The Lakes is the biggest single development in Blaine, about 1,080 acres on the north side of the city that started filling with houses in 2003 around a chain of dug lakes and ponds. Sunrise Lake, at 158 acres, is the largest body of water in the city and it did not exist before the excavators made it. The housing is a mix: two-story single-family homes with walkout or lookout basements facing the water, detached townhomes, and attached townhomes run by associations. Three school districts split the neighborhood.
A walkout on a dug lake sits with its basement floor a few feet above the lake level, and the lake level is the water table. The drain tile and the pump handle the difference every spring, and when the pump quits, the basement finds out what the difference was.
This site puts homeowners in The Lakes through by phone to an independent local water damage provider. The provider walks the lower level with a meter before the scope is set.
A lower level that took water along the lake-side wall when the pump lost power is a sump pump failure cleanup. Groundwater that found a cold joint or a window well is a basement flooding cleanup. A bathroom over the garage that froze in a deep freeze is a frozen pipe cleanup, and the wall below it gets metered to the floor.
The neighborhood shares its north edge with TPC Twin Cities, the Arnold Palmer course that hosts the 3M Open each July, and the same flat sand that makes the course drain fast makes the ponds between the houses rise fast in a stalled thunderstorm. A rebuild on the lower level that touches wiring or plumbing needs a permit from Blaine's building inspection desk, and townhome owners should check with the association before any exterior wall comes open.
Call (763) 297-2728 and describe what the lower level looks like. An independent local water damage provider serving The Lakes picks it up from there.
Groundwater or storm runoff pumped out of a Blaine basement, then the carpet pad, paneling, and block walls metered to find what stayed wet.
Cleanup after the pump quit during a snowmelt or lost power in a thunderstorm, and drying of the floor and walls the pit overflow reached.
Standing water pulled off concrete, carpet, and tile on any level of the house, followed by the first moisture readings on the walls.
Air movers and dehumidifiers run against daily readings until the slab, studs, and drywall come back to dry numbers in a closed-up Minnesota house.
Cleanup after a supply line froze in a rim joist, garage wall, or cold corner during a deep freeze and split, then drying of what the thaw soaked.
Wet attic insulation, ceilings, and exterior walls dried after an ice dam at the eave or a storm-torn roof let water into the house.
A tank that let go in the utility room, the water it spread across the basement floor, and the walls it reached pumped out and dried.
Contaminated water that came up a floor drain or basement fixture removed, the porous materials it touched taken out, and the slab cleaned and dried.