger is not automatically better. An oversized pump short-cycles, which wears the switch out fast and is a common reason pumps die right when you need them. The pump should be sized to the volume the basin will actually take on and the height it has to lift, and the discharge line has to be sized for it too. This is one of the most frequently botched details in the trade.
Do I need a battery backup?
If your basement is finished, or if losing it would be expensive, then yes. The storms that produce the most groundwater are the same storms that take the power out. A primary pump with no backup is a system that is designed to fail at exactly the wrong moment.
Where should the sump discharge go?
Far enough from the house that the water does not simply soak back down to the footing and get pumped again. A discharge line emptying a few feet from the foundation turns the pump into a recirculating loop. It also should not discharge onto a neighbour's property, and discharging into a sanitary sewer is prohibited in many municipalities.
Can a French drain fix a wet yard as well as a wet basement?
Often yes, and it is usually the same water. Standing water in the yard beside the house is groundwater sitting at a level above your footing, which means it is also pressing against your foundation. Solving the yard usually helps the basement.
Standing water has a source. Let us find yours.
Free estimates across all five counties. Emergency and same-day service available.