Below-Ground Water Questions Checklist

Note any patch that stays wet partway down a slope, where surface water would be running past rather than gathering.

Wet ground where nothing should be collecting is one of the clearest signs that the water is not arriving over the surface.

Record where rushes, sedges, moss or other moisture-loving growth has established, and mark those areas on a sketch of the plot.

Vegetation records conditions over a long period, which is exactly what a set of visits during rain cannot do.

Note where the ground stays soft underfoot after the rest of the plot has firmed up, and how far that soft area extends.

The contrast between soft and firm ground on one plot is more informative than any description of the plot as a whole.

Look at any bank, cut or step in the ground for water emerging from the face rather than running down it.

An exposed face is the one place an owner can see below the surface without disturbing anything at all.

Photograph any rusty, ochre or mineral staining in wet ground or in the water itself, and note where it appears.

Coloured staining is a specific observation a specialist may follow up, and describing it is far more useful than explaining it.

Note anything that keeps seeping or flowing after a long dry spell, and record the date on which you last saw it running.

Water that continues in dry weather behaves very differently from rainfall and needs a different conversation entirely.

Persistent flow with no rainfall behind it should be put to a suitably qualified specialist rather than investigated yourself.

Note which part of the floor or wall shows water first, and whether it is always the same place on every occasion.

The first place to show water is the observation a specialist will build on, and only somebody visiting regularly can supply it.

Describe how high any tide mark or damp band reaches against a fixed feature such as a step, a shelf bracket or a course of brickwork.

A fixed feature in the photograph makes the record readable later without anybody relying on an owner measurement.

Note the smell and feel of the air, including whether it is musty, earthy or noticeably different from one visit to the next.

Changes in the air often come before visible water and give you an earlier point in the sequence than the water itself.

Write down what has already been spoiled down there and what is still sitting on the floor, and lift anything vulnerable off it now.

What has been damaged is often the only surviving evidence of events that happened before you started recording.

Note whether there is a pit, sump or any equipment in the space, and record what you can see without operating or altering anything.

Its presence tells a specialist that water here has been anticipated before, which is significant background.

Do not operate, alter or rely on any existing equipment below ground; leave all of it to suitably qualified people.

Date every visit and note the weather preceding it, including visits when the space was completely dry.

Dry visits carry as much weight as wet ones, because the pattern only becomes clear when both are recorded.

Record only what is visible from above at any chamber or opening, and leave every cover exactly where it is.

Nothing you could learn by opening a cover would outweigh the hazards involved in doing it.

Opening covers and entering chambers is work for suitably qualified people with the right equipment and never for an owner.

Note where water is visible standing in an open channel, chamber or grating, and whether the level appears to change between visits.

A changing level seen from above is a genuinely useful observation and requires nothing to be touched.

Note what happens in any lightwell or below-ground window opening during rain, and how long water stays once it has arrived.

Lightwells collect from several directions at once, so what happens there rarely matches the rest of the plot.

If ground has been opened by somebody else, note whether water appears in it and how quickly, without entering or approaching the edge.

Water arriving in an open excavation is a strong observation, and it is available only while the ground happens to be open.

Never enter an open excavation or stand at its edge; observe from well back and pass what you saw to a qualified professional.

Describe how the water level sits in relation to the top of an opening or a step, rather than attempting to measure it.

Relative descriptions travel well between people, whereas an owner figure invites a conclusion that may be wrong.

Photograph the same opening after rain and again after a dry spell, from the same position each time.

A matched pair of photographs shows change without requiring anybody to interpret a written description.

Map the areas that remain wet when everywhere else has dried, and mark their extent as accurately as your sketch allows.

Extent matters as much as position, because an area that grows and shrinks behaves differently from one with fixed edges.

Note whether the ground immediately beyond your boundary looks similar or entirely different, keeping to what is visible from your own land.

A wet area that stops abruptly at a boundary raises very different questions from one that carries on across it.

Note where the ground will not carry a mower, a barrow or a person without damage, since this affects everything that follows.

Access is the practical consequence owners feel first and the one most often left out of a technical description.

Record which plants struggle, fail or thrive in the wet areas, and whether anything has been replaced in the same spot more than once.

