Hello everyone. We bought a house with a very humid basement in Central, PA. We were typically at 80-90% humidity without a dehumidifier in the summer. A portable dehumidifier would bring it down to 60% running nearly constantly. The house has supposedly never had water in the basement. It's partially (80%) finished.

The back of the house is level for about 20 feet until the property slopes up at about 15-20% grade for an acre. The front of the house continues the grade down, down, down. So, we're on a hill.

A "wet basement" pro came out and said that our sump pump hole from 1974 needed to be improved with a closed system sump pump (we have nothing now) that would suck out ground water from our gravel base under the concrete slab. In addition, he recommended we buy a whole house dehumidifier (not ducted into the furnace) for the basement. Total cost $2500.

An energy auditor came out and said that sealing up the house is going to trap moisture and that we need to regrade the rear of our house to have a slight slope down meeting the opposite slope in a drain canal that would wrap to the side of the house.

He felt that water was likely accumulating on the rear basement wall. He did not agree with the basement guy who felt that the water was coming up from the stone base. He said we would be fine with our portable dehumidifier.

Honestly, I don't know who to believe. Both makes sense. Both are quite a bit of money to remedy. One will mess up my landscaping. However, the energy auditor didn't seem to understand the concept of a whole house dehumidifier beyond the ducted kind. They are also more energy efficient.