I don't know HOW this ever worked...but....

house in the northern mid-west US (so, snows in the winter, thunderstorms in summer). front porch is a ~6'x6' little brick patio (not covered). And underneath it is a small room in the basement. Which, ofc, leaks. When I say 'underneath' I mean you can stand in that little room and look up and you're seeing a poured concrete ceiling that is what the bricks were laid on. House was originally build in the 80s. It's been remodeled, but this looks original...cinderblock walls, etc.

I pulled all the dirt away from it, painted the sides with liquid rubber, put the dirt back and made sure it's graded away from the house, and then sprayed thompson's water seal on it. It's better, I think, but it still leaks considerably in heavy rains...you can see it just dripping right from the roof.

Is it possible to make the brick actually waterproof? Would a covered porch be sufficient, or do I need to take the brick off and put something waterproof under it, then re-lay them?

 

I'd imagine a covered porch would be effective otherwise you'd need to lift the bricks and waterproof under them. There would be no way to stop water from running down between them.

 

Covering the porch is probably the easiest solution. The brick is just a pretty veneer on top of the structure underneath. You would have to take off the bricks and somehow waterproof the roof (probably poured concrete) to your room then re-install the brick. Concrete commonly cracks over time so I assume there are some hairline cracks letting the water in or is the joint between concrete pours where the walls and ceiling meet.