Suburban basements from the 1970s on, and the springs that test them
Blue Springs, about 19 miles east of downtown with some 57,000 residents, is mostly suburban homes from the 1970s onward, nearly all of them over full basements.
Drive the cul-de-sacs off Highway 7 or Adams Dairy Parkway and you'll see what we work on most in Blue Springs: two-story and split-level homes built between the 1970s and 2000s, brick across the front, a two-car garage, and a full basement below. Roughly seven in ten are owner-occupied, and a lot of those basements have been finished into family rooms, which makes water the problem owners fear most.
The common calls here are seepage at the cove joint during the spring storm run, sump pumps that are original to the house and on their last legs, and poured-wall cracks that leak behind finished drywall. We also see block walls in the older neighborhoods with the familiar horizontal crack. For finished basements, we explain what has to be opened, how little we can get away with, and whether an exterior fix on one wall avoids opening the inside at all.
What we see most in Blue Springs
Finished basements
Plans that open as little wall as possible, or exterior work that avoids it.
Original sump pumps
Replacement pumps, sealed lids and battery backups before the next April.
Cove-joint seepage
Interior drains along the walls that take water, tied into the sump.
Block-wall cracks
Horizontal cracks in older block basements braced and drained.
Neighborhoods and parts of town
- Off Highway 7
- Along Adams Dairy Parkway
- Near Woods Chapel Road
- Around Pink Hill Park
- North toward Lake Tapawingo
- South of I-70
- Near Valley View Road
- Old town near Main Street
Services in Blue Springs
Crack repair · piers · bowing walls · waterproofing · French drains · sump pumps · crawl spaces · slab lifting · free inspection
Questions from Blue Springs homeowners
Can you waterproof just the wall that leaks?
Often, yes. A partial interior drain on the problem wall, or exterior waterproofing on that side alone, is common when one wall is the source.
How old is too old for a sump pump?
If it's original to a 20- or 30-year-old house, replace it before it fails, and add a battery backup.
Do you handle the drywall?
We cut and remove what's needed and leave the area clean. Most owners have a drywall finisher put it back afterward, and we can point you to the right kind of trade.
Nearby: Independence · Lee's Summit · Raytown · the whole metro