I would think not because the AC would be shut down and waterproofed for the winter. Check with Albert Cofferstein though.

This is requiring more and more conjecture on my part. If there was standing water in the summer, it could still be there in the winter, I suppose.

I just don't know.

It's not standing water all the time. Only puddles when it rains towards the middle of the space. Otherwise it's dry.

In our utility room, there's a pump that's hooked up to the AC unit that takes a small amount of water outside (in my opinion, a ghetto hookup from a past owner), I wouldn't doubt it's not doing it's job fully but I also don't think it's our only problem.

We will correct this before thinking about wood in the kitchen. Kitchen plans are moving forward as we have a contract with contractor with a start date, time scheduled off from work, etc, but this will be a top priority as well we want to deal with. For now we'll do vinyl.

Can anyone suggest who I should be looking to call for at least diagnosis? I looked on servicemagic and have a call into a "Waterseal" type company. I didn't know if there were other contractors who would be willing to look at such a problem. I know for our kitchen we had a lot of trouble finding someone to do any work with us because kitchen is small so probably doesn't translate to too many dollar signs for contractors.

Thanks for everyone's patience with someone who obviosly knows nothing about these things

in my neck of the woods there are contractors who specialize in water flooding and within that umbrella they also do ~ 24 hr. water flood issues, carpet restoration/cleaning, mold remediation, and all types of remodel that would be needed for a flood issue.

I also had a problem with water in the crawlspace - lots of water, about 1 to 2 feet after several days of sustained rain. To make a long story short, a bought a shovel and a pick and did the grading around the house like Chuck suggested and also dug 4 french drains for each of the gutter downspouts which carried the water a minium of 25 feet away from the foundation. Overall cost was under $300 and the problem was solved.

Since your reading up, this site offers some straightforward tips: http://soundhome.com/topics/topic_basement.shtml

If the puddling under the house usually/only happens after rain, then that's your problem and answer. The dirt under the house is lower than the dirt around your house. Water seems to want to seek the low spots so the idea is to keep it away from your house. Connect gutter down spouts to SEPARATE solid pipe drain lines. DO NOT using the french drain lines. Re grade as Chuck suggested and check for rain water pooling around or near the house. You may also have a high water table where, even during the summer, the water table is just a few feet below the surface. Happens where homes are built over creek beds, reclaimed swamp land, etc. The poly vapor retarder will still help with moisture vapor transmission. It doesn't stop water intrusion.

Yes, Gary is of course right. I might have used the term french drain incorrectly. I put solid 4" drain pipe that ended in a 4'x4'x4' pit filled with rock and wrapped in filter cloth - like this:

nice drawing. in a perfect world that retaining wall would have a water barrier from 6" above grade to top of footing...... .02

all great info. thanks a lot. we are definitely going to look into all of this.

Only hitch I can think of is water drains from gutter in 3 areas around our house. The 2 drains this should work perfect.

The other 1 drains right onto black top of our driveway. I did go out in the rain to watch it, it does seem to run right down the drive way... (and like I said this side of the crawl space was the dries so maybe it's not too big an issue)... but I guess the best we can do there is build it up the area maybe to increase sloping when my boyfriend recovers it as he plans to do this year?

sorry to bother all of you again. we're planning on trying to replicate the drawing posted above this weekend on our downspouts. we had a professional over that agreed that's the first step to try.

we were wondering, is filter cloth something you can get at the local home depot (gardening department?) also, what kind of pipe is that 4" pipeline, I assume plastic, but is it just normal PVC or do they sell exterior "tightline"

thanks for any additional info. you have all been very helpful.

I am doing a similiar drain right now on a job, but the pipe runs under a slab driveway and exits to daylight. I am using 3" ABS to catch the water from a single gutter. They sell an ABS fitting that will go from 3" round to the square shape of a gutter downspout.

thanks. we did find a gutter fitting pipeline... only thing we couldnt find was the filter cloth... anyone know where they bought that stuff? does it go under any other names?

thanks

nursery store

Landscape fabric will work too I think.