Thanks Andy,
I will consider this option. would the surrounding water fall into the dug out hole if the ground is even? I am really confused as to how the water is entering my house. It seems to appear from nowhere! Could it be that it is being drawn up from under the house when it rains?
Regards
Chris.
If it is "ground water" then the water is indeed rising up out of the ground, the recent wet weather has probably saturated the ground and it's rising - what we refer to as the water "table" is getting higher. My own garden is currently under a few inches of standing water, sorry I meant standing drought.
I would suggest the sump pump is a good solution, even if just for the short term. If you dig the bucket into the ground as suggested the water will get to the sump, the pump will have a float switch and will empty the bucket once it's full and then stop.
I am a civil engineer and attempting to tank and existing basement is a really expensive idea - the joke £200k quote isn't far off. The damp is a dpc issue - perhaps the higher levels are topping your dpc, assuming you have one?
If you go down the filter drain route you need to go down to foundation level ALL around your house and then connect the carrier pipe to a sump - which will probably need a pump (so you are back to the pump) and send it to an outfall, drain, soakaway or ditch. This will destroy any paths, drives etc around the house, so will be expensive to make it all good again.
Regards the cables, as long as no joints, junction boxes or sockets etc. are wet it doesn't really matter, continuous cable is waterproof, the one that supplies your house is buried.