This is a great photo of why basement walls leak! This is a basement egress window from around 1970. We don't see a lot of larger basement windows from back then and the surrounds are usually made of block or solid (poured) concrete.

If you can see a crack on the inside of your basement, it will go all the way to the outside. The rock landscaping can hold 100's, if not 1000's of gallons of water, basically a moat around your home.

Over time the water will also bring sand/dirt with it creating a low spot at the crack, a perfect nature funnel into your basement.



The owner tried putting a concrete patch on the inside but the only long-term solution is to address the crack from the exterior, there's just too much water pressure pushing through the patch.