Or a Belgium drain?? Just kidding. I'll go back to eating my Idaho fries.

a french drain put it where they drill a channel in the inside floor with a connection to the outside and carry the water out that way. You also need to make sure the gutter water is carried away from the house so you get the black drainage tubing several feet. grading away from the house is important, too. You may also need a sump pump. I would get 2 estimates from waterproofing companies on what it would take to fix it. They should have guarantees. I would insist on that whoever fixes it. The paint that you put on walls would not stop such a severe problem. I have a finished basement and also have, require a large dehumidifier as well. I am not sure I would ever consider finishing or much storage down there with a problem that severe.

Drain tiling is put in around the inside perimiter of the house, not the outside so it wouldn't touch your landscaping at all. If is a very effective method of eliminated water in the basement. But first, you need to check to see that you have good gutters so the rain doesn't just pour of the roof and down into the ground by your house.

Then, you look at the grading. This doesn't take much. The earth (gravel is better) immediately next to the house needs to slope away from the house.

If these two things don't work, you can get drain tiling estimates. It's a mess, but drain tiling works.

this stuff called dry lock....it looks like white paint and can seal any small cracks...
other than that the only way I do know of is the drain tile.....hey didnt they mess up ----make them pay
good luck to you your house is very nice....

Our basement was built out of the ground because originally we where goin to have a crawl space, well our builder messed up and didnt check the septic plan we had and didnt realize until it was to late that our house had to be raised because of the water level at my house. Here is a picture from when it was first finished you can see how high it is because the basment was built out of the ground:





Anyway, we dont want them putting a drain around the house because we have about 5k worth of landscaping thats the BIGGEST problem, because he said ok we'll put the drain around your house and hubby said no way we spent way to much in landscaping.... so they said ok what do you want us to do , and he said put a subpump in the basement ... we are goin to have to end up calling a water proofing company and seeing what they suggest, I'm just glad its going to be taken care of ..

I had my house built too and we are on a pretty high hill. What does your builder say about drainage and the grading of your property. If you were to look at ny house you would think we would have an ongoing problem with water in the basement, but because of the grading we don't. My town will not allow building unless all drainage is directed away from the house. Good Luck!

so that way the water will not be able to build up around the home the drain tile will ---pour the water in the sump hole and out it will go....

My mother in law had this same problem. they put a french drain in and no leaks at all. My sister has a subpump and I think hers actually still has some problems, but less than before...good luck.