Dealing with a somewhat damp basement

Hi all, I'm hoping to get some input regarding what do about water in my basement. Here's a rundown of the background:

-We purchased the home last November. We didn't experience any problems through the winter, but in the summer we've had leaking during intense summer storms. We have some basement remodelers coming out to deal with that tomorrow.
-The home is a 100 year old row home in Baltimore sandwiched between two other homes.
-Half of the basement is finished while the other half is not. The leaks during severe storms happen in the unfinished part of the basement on the north side of the house.
-As far as I know drainage in the basement is handled by a french drain, though I've never seen behind the walls in the unfinished part to make sure.
-During an incredibly severe storm a couple of weeks ago, our sumps went down (I replaced them the next morning). During that time, groundwater leaked up through the basement slab to a height of about an inch and a half. The basement has since then been dried out.
-The drywall in the finished portion of the basement does not reach all the way to the floor, and I don't think the masonry on the other side has been sealed.
-Sometimes you can get a whiff of something if you put your nose real close to the gap between the slab and the drywall. It's not really musty, but earthy, like soil.

I'm an amateur in home repair with a limited budget, but I want to try to fix things up as best I can (the basement is supposed to be my space). If I had an unlimited budget, I'd tear the drywall out of the finished portion, make sure the walls were drenched in sealant, then put the drywall back up, level the slab (it's a little uneven in places), then put everything back up the way it was. As it stands I'm thinking the what I'm actually able to do is this:

-Let the basement remodelers re-do the sump pits, drainage, and seal the walls.
-Purchase some sealant for the slab and paint it over.
-Caulk the gap underneath the drywall with some water-resistance silicone and install a base shoe for it to look nice
-Get some rubber backing for the carpet (I'm not sure exactly what we have down there now, but it looks like a water resistant outdoor type).

Any additional thoughts?

Just a few things that you have wrong.
Sealing the top of the slab or the inside of the foundation will not help.
Outside ground water can produce a large amount of pressure and will come in some where.
We would like to have good waterproofing on the outside with good perimeter drain. Or a drain on the inside with some way to contain and direct the moisture to that drain and pump it out.
As you didn't have a problem before the pump let you down, I would think you don't have a problem other than that.
But if the bottom of walls got wet you maybe should have removed some of the lower drywall and allowed everything to dry out.
Wet drywall and wood will feed mold and mold will start to grow in a few days, if you can smell it you should go looking for it.
Do not seal the space below the dry wall, if you have water back there you will want to know about it early better that later, it won't go away by it'self
If there is ever a chance you basement can floor I would not put down carpet, tile or something that water will not hurt and rugs that can be taken out side to dry is a far better bet.

So the basement folks coming tomorrow will be doing drainage for the back, but their initial estimate included doing it for the front as well. We can't quite afford that at the moment, but I'm going to look into having the job finish when we save up a bit or if we can get some money out of the original owners of the house (turns out they knew about the leaking but didn't disclose it; we're talking to a lawyer now).

Having recently sold my beloved 186-year old Philadelphia rowhome and struggled with a beast of a basement there for 10 years, I agree with nealtw ^ ... you can't seal from the inside. I also agree re: carpet, too - I'd also go with tile, or polished concrete, or depending what you're using the room for, even just painting the concrete floor.

When I first bought my place, and it rained hard, there would be a waterfall coming down one of the unfinished basement walls through the porous brick at grade level. I (spot)repointed the brick, painted it all with a high-quality water-resistant exterior paint, and added a concrete bead all the way around the house's footprint. This got rid of the vast majority of my basement vs. mother nature issues, but being a non-air conditioned, not well ventilated space in a hot muggy climate, dampness was always going to be an issue. I had a utility sink next to my washer & dryer down there, and I installed a dehumidifier which continuously drained into the utility sink. THAT's when the earthy odors ceased and I knew I'd won the battle. Best little ~$100 investment ever.

Dimple board is the best bet for a leaky wall, it directs the water straight into the drain below the floor

oops.............

So a few more items of note: we have central air and a dehumidifier in the unfinished part of the basement draining into the sump. Those do manage to keep the place pretty dry, but I'm also a worry wart. For what it's worth, It's barely even a carpet not really tacked down. I'd be more tempted to look into tile but like I mentioned the concrete floor needs to be be leveled. I think that's a bit beyond my ability at the moment.

depending on how bad it is, self leveling concrete

So here's an example of what I'm talking about. This isn't common throughout the rest of the basement, but it's got me slightly worried

Not sure what we are seeing, moisture or un level?

Moisture. And now that I've pulled the carpet back I notice it smells kind of bad, like soil but also musty. No mold or mildew on the carpet though.

Mike_TV said:

Moisture. And now that I've pulled the carpet back I notice it smells kind of bad, like soil but also musty. No mold or mildew on the carpet though.

Click to expand...

Did you pull the carpet when it got wet?

Not really. I pulled it upat the lowest point that seemed to take longer to dry, but that's about it.

Ant time carpet gets wet you want to get it up and allow air under it until you are sure it is dry. maybe it is still wet.

Is that plywood in direct contact with the slab on that floor?
If so that's a huge mistake.
I'd guess that was a DIY finish job in that basement, if so you can bet those walls where not done right and will have mold behind them.
I'd be cutting some out and taking a peek to see what they did.
It's no harder to fix a big hole then a small one you can barely see in.