Repeated failure in one position is a specific finding, whereas a general note that planting does badly is not.

Note any film, sheen or smell on standing water and photograph it, keeping the record descriptive rather than diagnostic.

Some of these observations point at matters well outside drainage, which is why they need passing on rather than interpreting.

Anything suggesting contamination is for a suitably qualified specialist, with local confirmation of what applies.

Note whether the wet area sits in the same place between wet spells or shifts across the plot from one spell to the next.

A wet area that stays put and one that moves lead to different investigations, and only repeated visits distinguish them.

Note any ditch, channel or hollow running along a boundary, whether it holds water and whether it appears to be maintained by anybody.

Boundary ditches are often the oldest drainage on a site and their condition is easy to describe from your own side.

Responsibility for a ditch or watercourse is a matter for the relevant authority or drainage undertaker to confirm.

Look for the outline of a filled pond or hollow, such as a dip in the lawn, a change in growth or a circle that stays greener.

Filled features hold water differently from the ground around them, and their outline survives for a very long time.

Write down anything you know or have been told about a well, shaft or covered opening on the plot, and never attempt to uncover it.

Knowing that one may exist is important information; establishing anything further is specialist work.

Wells, shafts and covered openings are extremely hazardous and must only ever be dealt with by suitably qualified people.

Note any stream, brook or drain beside the plot and how its level appears to change relative to your ground after rain.

The relationship between your ground and a nearby watercourse is background a specialist will want early in the conversation.

Note any pipe end, outfall or grating visible in a bank or ditch, record its position, and leave it entirely untouched.

Old pipe ends hint at drainage arrangements nobody has documented, and their positions are worth mapping.

Do not clear, extend or connect anything to a pipe or outfall; that is for a qualified professional and the relevant authority.

Check the property paperwork and note anything neighbours recall about drains, ditches or springs, marking clearly which is which.

Recollection and paperwork answer different questions, and mixing them makes both harder for a specialist to use.

Start a simple dated log with one line per observation, recording the place, what you saw and the weather that came before it.

A log that is quick to write actually gets written, which is more valuable than a thorough one abandoned early.

Record the visits when nothing was wet, since an absence of water on a given date is part of the evidence too.

Records kept only when something appears exaggerate the problem and make the pattern impossible to read.

Note anything else going on at the time, such as works nearby, ground being opened, or unusually heavy or prolonged rainfall.

Coincidences are worth recording precisely because you cannot tell in advance which of them will turn out to matter.

Return to the same marked standing spots for every photograph, so the set builds into a comparison rather than a folder of loose pictures.

Comparability is what turns a collection of pictures into evidence somebody can reason from.

Write down any sudden change in behaviour, such as water appearing where it never had, and what happened immediately beforehand.

Sudden changes usually have a specific cause, and the surrounding events are forgotten remarkably quickly.

A sudden change in below-ground water should be reported promptly to a suitably qualified specialist rather than monitored further.

Keep the log running through dry weather rather than stopping when the problem disappears from view.

The dry part of the record is what allows a specialist to judge whether anything has genuinely changed.

Do not dig, bore or open ground anywhere to find out where the water is coming from, however tempting a small hole appears.

Ground with unknown services and unknown water behaviour is not something to investigate by hand.

Opening ground must be arranged and supervised by a qualified professional once buried services have been established.

Do not pump, divert or channel water away while you are still recording, and note if anybody else has done so.

Moving water changes the evidence and can move the problem somewhere it becomes a matter of responsibility.

Diverting or discharging water may involve the relevant authority or drainage undertaker and must not be done on your own judgement.

Turn each observation you cannot explain into a written question rather than a theory, and keep the questions together in one list.

A list of questions is the most useful thing to arrive with, and it keeps the record free of guesswork.

Ask what kind of specialist should look at water appearing below ground here, since it may not be the same person who looks at surface water.

Getting the right specialism first time avoids a visit that concludes only that somebody else is needed.

Ask what any proposed investigation would establish and what it would leave unanswered before agreeing to arrange it.

Investigations answer narrower questions than owners expect, and knowing the limits in advance prevents disappointment.

Confirm locally what applies to work of this kind before anything below ground is planned, and record who told you what.

Requirements vary, and a written note of who said what protects everybody involved later on.