The towns, and why the rules differ between them
Basement waterproofing in the Saginaw, Bay and Midland area is the same trade everywhere and a different rulebook in every town. These fourteen town pages set out who issues the permit, where groundwater may be piped, what the soil is doing and the local flood history, with every source dated.
Waterproofing advice is usually written as though a basement in Saginaw and a basement in Midland were the same problem with the same rules. They are not, and the difference is not marketing. It is ordinance text.
A footing drain that the City of Saginaw expressly permits to discharge into the sanitary sewer is the same connection the City of Midland is paying homeowners to remove. Saginaw Charter Township publishes a flat fee formula for its permits while the city next door does not publish one at all. Frankenmuth does not run its own building department, and instead shares a code authority with three other communities that also issues county soil erosion permits for two counties. Bridgeport's building counter is open for two and a half hours a day.
None of that shows up in a national cost calculator, and all of it affects what your job costs and how long it takes.
The pages below cover the fourteen towns where the differences are sharpest. Beyond them the site also covers Carrollton, St. Charles and Auburn, and the same questions apply: who inspects, where the water may go, and what the ground is doing.
Two of the newer pages show how far apart neighbours can be. Essexville, under three miles from Bay City, has some of the oldest houses in the valley, with a median build year of 1952, and a state law deadline of 45 days for written notice after a sewer backup. Thomas Township, west of Saginaw, has mostly 1970s homes, a permit required before any work begins, and the memory of the May 2020 dam failures on the Tittabawassee.
If you already know which of the four jobs you are looking at, the town page will tell you who has to be asked about it.
- Bay City The clearest published permit rule in the region, and a perched water table.
- Bangor Township Bay shore homes from 1969 on average, and the record high water of 2019 and 2020.
- Bridgeport 1960s basements, its own building department, and the Cass River at Dixie Highway.
- Buena Vista 1950s block basements east of the river, county drains and a 1947 pump station.
- Essexville Houses from 1952 on average, its own permit desk, and a 45 day sewer backup notice.
- Frankenmuth A shared code authority for four communities, and a soil named after the town.
- Hampton Township Nine miles of bay shore, a 1970s building boom and lake driven groundwater.
- Midland The Footing Drain Disconnection Program, and two floods that explain it.
- Monitor Township Old farmhouse cellars beside new subdivisions, drained toward the Kawkawlin.
- Saginaw Township A published permit formula, and a floodplain desk of its own.
- Saginaw Combined sewers, a 1958 footing drain rule and a 2002 downspout deadline.
- Thomas Township Permit before any work, a floodplain manager, and the Swan Creek drain.
- Freeland and Tittabawassee Twp The newest houses in the valley, May 2020, and floodplain soil rules before digging.
- Zilwaukee The village with a clay soil series named after it, 35 to 60 percent clay.