Basement Water in Old House

RickALO asks,

We have probably a 1920’s house, and as you can imagine, the concrete floor has cracks (floor is tiled with old linoleum tiles), and the intersection of the walls and floor typically begin seeping water when we have 2+ inches or more in a 24-48 hour period. On one corner of the house is a sump, which has some old drain tiles draining into it. Only one drain tile has any water movement thru it. I  suspect they have gotten cloged throughout the years… The seepage is literally, from around most of the entire foundation, but particularly, on the opposite side/corner of the basement from the sump.

Would adding another sump on the opposite side help reduce the ground water pressure under the floor to prevent the water from coming up thru the cracks around the rest of the basement? The house footprint is 26’x44′.

Fortunately, we don’t store anything that could get wet down there, but never the less, having to wet vac the water out on those heavy rain periods here in Iowa can be a pain!

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Rick Smith (Waterloo, IA)

P.S.  The down spouts on the house drain thru drain tile I buried (after buying the house) to run the water more than 15ft away, and the foundation dirt is sloping away.. we have a 18×18 deck on one side which I cannot tell the drainage beneath it, dut to it basically being flush with the ground.