Oakland County basements change with the ground, and the ground changes a lot
Drive from 8 Mile up to Holly and you cross most of southeast Michigan’s geology in about 45 minutes. The bottom of the county is flat lake-plain clay like Macomb’s. The middle rises into glacial moraine, the hills around Rochester and Auburn Hills. The northwest is pitted outwash and moraine hills dotted with kettle lakes, and the county counts 1,468 lakes in all. A basement fix that’s right in one of those places can be useless in another.
South Oakland, old houses and combined sewers
Ferndale, Royal Oak, Berkley, Pleasant Ridge, Huntington Woods and their neighbors grew up along the Woodward streetcar line, which linked Detroit to Ferndale and Royal Oak starting in 1895. A lot of the housing dates to the 1920s through the 1950s, with bungalows, Tudors and small colonials on brick, clay tile or early block foundations. The drain tile around many of them is original and long since plugged.
Much of this area also drains through combined sewers. The Twelve Towns Drain was built in 1962 and 1963 to carry it. That system is now the George W. Kuhn basin, sitting under I-75 at 12 Mile in Madison Heights, serving all or part of 14 communities and able to hold 150 million gallons. It discharges treated overflow into the Red Run, which Macomb County officials have argued about for years.
It still wasn’t enough in August 2014. Royal Oak and Ferndale issued their own disaster declarations, and parts of Royal Oak and Huntington Woods were under water. Most of the damage in those basements was sewage backing up through floor drains. For houses here, our first recommendation is often a backwater valve and a camera look at the old clay lateral.
Troy, Rochester and the middle of the county
Troy, Rochester Hills, the Bloomfields and Birmingham are a mix. Troy and Rochester Hills are mostly 1960s through 1990s subdivisions on poured walls, with leaks at cracks and tie-rod holes and backfill that settled toward the house. Rochester itself sits at the meeting of Paint Creek and the Clinton River, and in early July 2024 several homes and the fire station there took on water after five to six inches of rain in two days.
On these newer houses, the leak we find most often isn’t dramatic. It’s a vertical crack in a poured wall that seeps after a long rain, or water at the bottom of a window well that has filled with leaves. Those are small jobs, and we’d much rather do the small job than talk you into a big one.
In June 2021, Bloomfield Township logged more than four inches in its southwest corner on the first night. Oakland was added to the federal disaster declaration that September.
The northwest, lakes and walkouts
Up around Waterford, West Bloomfield, Commerce and Orion the soil is sandier and the lots are hillier. Water moves fast, which helps, until you’re next to a lake and the groundwater is sitting right at lake level. Walkout basements are common, with all the pressure on the uphill wall. There, a French drain or regrading uphill often does more than anything inside, and the sump needs to handle a lot of running time.
What we’d want you to know before you call anyone
Sewage on the floor and groundwater through the wall are different problems, and in Oakland County you can have either one depending on your zip code. Know which you have. Check your downspouts. If water only shows up in one corner after a downpour, try an extension first. If it keeps coming, we’ll come look, and the estimate is free. A wall that bows in or has a long horizontal crack is a third problem: it’s being pushed, and it needs foundation repair as well as a fix for the water.
Basement Flooding in Oakland County: City Sewer or County Sewer?
In Oakland County, the agency that runs your sewer isn’t always your city, and that decides where a sewer backup claim goes. The county’s Water Resources Commissioner (WRC) says to check your sewer bill to see who maintains your sewer, and it lists the communities where it operates or maintains the sewage system. Among the towns we cover, those include Beverly Hills, Bingham Farms, Bloomfield Hills, Commerce Township, Farmington Hills, Franklin, Keego Harbor, Orchard Lake Village and Walled Lake.
Claims in those towns go to WRC, which takes them online or by mail and lists an after-hours emergency number, 248-624-6366. WRC says the written notice must include your name, address and phone number, the address of the damaged property, the date you discovered the damage and a brief description. In cities that aren’t on WRC’s list, such as Royal Oak, Troy and Birmingham, start with your city. Either way, Michigan law gives you 45 days from discovering the damage to send written notice to the agency that runs your sewer. (General information, not legal advice.)
Wherever your sewer bill points, the cleanup call is the same one: (586) 345-7292. What the cleanup involves is on our flood cleanup and water damage restoration page. Once it’s dry, the repair depends on your part of the county, and the sections above on south Oakland, the middle of the county and the northwest lakes cover what we’d usually suggest.
Basement Waterproofing Services in Oakland County
- Basement Crack Repair Oakland County MI
- Basement Drainage System Oakland County MI
- Basement Waterproofing Oakland County MI
- Foundation Repair for Bowing Basement Walls
- Exterior Basement Waterproofing Oakland County MI
- French Drain Installation Oakland County MI
- Interior Basement Waterproofing Oakland County MI
- Interior Drainage System Oakland County MI
- Leaking Basement Repair Oakland County MI
- Sealing Basement Walls Oakland County MI
- Sump Pump Installation Oakland County MI
- Waterproofing Contractors Oakland County MI
- Wet Basement Solutions Oakland County MI
Cities We Serve in Oakland County
- Berkley
- Beverly Hills
- Bingham Farms
- Birmingham
- Bloomfield Hills
- Bloomfield Township
- Clawson
- Commerce Township
- Farmington
- Farmington Hills
- Ferndale
- Franklin
- Huntington Woods
- Keego Harbor
- Orchard Lake Village
- Rochester
- Rochester Hills
- Royal Oak
- Troy
- Walled Lake
- Waterford Township
- West Bloomfield Township
Recent jobs in Oakland County
A few photos from our recent work around Oakland County, in the order they were taken.
Exterior waterproofing, Bloomfield area
Exterior waterproofing, Springfield Township
Trench drain, Springfield Township
Commercial building work, Oak Park
Downspout drains, Oakland Township
Recent Oakland County jobs on video
Real jobs filmed by Imad “Matt” Mansour and the crew – no stock footage. Tap a video to play it.
See all job videos on our YouTube channel · Browse our project gallery
