Mays Island Foundation Repair

Linn County, Iowa

Cedar Rapids basements live next to a river that broke its own record

In June 2008 the Cedar River crested at 31.12 feet in Cedar Rapids, about 11 feet above anything recorded before, and flooded roughly 6,000 homes (news reports of the flood, read 2 November 2026). That history is why people here ask about wet basements and cracked walls more than about slabs.

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Pair of 1800s brick houses on 2nd Avenue SE in Cedar Rapids
Two 1800s brick houses on 2nd Avenue SE, Cedar Rapids.

Questions people ask first

My basement wall has a crack. Should I worry?

Most hairline cracks in poured concrete are shrinkage and stay put. A crack that is wider at one end, sits near a corner, or comes with a wall that leans in is a different matter. Read how to tell.

Why is my basement wet when it hardly rained?

In the Cedar Rapids area the river valley holds water in the ground long after a storm. Wet walls and a damp floor are often a drainage story first and a structure story second. Water and floors.

Does Marion or Hiawatha need a permit for this?

Each city runs its own building office, and the number to call changes when you cross a city line. The six offices.

What does the work usually cost?

Published ranges for Iowa vary a lot, and none is a quote. Typical prices with sources and dates.

The ground under the houses

The Iowa Geological Survey maps Linn County in a 1998 report titled Surficial Geologic Materials of Linn County. Nearby quadrangle maps from the same survey show a pattern that repeats across eastern Iowa: windblown loess on top, loamy glacial till under it, and sand and gravel filling the Cedar River valley (Iowa Geological Survey open file maps, read 2 November 2026). A house on the loess and till and a house in the valley can fail in different ways, so the first useful question is where in the valley the lot sits.

Iowa farmhouse with a porch on a flat grassy lot
A farmhouse on flat ground in Iowa, where water has few places to go.

Basements are the normal building style here, so most foundation trouble shows up as a wall, a floor or a window well, rather than as a sagging crawl space.

Excavated stone basement wall being parged before a waterproof coating
Stone basement walls like this one are common in older Cedar Rapids houses (photo taken in Germany).

Six places we cover

Limestone house among mature trees in Cedar Rapids
A limestone house among mature trees in Cedar Rapids.

What this site is

Mays Island Foundation Repair is a local reference page set run by Marketing Doctor LLC. We publish facts about the Cedar Rapids area. We do not fix foundations. A phone call or form request goes to one separate company that works here, and what happens next is between you and that company.