My 75 year old house has a concrete foundation and brick walls on top of that.   In the two years we have been here there have been three or four episodes of water running on the floor from the west wall of the basement during a heavy rain.  The basement right now is paneled with vinyl tiles on the floor.  I keep the gutters in good working order and the house has two foot eves all around.  There is a two foot wide sidewalk adjacent to the house on the west side that is in good condition and graded away from the house.  So I’m assuming that the water is coming in the house when the ground outside becomes completely saturated and the water penetrates through weaknesses in the foundation. 

A little water on the floor is no problem now, but eventually I will re-finish the basement with drywall and carpet.  I would like to try to solve the water problem and then wait for a couple of good storms to assure myself it is solved before finishing it.  So my plan is to strip all the paneling out to expose the foundation walls.  Then run a hose on the ground in various spots adjacent to the wall to see if I can identify the leaks.

Are my assumptions and plans sound?  What should I do when I identify a water entry point?  Should I seal the foundation from the outside some how?  I plan to remove the sidewalk anyway at some point and replace with landscaping so I wouldn’t be oppossed to a huge digging job.