There was water in the basement the day we closed on our property in mid-March; it seemed to be coming in on both the NE and the NW corners. The water seemed to be a result of the snow melt / freeze thaw. There was also quite a little puddle of water in the garage that seemed to be coming mainly from the North and the East sides. What to do? Who to call?
Because the water was coming in on the north side of the property in the corners, we went to work as soon as we could cleaning out the gutters. (The north side of the property is the side that had a large number of pine trees very close to the house; the pine trees had apparently deposited quite a large amount of needles, twigs, and pine cones into the gutters.) We also extended the downspouts so that they drained further from the house. Lastly, we called a company off Craigslist that had large equipment and advertised for grading and drain tile work as well as driveway work. (We opted to at the same time have some gravel added to the driveway as it was beginning to look a little barren.)
One day when I went to the property by myself right after our new breaker box was installed, I was unable to get running water. I had assumed that not having water was a result of the electrical work done and called the electrician (after first having called Ed). As we talked it through, he was fairly certain that it was an issue resulting from something other than the new electrical service. The electrician arrived early the next morning having made some phone calls himself and after stopping at a supply store before it was even officially open (it was nice that he grew up in the area and had local contacts who could assist). He went to look things over and ultimately switched out a switch on the well pump. Lo and behold, this had been the problem. Additionally, because the old switch was so rusted out, it had been the source of leakage and the water issue associated with the NE side of the house.
It’s been a particularly rainy and wet May and June. Since the all the work that’s been done to address the water issues, we have not experienced water in the basement; fingers are crossed going forward. The garage floor still gets a little damp in 2 spots yet on the North side, but we have not seen pooling water like we initially did.
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