I have a sort of weird thing happening. For years,we never had issues with water in the basement thanks to two sump pumps, one in the basement that pumps the water collected by tile and one behind the garage (the garage is connected to the house). The only times we ever had water issues were when the sump pump died on us once and somehow another time it got unplugged.

Now the last two years we've gotten water in one corner of the basement 4 times, in the spring. The sumps were working fine at the time these mini-floods happened. We get a corner of the basement that gets wet (about 10x15 foot spot), it has not gotten much higher than the level of the carpet to this point but it requires a lot of shopvacing.

The watter appears to be leaking from under/around the steps/door that leads into the basement from inside the garage. The water isn't coming down the stairs. The stairs come from the garage and the basement floor is about 4ft lower than the garage floor so the stairs lead down to the basement.

I'm confused on why all of the sudden we have this problem when we never did before. It has been unusually wet here this year we had about 7 inches of rain in the last month and we had a lot of snow this year as well and the ground was probably frozen to 8+ feet.

Another thing we notice is an issue is that the neighbor's yards behind our house are on a slope that leads down to our yard so we get all their drainage. We also had a tree and several bushes taken out last year that was along the property line. Now this year we get this pool of water (about 15 food diameter) that sits about about 10feet off of the corner of our garage and sometimes gets 5-6 inches deep when it rains. We had one neighbor pumping his sump water toward our yard as well but talked him into pumping it to the street.

The leak is generally just in that one little corner by the door, nowhere else is leaking and it seems like only when we get a big rain or thaw. After the yard dries out, we probably won't have a problem the rest of the year but it has happened 2 years in a row now in April/May.

We were thinking of maybe digging a french drain to drain off that pool, but not sure if that is the best thing to do or not. We were also thining of replainting bushes back on the property line as well.

An suggestions?

 

You still had an issue, even though the sump pumps took care of it. The idea is to do whatever is necessary, to avoid the use of sump pumps. You have already taken the first step by trying to locate the outside areas where the problem is originating. Look at the gutters & downspouts. Make sure that they are clean & are directing the water as far away as possible. Look for hairline cracks in the foundation. Look for spaces around the stoop that may need to be sealed & above all try to correct the pitch. If none of that works, I would recommend sealing the foundation with a membrane.

 

So do you think starting with the french drain is a good first step? We figured we wowuld also spread some more soil where the water pools to fill in the dip hwere it collects.

 

pump impellers & volutes wear - motors go bad - switches fail - but you may have plugged ' tiles ',,, a properly engineered & installed french drain system is low-maintenance, not NO MAINTENANCE,,, open up the cleanouts & have a look,,, wtr leaks & leaky bsmts never heal - that's why there're pumps imo, sheet membrane's only good for protecting a properly installed semi-liquid membrane but we only do this work for a living,,, your mileage may vary

its late & i'm tired

 

Looking at the outside area was a good first step not so much the french drain. Correcting gutter problems & correcting the pitch is a start. If that doesn't work, I recommend sealing the foundation with a membrane. In other words, the foundation has to be exposed, to the footing. It's a lot of work but it gives you the best chance, of solving the problem.

 

so when that water is stopped from entering your very fine home, where does it collect ? yes, @ the bottom of your very fine home's exterior bsmt walls - next to the footer,,, so all that digging has waterproofed the walls ( IF you did it right ! ) but left a big ol' drywell,,, ' where does this collected water go ? ' you may ask,,, likely under the conc floor where it AGAIN comes into your very fine home in the form of a false water table driven by hydrostatic water pressure,,, actually its only water seeking its own level but ' hydrostatic ' is an impressive word, eh ?

IF you go that route as pulp suggests, either drain to daylight OR install an exterior pump & sump using 18"/24" ads pipe for a standpipe & pump access,,, do NOT get used to paying for the same ground twice

its only 1 thing to stop the water which is impossible HOWEVER you can manage it easily,,, its late & i'm tired