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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The basement waterproofing business is full of charlatans. You don't want anyone who does a lot of marketing, if they wear a uniform or drive a truck with fancy logos steer clear.

The problem is that rainwater is running down the foundation and finding cracks to get in. The solution is first to keep that water away from the foundation in the first place, and then to give it a place to go where it can be disposed of safely. The exact details depend upon the site and how it was built. But if someone starts talking about "groundwater" or "water table" or similar mumbo-jumbo, cross them off your list. [/quote]

Avoid interior perimeter solutions at all cost if you at all can. Go for external dig out and repair and slab repair. If you think about it interior sump pump and interior perimeter is making your walls into a water conduit. You don’t want water to come near or into your walls in the first place.

Not to mention pests, mice, crickets (black indoor ones). You’ll never get rid of these again. Pick your company on whether they’ll attempt exterior solution as the priority one.[/quote]

Avoid anyone who proposes excavating anything until all possibilities of handling runoff on the surface have been exhausted.

It's not a question of internal or external, it's a question of whether you need to dig at all.[/quote]

This is fine but for the houses I’ve lived in in Maryland, I don’t think you can have a dry basement without functional perimeter drains. If your house is of the age where the original ones have failed, you can play with downspouts all you like and it may not solve the problem. [/quote]You're correct.  At best, it may help a little but this is now an underground problem.  The original footer drains do not last anywhere near as long as the house.  Some start to fail in as little as 20 years.  [/quote]

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