[Boxwood33@verizon.net]

I had all of the problems that you note. When I tried to paint the walls, the paint came off after blistering. I had a trickle on the floor that was entering both via the walls and at the intersection of the walls and the slab floor. I did the outdoor French drains and moved all downspouts and graded and everything else but I still had the problem. I called in a pro and they had two suggestions to be done in order. One was a drain tile clean out and a new sump system and the follow-up was to dig on the outside of the house and install a membrane against the concrete walls. They noted that the 2nd process is very costly and would only be necessary of the 1st did not fix the problem. After checking out all the drains and drain tiles ia a TV, they busted up the floor in a few spots and rerouted the drain tiles to a large sump and put in two sumps (one slightly higher that the other as a backup with a electrical failure water powered sump backup) and disconnected the drain tiles from the storm sewer (which it turned out was backing up water to the house rather than taking it away. The sump empties into a catchment on the front lawn (sunken into the grass so as not to be seen) and that is carried just below the grass in a PVC pipe to the storm sewer at the street. That took 3 days to complete and about $4K but the problem was completely fixed without any digging at the foundation. As an added bonus, the basement dried completely out, the "wet" smell disappeared , and it has never leaked now in 4 years and I have remodeled the basement into a 2nd living room and bedroom since it no longer has a bad smell. It was well worth the bucks. My suggestion is to try all the surface water management things that you can do yourself and if that does not fix the problem, look to draining out the water below and around your house via the above method before digging up your foundation to treat the exterior. Good luck !