We did. In May, we had the experience of having footing drains installed in our basement. Our drainage challenges aren't finished, but what is left is small comparatively - rerouting a couple of roof drains and adding french drains in the front garden (oh well!). Neither of those drainage problems are as bad as the water in the basement was.
In order to keep water out of the basement the contractor installed footing drains along the bottom of most of the walls. Here's what they look like when they are done, before the cement dries.
Those black plastic "thingies" ... those are to help direct water into the gravel and perforated plastic pipe laid along the walls.
The contractor ran into more challenges than expected ... the drain he had hoped to connect to, in the outside stairwell, didn't exist. So part of our basement movie room had to be jack-hammered up and the footing drains connected to the main drain, along with the no-longer missing outside drain.
No wonder water had run under the door - the drain outside looked ok, but was nothing more than a drain cap with a little pipe and a p-trap.
Drainage isn't something to ignore when you live in the Great Pacific North-Wet!
