I know a thing or two about wet basements from the rental I had on campus.
Drylock will help small stuff, small leaks and cracks, bigger cracks need to use Hydrolic cement,
Basment doctor is a company I have heard decent things about. dont be surprised when they quote you 25K to have a dry basement.
The drains Karl is talking about are often called French drains, basically they let the water come in still. but instead of flooding the follow gravity to the lowest spot in the floor (hopefully where a sump basin and pump are located) if you can imagine a small channel cut about 2-3 inches away from a the exterior walls all leading to the low spot thats a french drain.
Some DIY helpfull tips. If you dont have gutters get some right now. if your downspouts are not running at least 6+ feet away from your house get that done too. you want to carry as much water from the roof away from the foundation as possible. Make sure the gutters are not clogged or missing parts like elbows. The conductor as it is called is at any big box store and about 10 bucks for 10 feet or so. that is what the downspouts on the gutters are made from, hack saw or cut off wheel them to fit. but get the water away from the house man.
I installed a sump pump in my old rental. Took about two good days of work but turned out well.
you can buy all the crap at home depot or lowes.
you need a sump basin, these are basically 55 gallon trash cans with holes cut in them to let the water run in. they were like 50 bucks or so.
Being a cheap ass I used a 55 gallon rubber maid brute trash can. and cut my own holes with a 1/2 inch spade bit. for about 15 bucks.
Then bust out a section of the floor. preferably in a low spot but also somewhere where you can run PVC pipe outside. so near an exterior wall.
Dig a hole (big enough to burry a 55 gallon trash can) this was nearly one day of the two day install. Lots of wet sand to carry outside 5 gallon buckets at a time.
Put in the sump basin or trash can. Then put in a cinder block. You need to have the sump pump off of the bottom of the can as to not pick up silt and other crap which is bad for the pump.
Buy a sump pump. 1/2 horse or larger. which will move a lot of water. Theory is you want a pump that will move a lot of water fast and not be kicking on every 10 minutes. it wears the pump out faster.
I spent I think 100 bucks on mine at lowes.
You also need a one way valve, these are right next to the pumps. These keep the water from backing down into the pump. kind of like a PCV valve.
Get the right amout of PVC pipe. and fittings. you also need to bust a hole in the exterior wall to let the watter out of the PVC pipe. Then run that pipe out like 20 feet away from the house. You dont want to keep pumping water out of the basement and then let it right back in.
in total a 2 bannana job. maybe 200 bucks worth of parts and pieces. If possible you also want to run a new GFCI outlet just for that pump. only plug in the pump to that. to be up to code.
Hope this helps.
