Your Place: Water in basement: Who's the proper repairman?

Question: Over the years we have had numerous water problems with our finished basement.

In the far left of the basement, we enclosed the area that has the sump hole and made it a closet. We have a new sump pump in there, and one in the window well outside, which used to overflow when we had severe rain. It seems that even though the window well is piped to a French drain, the amount of water from all the other townhouses in the development backs into it during heavy rain. We had had no problem since we put in the sump pump in the window well.

We had the wall cracks filled and sealed, and we replaced the rug.

Everything was fine until this last storm (Dec. 2). My wife found that water had overflowed from the sliding-door frame upstairs. It wasn't much, just enough to send us downstairs in a panic to check the basement.

This sliding door is not the original. We had new doors and a frame put in about 15 years ago. It is directly over this part of the basement wall, the base of which had a considerable amount of water after this recent rain. The water in the closet appears to be from this area as well.

The problem is, who do we call? A door-frame guy? If we pay to replace those glass sliding doors and door frame, and we still get water in the basement, I will not be happy. What are we to do now?

Answer: I posed your question to Mark Clement, a suburban remodeling contractor, author of The Carpenter's Notebook and cohost of MyFixItUpLife, Saturday from noon to 1 on WCHE (1520) in West Chester.

He observed that "it appears there are several problems. When this is the case, I recommend solving problems one step at a time."

Clement said the basement sounds like the biggest culprit. The water, moisture, and musty smell are likely the result of "hydrostatic pressure," that is, water in the ground is forcing its way through the foundation.

Moisture as vapor gets through concrete or masonry. It doesn't need to be liquid. The usual solution is an interior perimeter drain, often installed by a waterproofing contractor, and usually costing in the thousands of dollars.

The general idea, Clement said, is that "they crack up the basement slab where it meets the wall all the way around the house, excavate a trench, then fill it with crushed stone and a drain-tube that's pitched into your sump pump, then they patch the concrete."