Basement trouble

Monday morning, I had a plumber here to take a look at what's going on with the sump pump and us having water in the basement every time it rains. It turns out the pump is OK, if a bit old. The guy also ran a camera into the perimeter piping that is supposed to take the ground water to the sump pump. It was totally clear and dry, which says that something else is going on. Another more senior plumber came over to check it out and he said that he thought the slits in the perimeter pipe could be blocked by clay, which would prevent it from doing its job. He recommended using a high power water jet to try to unblock the pipe and get things working again. If that didn't work, they would have to excavate the front and re-do the drainage system. Needless to say, that would be a very expensive fix. $1000 for the water jet things and then potentially a lot more for the excavation.

I talked to David and we decided that we would hold off and get some more opinions. I called our neighbor, Paul Horowitz, and he said that they had had a similar problem and it had been resolved by replacing the insulating water barrier on the wall of the basement. He gave me the name of a basement guy he recommended, and I have an appointment with him on Thursday afternoon. We'll see what he has to say. David thinks that digging another sump on the other side of the basement might work, but we'll definitely be getting more opinions and quotes before we go ahead on anything.