Hello all. For a number of years now we have a window in the basement that leaks HORRIBLY when it rains and even worse so when it rains heavily. I am talking to the point that the window will fill with water enough until it pops open. This is of course not a good thing and the only "good" news is, the basement is not finished. However, I would like to do so at some point in the near future. To do that though, I need to fix this window pronto! The window currently resides under a deck, so it offers no light or viewing pleasures whatsoever. I finally managed to get up a couple deck boards so I could access it and see what is causing this water to flood in. The metal around the window looks to be in good shape. I ran some water in that direction to see what would happen. This is where I am a little shocked and need some assistance. The water ran to one spot near the center of the window and then I heard a trickling noise. I moved a few leaves and found a hole the size of a golf ball or so. I dug at it with my fingers and it just crumbled away meaning it was much deeper and bigger. After digging and getting to the bottom I can now fit my arm into it. Furthermore, it goes to the very bottom of the metal guard that is supposed to keep things out of the window. I was able to slip my fingers right into the window area. So clearly, water is going straight to that spot and then flooding into the window. So, how do I go about fixing this? I figure if I just fill it in with dirt wont water saturate the dirt and then seep into the window? Should I install some sort of guard on the very outside of the deck so that water can't flow underneath it? I am sort of lost as to what to do here. Do I fill the hole with something? Do I install a guard of some sort outside the deck? Do I fill in the window and if so, how? So many questions! Thank you guys!

I have a house with a really low crawl space. I probed areas and there maybe 2 feet of clearance from standing on the top of the floor to the crawl space floor. - Digging out trenches will not likely be an option. - Digging a basement is not an option. Leaves me 2 options: 1) Removing the floors to water proof, insulate, plastic and fix floor sags (jacking). This option is going to be expensive and to do an service again like pipes, wires, ducts etc is going to be crazy to tear out flooring again. Not to mention all the floor joists (i think they are called) are probably almost done for business. 2) Could I literately take out the floors, concrete the ground, install a sub floor? Run heating and cooling ducts from top (use attic)? Theoretically I would have higher ceilings, I would also build a bathroom with stairs and 3 feet from floor so I can access piping and service it if needed. I understand I will need to call in a engineer to detect any load bearing walls. My floors sags, I have no room to work under the house and to install supports and water proofing is not going to happen in that space. So that leaves me the the million dollar question. Can I completely eliminate the crawl space all together? Tear out the floor, lay concrete and maybe tile my whole place? :D Just some info. The crawl space is maybe 1 foot off ground level. Seems pointless it exists. House is 36 x 24, single story. 24 x 24 is the front part and a 12 x 24 was added on. I think of it as a basement floor, they exist, I just never seen one as a main floor. Thanks for any input.