On May 28, 7:26 am, Vickie wrote:
We've owned this house (split level) since 1988 and have never had any
basement water issue until the Nor'Easter in April when we had 9" of
rain. In one area the water was coming in pretty fast, enough to
watch it flow in. This was where the basement steps meet the floor.

We corralled the water using water-wicking cloth tubes (QuikWick) and
putting a utility pump inside to drain out the water flowing in.
(Once every 4 years or so we'd see a teenie puddle of water in a
corner but never anything like this.)

Our gutters are good and they drain away from the house. We don't see
any cracks and the walls don't have efflorescence that we can see.

Incidentally, most of the neighbors also had problems who had never
had problems before as well. (Most neighbors do not have sump pumps/
drains either.)

We called some basement waterproofing companies and their solution is
French Drains with a sump pump. We gave one company a deposit for a
French Drain system but are now having second thoughts. I'm concerned
that adding an interior trench, making weep holes in the cinder block
and digging a sump pump ditch will be inviting in water regularly to
keep up with when I only had a problem once. The contractor agreed to
do it without the weep holes, if we'd prefer it that way. I'm getting
concerned about the whole thing. I have already purchased a battery
backup sump pump as well.

I'm afraid we're going to be inviting in water that would otherwise
not come in and be dependant on the sump system to remove it.

A contractor I had here for another project, (not a basement water
contractor), suggested to drill a small opening in the basement floor
and see if there's gravel underneath. If there was then there was no
need for the trenches and we could just do the sump pump. We tried to
drill a hole but the floor is really hard and we couldn't make any
progress with the masonry drill bits.
If there was gravel under the basement cement floor would the sump
pump work without the french drain part?

I'd like to get input from people more familiar with this.

Is this all overkill for a one-time occurrence or is a French Drain
system the right plan?

Thanks-
Vickie

an old experienced plumber, a visit to every neighbor with an
identical home on soil like yours, a local architect, and a magic 8
ball will all agree: basements are not habitable spaces.
in a basement you could provide natural drainage, and electrical
drainage, and battery pumped drainage, plus add a city water pressure
driven sump pump.
see:
http://www.buildingscienceconsulting...r_basement.pdf
and then 52 pages at:
http://www.buildingscienceconsulting...r_Renovate.pdf