My home was built in 1957, it is a 1'022 square foot brick ranch style house with a poured basement. It has started leaking water in a few places when it rains for a while, it leaks from where the basement floor meets the basement wall in four spots.

I just had a company that does this sort of work come out to give me a price on repairing it. They recommended what they call a "multi-step system". This entails digging up the outer basement walls and fixing any cracks in the wall, installing a new sub soil drain with a j channel ~ 4' deep around the perimeter of the basement wall, and then installing new plastic croc drain on the inside of all basement walls tied into a sump pump.

Anybody ever have anything similar done, how well did it work out?

Their plan will certainly work but I'm guessing it's expensive. There is the thought fix it right the first time.

Is the drainage around the house good? Nothing pools water towards the house?

I lived in an older house about 15 years ago. Had an issue with water. It was coming in through the basement walls in a bunch of spots. Small amounts but still a problem. The basement was unfinished and the walls were cement block.

I bought some thoroseal(waterproof cement) and fixed all the cracks/holes. Then painted the walls with Drylock. I wasn't sure if it would work but it did. No more water.

At the time there was no way I could afford a fix that included digging up the outside or inside to put in drainage and a pump. My fix cost me around $200 buck and a bunch of evenings and some weekends doing the work myself.

If you didn't have a problem for years, it may be that you need to fix the grading around your house to move water away from the foundation. Also make sure that the gutters and downspouts are doing their jobs.
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Originally posted by Some Shot:
If you didn't have a problem for years, it may be that you need to fix the grading around your house to move water away from the foundation. Also make sure that the gutters and downspouts are doing their jobs.
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That's likely to be a lot cheaper, and you could do most/all of the work yourself.

Regarding some of the previous replies, not all basement leakage issues are related to drainage from gutters etc. Especially here in Michigan where lots of builders thought it a great idea to build houses with basements in swamps.

My parents house is one of these. It was fine for 40 years as long as the sump pump was working. If the sump pump stops it floods. Even in dry weather there ia a constant trickle into their sump. Now after 40 years it's begun to develop cracks and is no longer water tight.

They have tried the hydraulic cement sealing approach, and it was short lived. The ultimate solution they found was catching the water and routing it to the sump, so digging outsude and adding more drainage lines or a catchment system where the walls meet the slab. Unfortunately neither are cheap.

Warhorse;
Do you have a sump pump or does the footer tile around the perimeter of the basement drain into a floor drain?
Are you on flat ground or could the perimeter d drain over a hill?
Some times the footer tile plugs with mud/sand/tree roots and all that is needed is to snake them out or hydrojet them.
I have done this hundreds of times for customers who were given estimates of 15-20K by basement water proofing companys.

As ubelongoutside posted, Michigan has a lot of groundwater so doing stuff to stop rainwater might be insufficient.

I have a family member up in Michigan. Bought a house with an unfinished basement, and lived there 3 years before finishing the basement. Never ever a drip of water in the 3 years. They finish 1/2 the basement, and about 2 miles away the city allows a development in a swamp which fills in the swamp and pushed water to the low wooded spot 100' behind their house. Tore the basement out, applied drylock to interior poured cement walls, and they refinished the basement.

It leaked again and this time I helped them dig their foundation out, installed drain tile, and installed pipe to connect their downspouts and take water 50' from the house. They refinished the basement.

Basement leaked again. This time they had a basement system installed (they just texted back - Ayer's Basement Systems and they recommend them). Jack hammered out the perimeter of the poured basement floor, installed their system, and installed the dual pump (one electric primary pump and one back-up battery pump), and repoured cement on perimeter. Works like a champ and they refinished the basement and it's been perfect. Only maintenance has been they replaced the battery after 7 or 8 years.

They said that the pumps ran a lot at first, but after a few months they only had to run sporadically. It also helped that the city created some diversion ponds to counteract the filled in swamp and less water is getting pushed to the low spot.