The owners of a single family residence in southwest Fort Worth were experiencing a nightmare whenever it came a hard rain. Ten to fifteen minutes after the rain would begin, water would begin to enter into their sunken living room. The beautiful wood floor had buckled and was being removed when we were called to the residence. In addition, some furniture had been damaged.
We conducted some tests and found that the water was not coming up vertically from beneath the house, but was instead pooling in the adjacent flagstone patio and seeping in from there. Our design included basins connected to solid pipe that connected to a pump. Calculations based on elevation and distance measurements that we took showed that gravity just could not be relied upon to remove this water fast enough so that it would not pool.
It just so happened that two days after we completed the system and three days before the new floor was to be installed, a huge storm hit this property with rainfall that was measured to be 4” per hour. The homeowner called us the next day to joyfully let us know that he did not get a drop of water in his sunken room. He was ecstatic that the system had been tested so quickly and that it had passed with such flying colors.