I just joined this forum and was looking for a little guidance. I bought my house (north NJ) about a year ago. I didn't spend a lot of time here this summer (long story) and when I came back in Aug. I noticed that I had water in my basement (I was not running a dehumidifier at the time). I called up a Realtor friend of mine and he recommended a contractor come out and look. The contractor said he thought the water was coming up through a crack in the floor and suggested re-sealing the floor . I paid him to do that. Now after the big storm we just had on Sun., I had a couple of inches of water in my basement again. <br />
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I do have a sump and French drains in one corner of the basement, but when I used a broom to sweep up the standing water, I noticed I was pushing the water 'uphill' to reach the sump and the French drains. It does not appear the my basement is very level. Also, I live on a mountain and the back of my house faces uphill. Why would you put the sump and French drains on the front side of the house? Because the basement is not level, the sump remains perfectly dry because the groundwater is coming up through a crack in the middle of the basement (that was supposedly resealed) and just pooling there. Should I have additional French drains put in and another sump? Any idea what that might cost?<br />
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Thanks<br />
Frank

 

By far the easiest solution but also the highest chance of it not working again would be to watch the crack to see where the water is coming in and try to seal it again. Downspouts all correctly sending the water far enough away from the house? Ideally past the house downhill.

 

Normally French drains should go around the entire perimeter of the house, just inside or just outside, and dump into a (usually one is enough) sump pump pit.

I t is usually easier to install a new French drain on the inside. Depending on how badly your basement floor slopes, you might not have enough grade underground to get to the existing pit and therefore have to put in a second pit

The pit should be large enough or deep enough to have at least 10 gallons of space below where the lowest French drain pipe dumps in and not filled with rocks. (Twenty gallons is better but rarely found.)

The entire French drain system must be designed so that the sump pump(s) can empty things out so that all the drain pipes themselves are almost empty of water, even though some experts claim it is okay for some of the drain pipes to remain water filled some of the time.

 

Thank you. The water is definitely coming up thru the center of the basement, which is also the lowest point. The fellow who resealed it seems to think it is a bigger problem. He said he was going to reach out to some other contractors he knows to come up with some idea.

Is it possible to put a floor drain in the middle of the floor and have it drain into the existing sump pump?

Also, what type of contractor should I search out? This seems to be outside of what the guy who resealed the basement is capable of handling.

 

Can you identify how much it slopes? Can you add some photos of the crack, existing sump pit, and overall layout and relation to each other?

 

If water is coming up through the middle of the floor, it is possible to have a branch of the French drain go diagonally from there over to the sump pump pit and it will work just as well with no floor drain. Still, branches of the French drain going all around the perimeter will probably be needed also. In the majority of cases, putting the French drain all around the perimeter will cure the seepage in the middle without a branch to the middle.

French drains will work acceptably with no slope over to the sump pit but they will not work if there is an uphill slope to the pit.

 

Here is a picture of the 'low spot' near the columns. The other picture is of the sump

 

Not sure if the 'crack' is visible in these photos, esp. since it was just resealed, but this is where I think the groundwater is coming in because there is no water on the perimeter

 

Here is the first photo of the water this morning.