Waterproofing, Plumbing & Excavation Experts in Wayne County

Wayne County basements, and the part of it we actually work in

Let’s be upfront. Wayne County is huge, and we don’t pretend to cover all of it. Our work here is mostly on the east side in the Grosse Pointes and Harper Woods, and on the west side in Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Livonia, Westland and Canton. Those two ends of the county have very different basement problems, even though they sit on the same flat lake-plain clay.

The east side, where June 2021 hit hardest

On the night of June 25 into June 26, 2021, Grosse Pointe Park recorded 8.1 inches of rain in 24 hours. The governor declared a state of emergency for Wayne County that Saturday. Sewage-laced water backed up into homes across Detroit, Dearborn and the Pointes, and one Park homeowner said the water reached his basement ceiling. The regional water authority later denied all of the roughly 24,000 claims filed against it.

The reason Pointes basements take sewage rather than clean groundwater comes down to pipes. Grosse Pointe Woods runs a combined system, and the Farms has a combined area in its Inland District. When the regional interceptor gets overloaded, flow is diverted toward the Milk River retention basin, and in a storm big enough, the pipes simply run out of room. In a lot of these houses, the floor drain is the lowest opening on the street.

The cities are working on it. Grosse Pointe Park took on a relief sewer project at Patterson Park, and in 2025 FEMA funded the first phase of a flood mitigation sewer project in the City of Grosse Pointe. Meanwhile, the most useful thing on your own property is a backwater valve on the main line and a look down the lateral with a camera.

Harper Woods is right next door, and we work there often. A lot of the bigger Pointes houses are prewar, on brick or stone, and the old clay drain tile around them is usually silted shut.

Dearborn and the Rouge

After voters approved a dedicated tax in 2004, Dearborn spent years separating combined sewers to stop overflows into the Rouge River, digging up street after street to lay a second pipe. The city has been honest that this wasn’t a flood fix. A later study put its capacity at less than about 3.5 inches per storm, and east Dearborn sits lower with sewers from before World War II. In June 2021, Dearborn’s fire chief said the flooding was worse than 2014.

Livonia, Westland and Canton

Farther west the houses get newer, mostly postwar ranches and colonials and then later subdivisions in Canton. The Middle Rouge runs through southwest Livonia, Westland and along the north edge of Garden City. Here we see more classic groundwater, with block walls weeping at the joints, poured walls cracking, old sumps worn out, and less of the pure sewage backup the Pointes get. Big storms still cause backups, and in 2014 the county’s own disaster declaration covered 43 communities.

What we’d do on your house

First we figure out which water you’re dealing with. Sewage on the floor means a valve and a look at the sewer. Water through the walls means interior drain tile and a sump, with a battery or water-powered backup because storms like 2021 take the power out too. One wet corner after a downpour usually means a downspout. You can fix that yourself, and we’ll tell you if that’s all it is. And a block wall that has started to bow in needs steel I-beam braces or carbon fiber as well as a fix for the water.

For the public records behind this, from storm totals to sewer overflows, see our page on basement flooding in Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties and what the public data shows.

Basement Waterproofing Services in Wayne County

• Basement Waterproofing in Wayne County
• Basement Crack Repair in Wayne County
• Basement Drainage Systems in Wayne County
• Exterior Basement Waterproofing in Wayne County
• Interior Basement Waterproofing in Wayne County
• Leaking Basement Repair in Wayne County
• Sealing Basement Walls in Wayne County
• Waterproofing Basement Walls in Wayne County
• Wet Basement Repair in Wayne County

Cities We Serve in Wayne County

• Grosse Pointe
• Grosse Pointe Farms
• Grosse Pointe Park
• Grosse Pointe Shores
• Grosse Pointe Woods

We also work in Harper Woods, Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Livonia, Westland and Canton.