Any ideas....?

I live in a large Victorian house (built 1845) that has been converted into flats. We are in Forest Hill, SE London – an area well know for water and subsidence problems.

This area in particular was an old lake that was a feeder lake for the Croydon canal. The lake and canal were drained in 1840 and converted to housing and a railway line.

In 1991 the house experienced subsidence and has subsequently been underpinned.

More recently we have noticed water around the house. At one side there is a constant pool of water right up against the house in the gravel drive.

In the last couple of weeks we have noticed water pooling at the front of the house. This is in a lower patio area in front of the two “basement flats”. When all water is scooped up, it becomes obvious that water is trickling out through the wall of the front of the house.

Normally water in this lower patio (from rain) would drain into a drain which takes the water underground into the front garden. But now this drain quickly fills up. The lower patio becomes submerged under about 10cm of water.

I think there is a more fundamental problem of water leakage under and around the house. This could be from a spring, a broken pipe or perhaps even some sort of blocked drain.

The reason I write is…

– what sort of person/company would deal with this to work out the problem and suggest a remedy?

There are plenty of drain unblockers in the phone book but I’m not sure they’re the people I should be speaking to.

Any help/pointers would be gratefully appreciated

"Normally water in this lower patio (from rain) would drain into a drain which takes the water underground into the front garden. But now this drain quickly fills up."

Sounds to me that this could simply be a blocked drain issue. From your description I am thinking that you have standing water outside the basement that is penetrating from the outside in .When you scoop up water from outside the water trapped inside starts to drain back out of the wall off the house.

Given that your drains dont seem to be coping very well with clearing the water I think that getting them cleared should be your first action - even if there is another problem under the house it will be easier to identify if the drainage is sorted.