I found this site by doing some searches and what not. Nice site Bob... Hopefully somebody here will be able to resolve my issue...

Here's my situation. I have a brick cape cod that was built in 1942. It's beautiful and my wife and I adore it, we'll be in here for a year at the end of this month. Well, I have water in my basement. Up until today it was just a little here and there. Of course when I bought the house the disclosure said a small amount of water gathers at the drain during a heavy rain. I had the home inspected as well, but they didn't find anything... Nice!!!

I read the posts on this topic for the last year and there were only 2 which suprised me. Of course it's the same thing I'm running into. 1 guy says to dig and 1 guy says to seal... Soooooo... What do I really do? Sealing is way cheaper then digging. If you read the waterproofing companies web sites they say sealing is bad because it allows water to soak into the cement and then not come out. They said this could cause cracking from the water freezing and expanding.

The sealer companies say that letting water in is bad because it washes soil away and why let water in at all? They also made 2 other good points. 1 with a whole in the ground for a sump pump you take the chance of letting radon gas in. 2 if you have a thunderstorm (heavy rain) and the power goes out what’s the pump going to do for power? This again could cause the basement to flood. I'd like to finish the basement, but I don't want to finish it as an indoor pool...

Now, for the details... Sorry this is so long, but details always help and hopefully lead to a solution... The house has pored concrete floors with paint over it. It looks like it was pored in 2 sections and most of the water comes up right at the crack between the 2 sections and runs to a drain. I'm pretty sure it's a French drain. Most of the water on the 1 side drains to this drain.

On the other side it's coming in at 1 or 2 spots at the wall and floor seem (where the wall meets the floor). It's also coming up through some cracks in the floor.

I know somebody is going to ask, so yes I do have rain gutters and downspouts and all that fun stuff. My 1 rain gutter looks like it might be sagging some, but it's on the opposite wall of the problem area. It works, I'm just concerned that water might not be running to the down spout like it should, but all other spouts and what not work fine, I'm 90% sure this one is OK too...

I'm don't have any water coming in through the walls, it looks like just the floor. If there is anything coming through the walls, it's very little and probably could be sealed. Well, maybe... I guess if I knew about water proofing a basement I wouldn't be here typing all this right now huh???

I live in PA about an hour north of Philadelphia... If any body knows of any contractors I could call or if you are a contractor that does this sort of thing please let me know. I'm sure I could handle the paint sealing and stuff, but if I have to dig the perimeter I'll probably let somebody else have that fun...

This is what I was thinking of doing myself. At the joint where the 2 floors meet I was thinking of digging that out. It's only about 6 feet long because it's right in line with a support all. Dig that down how ever far and put perforated pipe in there running to a sump pump. Then just seal the basement with a hydrostatic sealer or spray.

Please let me know your thoughts and experiences with anything I mentioned... I'm interested to find out about the sealers because of the cost factor...

Sorry if this is long winded, but I have about 1-2" of water in my basement right now and I'd rather it not be there and not be able to come in again...

Thanks in advance...

Jesse

P.S. I found this product when I did a google search http://www.radonseal.com/ If you do a google search for basement waterproofing, you get a ton of products like this...