We recently purchased a 75 year old home in Seattle. There is a leak in the basement that was "fixed" by patching with what appears to be roof tar. Of course the water just found new routes around the patch job and under the slab then up through cracks in the slab that appears to have been poured about 20 - 25 years ago. When it rains heavily for a day or two (which is often here) these multiple leaks combine to form a little stream to the low point in the basement. There appears to be no springs in the area. I have diverted all gutter wash away from the house to no avail. We are on a slightly sloped lot with our back yard neighboors draining in to us. The ground appears to be soft but the surface is not soggy and there is no standing water above surface. We had a two water proofing companies come out and take a look, both suggested inside perimeter drains. The down side is that it appears we do not have enough grade for a gravity flow system and would have to install a pump. Is there a chance that digging around this summer and trying out a french type drain could solve our problem? What other options are out there? Is it typical to run an inside drain instead of trying to take care of the problem which is outside? Thanks for the help.

Ugh again! My basement was partially finished when I purchased the house I live in. It had suspended ceiling tracks all strung up for us as well as a few (about 5 or 6) T-tracks. I just measured out the width from one main beam to the next, and found it to be smaller than the size of my T-tracks. (Can't remember exact measurements.) Am I going to have to use a hacksaw to cut all 8 of the remaining T-tracks that I need to put up? Is there a simpler way? Thanks..!