puddle in the basement

[madlen]

every time it rains or snow melts water gets in my basement and leaves a puddle of water on the floor, what can I do to repair this problem and what should I check to keep this from happening again,because I imagine this could rot the foundation I'm a new owner please help.

[Phelps]

First of all, make sure that all water/snow outside can run away from the house. If you have gutters, make sure the system is clear and yuu have an extension piece that gets it away from the foundation.

Is your leak near a corner of the basement?...like where a downspout is? Or a low spot out in the yard?

Or, you could be just unlucky that you have bands of clay and or shale in your yard's strata and that when they dug the basement, when the snow melts next to the house, from heat getting through the basement walls, that it easily permeates the disturbed ground and is held there up against the foundation by a swimming pool effect caused by the clay/shale around it.

IF snow melt is a big cause, you could either shovel it away or dig around the foundation and go down 3-4 feet and put pink board up against the foundation wall to prevent that melt.

But go outside and see if you can see anything obvious...obviously.

Then report back here so we can take things from there.

My parents have this problem every spring due to hydrostatic pressure...so there is little in the way of cheap fixes that they can do, unfortunately. For the fun of it, I smashed a hole through their floor, in the corner where it was the worst, to relieve the water pressure but it didn't work. Water came in that bust out hole but also kept coming in elsewhere. They need drain tiles, is what they need. They live practically ontop of a swamp.