My in-laws own a home in NJ a few blocks from the beach. It's now gotten water on 2 occasions and the water table is now even higher. During Irene the water table was obscene and they never lost power, during Sandy the beach came within 3 feet of the foundation (Very lucky).

The home is from the 1960's, cinderblock basement walls. There is 1 small roomed off section drylocked which actually is the dampest part of the basement. the dryloc is fine but I think dryloc is keeping the dampness in that room.

The walls have no efflorescence. The home sits up from most and water drains away.

The 2x water entered were Irene and now Sandy. The water table was so high that water just surrounded the basement. The home has a sump pump that now has a small bit of water all the time (2 years ago it was normally dry).

The water came in from the bottom cinder blocks holes from anywhere an 1/8" to 4" above the floor. There was nothing we could do as the water table was too high and it just kept coming in.

They only have 1 sump pump which is old and has the outside stair well drain sending water to it too.

Now post-storm we are seeing a number of new vertical cracks in the walls but no water coming in from them. Most of them are near basement windows (the windows are a foot above ground level), the cracks are outside too. There is also 1 crack that was vertical that is now a step crack and started to bulge now about 1/16" inward. This worries us. There is old cinderblock steps outside above this crack (my inlaws faild to remove them when they built a new deck over it and access to remove them is very limited).

I'm getting too old for helping my in-laws clean out their basement again. We now understand the water table has risen in the area too. so i made the mistake of calling waterproofers.

Now I am so clueless. Prices are outrageous.

1 guy just wants to further fix gutters and leaders and send them away and chisel out all the cracks and fill them with hydrolic cement inside and outside. The cracks are in most cases about 1/16" wide. He also wants to dryloc the basement which we really don't think is needed as the walls are dry other than when the water table is so high that the bottom block gets wet. I don't think new drains will help when water table is so high.... that's what I don't want again.

2-4 all want to do waterproofing systems indoors and use 2 pumps. Some want to use PVC pipe and others some black bendable pipe. All want cleanouts. As people are not always in the home, we want a water pump back up..... and possibly a batter back up on the other pump. Is this logical? Which piping is better?

then the cracks. some of 2-4 guys want to use carbon fiber strips on them only. some want to put pins in all of them. one wants pins in only the back step one and to fill cracks with epoxy.

Quotes are all over the place. Starting at 6k to $20k. Crazy!!!!!

The perimeter is about 130 lineal feet.

So what is the most logical thing to do?

We started thinking we should hire a local engineer now but that's another cost. The right thing is probably taking the deck down and the back steps and doing a permeter drain. The deck is brand new, so they don't wan to do this. The extra $500 is somewhat painful too.

What is logical. Is there really any answer? What is a logical price for this type of work?

My inlaws are on a severely limited budget and I actually have to finance this for them so we need to do the right thing.

I also just read about a Beaver System.. Would this work if the water table is so high?

Thanks so much.