Basement issues

EzraG

Over this weekend, I found mushrooms growing in the carpet in my basement, near an outside wall. The carpet was wet. I got on line and read all about this -- mushrooms don't spring up suddenly. You need moisture for a long time.

Well, I shop-vac-ed the mushrooms and pulled back the carpet. I bought a heavy duty anti fungal. I broke open the drywall near the floor. I found an area of wetness behind the drywall and I sprayed my antifungal all over. I rented a blower but I didn't use it the first night because I figured that would just spread the spores all over.

The next day, I cleaned out the rain gutter above this area -- it is possible that rain overflow was forcing the water into my foundation.

BUT I have a drop ceiling in the basement down there and I see no sign of water coming down the wall. Nothing is wet in there -- it looks great.

I am almost finished drying out and it is coming along well but I have not solved the underlying problem yet. It might have been the rain gutter but as I said, I didn't see evidence in the basement ceiling. I could break out more wall and see if it is a rod hole but the insulation was only wet at the very bottom.

One thing that is bothering me is that it has been raining like crazy and my sumpwell is dry. In the past, rain would result in a constant trickle in the sump well. I am concerned that my problem is a bad drain tile. This is causing wetness in my carpet that is not coming down the wall and it is keeping water from reaching my sump pump.

I would love for someone to tell me that I am way off. My current plan is to finish drying and leave the hole in the drywall until the next rain so I can see if it gets wet again. Any other thoughts?