Foundation seepage cleanup covers the slow leaks: water that comes in along the cove joint where the wall meets the floor, through a crack in the poured wall, or around a pipe penetration. It rarely looks like a flood. It looks like a damp strip of carpet along one wall after every rain, or a musty smell in a storage room.
Clay soil around Plainfield swells when it is wet and shrinks when it dries. That movement puts pressure on foundation walls and opens hairline cracks over time. When the ground is saturated in spring, hydrostatic pressure pushes water through any path it finds.
We find the entry point with moisture meters and a thermal camera, then pull back carpet and baseboard to see how far the water traveled. Wet tack strip and pad come out. Drywall that has been wet over and over usually has mold on the back side, so we open it up and check instead of guessing.
Once the area is dry and clean, we show you where the water is getting in. Crack injection, exterior grading and drain tile are repairs for a foundation contractor. Our part is the cleanup, the drying and any mold removal the seepage caused.
A lot of seepage starts outside. Check that downspouts discharge several feet from the house and that the soil slopes away from the walls. If seepage turns into standing water, see basement water extraction.
