Basement Waterproofing & Foundation Repair in Ann Arbor, MI

We do foundation repair, basement waterproofing and crawl space work in Ann Arbor, about 25 miles from our base in Farmington Hills. Every job starts with a free inspection and a written quote.

Different ages, different foundations

Ann Arbor has a wide spread of housing: older houses near downtown and the university, postwar neighborhoods, and newer subdivisions toward the edges of the city. That matters because foundations of different ages fail in different ways.

Older houses often have block, brick or stone foundations and old drainage around them; those are the walls that bow, crack along mortar joints, and let water in at the base. Newer houses mostly have poured concrete walls, where the usual problem is a vertical shrinkage crack that starts to leak once the ground outside stays wet.

Clay soil and lower ground

Clay soils are common across Washtenaw County. Clay holds water against a foundation wall, swells when it is wet and shrinks when it dries, and that cycle is what widens cracks over the years. Lots on lower ground usually see more groundwater than their neighbors uphill, so two houses on the same street can have very different basements.

Some older Ann Arbor houses also have crawl spaces under additions or rear sections. Those are worth checking at the same time, because a damp crawl space feeds moisture into the rooms above it.