Saturated crawl space

I have a 900 sq ft crawl space I went in after all the heavy rains. Fiberglass insulation on the 'ceiling' was dripping, saturated. It's extremely muddy, and I noticed running water coming down a gentle slope. I followed it and came to a spot in the middle of the house. I didn't know where it was coming from. I dug down about five inches and hit water. I could see it coming in from somewhere, but can't trace the source. I figure there's a high water table here.
So I put a sump pump at the lowest point where the water was coming from. I wonder if this is the best place for it after it dries up a little.
I need to take care of this problem. I don't know if a sump pump is the answer.
A contractor quoted me $10,000 to correct the problem with a trough along the perimeter of the northside of the house outside. He ended up charging $18,000 and didn't correct the problem at all.
The ground underneath the house is very rough terrain. I guess someone threw this place up in a hurry. There's very little room to literally crawl in there - and one 90 sq ft section is two feet between the ground and joists - no room to get in there at all. There's a concrete perimeter foundation, but posts and piers support the middle of the house. I just noticed one of the piers is cockeyed - sank into the mud at a 30 degree angle - looks really weird, but somehow the post is straight. Had a dehumidifier in there for years, but it just died. Not sure if it did much good.

 

Yes, you have a water problem. Have you checked for a water leak?

Where are you located? If in the deep south the area under the house can be really opened up to provide a lot of ventilation. The water will still be there but allowing the humidity to escape will help save the wood and insulation.

 

Did water from the surroundings come to and pool up around the foundation or add to the water in the crawl space?

That needs/needed to be fixed. Water from the surroundings and coming from gutter downspouts needs to flow away from the house.

Did the contractor at least fix that part of the problem?

A sump pump in a pit will help but all by itself it will desaturate only a few feet radius around it depending ont he porosity of the soil. French drains are used to extend the desaturation futher, dumping the water into the pit and I trust that your sump pump sends the water some distance away.

You are going to have to provide large openings on all sides to ventilate the crawl space to the outside 24/7 regardless of your climate zone. The wet insulation cannot be allowed to stay wet.

 

$18K and he didn't fix the problem??? I hope you are seeing him in court.
Running water? Are you over a spring? Can you dig deep enough on the outside and see the water? Just wondering if a French drain might help. Water will seek the path of least resistance. Maybe exterior or interior drain tile would help.