None of the content is legal, insurance, engineering or tax advice. Each cost figure shows its source and year, and national figures are labeled national. What work on your basement will really cost comes only from a contractor's written estimate after seeing the house.

Rules on permits, sewers and contractor licensing change. Where a page sums up something published by the City of Chicago, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, a suburb or the State of Illinois, check the point with that office before relying on it. The site is independent of every one of them, and none endorses it or works with it.

Rainfall and flooding figures credit the National Weather Service or a named news outlet and appear only as background.

The cost calculator and the wet-basement checker produce rough, general results. They cannot see inside your basement and do not diagnose anything.

Contractors who receive requests run their own independent businesses. The site does not vouch for them and takes no responsibility for the estimates they write, the quality of their work or how they behave. Advertising money from contractors may support the site; homeowners are never charged and are given nothing. Standard homeowners policies often leave out sewer backups unless a rider was added, and seepage is commonly excluded, so read your policy and ask your insurer or agent.

This disclaimer is governed by Illinois law.