Puddle in cellar

[WhirlwindHugs]

House we're considering buying - not our current house!

Obviously the cellar would need fixing as soon as possible, and we're not expecting it to be cheap - but can anyone recommend some really good reading around the matter? Google is throwing up lots of contradictory responses and would like to be prepared about the possible causes/costs etc before we do a survey.

Water will always find the easiest way u come out. Either the water is coming from a source inside the house or it is coming from the outside up through the floor or walls. . Sometimes you have to do exploratory work to find out.

Until you know what the cause is, you won't be able to work out the cost of fixing it.

It's possible to get the water analysed - if it contains, um, soap, it's from the drains; if it's chlorinated, it's from a waterpipe, if it contains leaf debris it's from the gutters; or it could be groundwater. My neighbour's cellar gets wet at high tide.

The water companies use labs who do this testing when they are working on leaks, I don't know how you'd arrange it otherwise, especially on a house you don't own. You should expect cellars to be damp, and you should assume that a proper fix will be expensive.