I have a 900 sq ft crawl space I went in after all the heavy rains. Fiberglass insulation on the 'ceiling' was dripping, saturated. It's extremely muddy, and I noticed running water coming down a gentle slope. I followed it and came to a spot in the middle of the house. I didn't know where it was coming from. I dug down about five inches and hit water. I could see it coming in from somewhere, but can't trace the source. I figure there's a high water table here.

So I put a sump pump at the lowest point where the water was coming from. I wonder if this is the best place for it after it dries up a little.

I need to take care of this problem. I don't know if a sump pump is the answer.

A contractor quoted me $10,000 to correct the problem with a trough along the perimeter of the northside of the house outside. He ended up charging $18,000 and didn't correct the problem at all.

The ground underneath the house is very rough terrain. I guess someone threw this place up in a hurry. There's very little room to literally crawl in there - and one 90 sq ft section is two feet between the ground and joists - no room to get in there at all. There's a concrete perimeter foundation, but posts and piers support the middle of the house. I just noticed one of the piers is cockeyed - sank into the mud at a 30 degree angle - looks really weird, but somehow the post is straight. Had a dehumidifier in there for years, but it just died. Not sure if it did much good.