Also, here's a tip for those of you with central air conditioning. Be sure to keep your storm windows DOWN in the summer. Hot air will leak through the windows just like cold air in the winter. Keeping them down will reduce cooling costs. Tom Hours after a hard rain, water seeps through a crack in my basement block wall in a hard to reach area behind my oil tank.
Most folks blame leaking basements on high water tables.
This is rarely the case. They'll usually tell you your basement needs an immediate, major and expensive repair to avoid collapsing. Usually, they are wrong and the simple improvements Tom mentioned will work. With the cost of energy so high, I've been thinking of converting to solar powered energy. The cost of the equipment is not a problem because I got it off the back of a truck.