Start with conditions, not a product
Birmingham's hilly terrain moves stormwater fast, and on Piedmont clay lots that runoff either gets managed at the surface or it works its way toward the foundation -- so structural and drainage planning here starts with where the water goes, not just where the cracks are.
Build a complete scope
- What was measured and across how many months of the wet-dry cycle
- Whether the house sits on ridge fill, in-town masonry piers, or block walls
- How uphill groundwater loading the wall is being handled
- The proposed method, and the alternatives ruled out on the way to it
- Access on a graded lot, restoration afterward, and warranty terms
Birmingham context
Drainage planning has to account for how Birmingham actually developed -- mill villages and dense in-town blocks from the iron and steel boom, followed by a long run of postwar ranch-house suburbs along U.S. 31 and U.S. 280 through the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. The seasonally shifting Piedmont clay beneath most of that housing stock is exactly why grading and drainage stay part of nearly every structural conversation here.