Water pooling next to the house

Find where it comes from

Go outside during a steady rain with an umbrella and watch. Ten minutes will usually show the source.

• Roof water. Gutters overflowing, or a downspout dropping its whole load at the base of the wall.
• Grading. Soil, mulch or a flower bed that slopes toward the house or has built up above the original ground level.
• Hard surfaces. A driveway, walk or patio that has settled and now tilts toward the foundation.
• The lot above yours. On a hillside, runoff from uphill crossing your yard on its way down.
• A pipe. A wet patch that never dries, rain or not, may be a leaking supply line or drain.

Who is responsible in Chattanooga

The city's Stormwater Division is clear about the split. The city maintains pipes, ditches and drains in public streets and easements. Property owners are responsible for gutters, downspouts, yard drains and driveway culverts, and for keeping swales and ditches on their land clear of leaves and brush.

The city also asks that downspouts and sump pumps not be discharged onto a neighbor's property or into the street in a way that causes damage. Before any digging for drains, call 811 to have buried utilities marked. Flooding or a sinkhole in a public street can be reported to the city through 311.

Which trade is it?

When it has become a foundation matter

Call about foundation repair when the water has started to leave marks on the structure: stair-step cracks at the wet corner, a basement wall that has bowed on the uphill side, piers in the crawl space sinking into mud, or a porch that has dropped where the downspout empties. In those cases the drainage still has to be corrected, or the repair will be working against the same water.

A foundation repair company will normally note the drainage in its findings. Whether it does that work itself or leaves it to you varies, so ask.