underground spring

I have a 1930s bungalow that has a high level of humidity in the basement/crawl space. The basement is mostly earth except for a 20x15ft area of concrete floor where the utilities are. There are several foundation vents around the perimeter of the house, though I've never exactly felt a breeze down there. I'm concerned about the wood structure (joists, subfloor, etc) as high humidity can't be good for it, I've also noticed some small patches of mold in some joists, though there doesn't appear to be any rot or infestation (yet). What would be a good way to proceed with this? I am looking at the following options: 1. Adding an exhaust fan on one of the vents to increase airflow. 2. Put in a dehumidifier 3. Put down 6mil polyethylene sheeting over all exposed earth areas. 4. Stop worrying about it. After all, this house has survived this long without any solution, maybe its just supposed to be like this? The area that I live in (Atlanta) has very high humidity outdoors, so I was worried that installing an exhaust fan on one of the vents might in fact draw in *more* humidity? I like the dehumidifier idea, but wonder how effective it would be since there are foundation vents? Like I said, I don't feel a lot of ventilation going on down there, but there must be some (it doesn't smell bad). Furthermore, I would have concerns about blocking up the vents as it would then confine any radon or other gases into the house. Should I buy a dehumidifier? Laying down the 6 mil poly seems like a good idea, but our inspector (when we bought the house) said it would not be necessary in this case (why, i'm not sure). Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. thanks, Ryan

We have lived our house which is about 34 years old and had a problem that happens when we have really heavy rains (I live in Chattanooga, TN). There are certain places in out crawlspace when water comes in. Now these places are all same side of the house. Anyway, I have spent tons of money having excavation done to raise up the ground, put drainage in, have the foundation around the most problematic areas sealed, etc. My last work involved them digging along the wall that leaked the most to the foundation. Sealing it and lining it with plastic on the outside. I then had them raise the ground about 8-10 inches. Now all water runs away from the house. I did not have them dig the areas where there is just a little seepage because it was advised that the raised ground should take care of it. I have also on this side near the driveway (its a circular one that goes around to the back of the house) drains to catch water that runs to the house (the water does not go up to the house as now the ground is too high). There are about 4 6 inch drains and 1 12 inch drain. All the water now flows away from the house or into these drains. All my gutters (2 on this side of the house) are flowing freely. The gutters go into buried black drain pipe that from what I see is flowing well. The gutters never back up and water pours out the pipe into a ditch that flows away from the house. Before I had all this work done I installed under the crawlspace at the lowest point a sump pump with piping that takes the water to the outside at a point that is about 2 feet lower than the house foundation. I am still getting water in. Granted it is not nearly anything like it was before. There are 2 places that look really like small puddles. They are about a foot to a foot and a half in diameter with about maybe a quarter of inch of water. They only show up when we have continous heavy rain. The worse spot is just about 5 feet away from the sump pump and it seeps out pretty fluid, but not like it used to. On the outside wall where it is at I cannot get to dig to the foundation because all the main power lines run there under the ground. There is one other spot that is not too bad, but it seems bad because it runs down from the the far edge of the problematic side of the house to the other end. It kind of looks like a cups of water was spilled or something for a 10 foot length (hard to explain). As I said we are still getting water in and I have tried everything. It has been suggested to me that perhaps we have a water table nearby. My neighbor next door has his basement flood when I get water in my crawlspace due to heavy rains (we are on day 2 of heavy rain with a total of 5-6 inches of rain so far). I also saw another neighbor behind me pumping water out of his crawlspace. So I suspect this may be it. All the seepage is coming through cracks in the mortar of the cinder block foundation and they are all at the actual footing. None is from the soil itself on the inside nor from higher cinder blocks. Again it takes torrential rains for this to occur. So what else can I do? I have a sump pump for the main area which is working and has improved the situation much. The smaller areas I need to channel the water I suppose to the pump, but we are talking in some spots 60 to 70 ft or so. I have had a basement/crawlspace guy say he could do the whole house for 3000.00. He said he would drill "weep holes" and dig along the foundation, putting in piping, limestone gravel and then sump pumps. By doing this he said all water will be channeled away to the sump pumps and the rest of the crawlspace would stay dry. Any advice? Oh also what is the best way that after this seepage comes in to dry it out? Thanks.