The high water table in Byram Township, NJ will cause a wet basement
Byram Township has many a wet basement and is located in Sussex County, N.J. The Township is home to over 8,300 residents and covers 22.48 square miles (U.S. Census 2010). The Township is known as the “Township of Lakes”.
In 1798, Byram Township was incorporated by an Act of the N.J. State Legislature as one of the first original 104 Townships of N.J. The land had formerly been part of the Newton area and was settled by the Dutch in the 1700’s.
The Township is named after one of the first families settled in the area the Jephthah Byram family.
Waterloo Village, a restored 19th century town on the Morris Canal, is in Byram Township and part of Allamuchy Mountain State Park.
The age of your home has a lot to do with why you get a wet basement
- When your home was built a coating of tar was applied to seal the foundation against dampness.
- The tar is an organic material that degrades over time and usually lasts about 20-30 years.
- If your house is over 30 years old the tar coating is probably gone for good.
- Once the tar is gone your foundation is no longer sealed.
When the high water table comes through the unsealed foundation to give you a wet basement
- The level of the water table varies greatly due to amount of rainfall, time of the year and type of soil that surface water drains through.
- The water table is generally higher in areas with high density soil related to clay content.
- The denser the soil is, the slower the movement of the water (percolation) of the water through the soil occurs.
- The rate at which the high water table descends is related to the percolation rate, which is related to soil density.
- When the water table rises, it does not just rise at your house, because it did not rain on your house only.
- The thing to understand here is that the high water table is part of the earth and cannot be graded away.
- High water tables are often above the level of basement floors which is why you get a wet basement.
