Basically you should do whatever it takes to get the water away from the house, starting with simple grading using a shovel. You may be able to use a french drain, though your site looks perhaps too flat to get the water to flow by gravity. If you can't find a way to get the water away from the house, you may have to put in a sump and sump pump (we have three) to pump the water away from the house during storms.

Good luck!

Thanks for answering. The area can't really be graded properly because it's only 5 or 6' deep, then hemmed in by the driveway and sidewalk. If I attempted to grade it, the area would be lower than the concrete, making even more water gather there.

I ended up digging some trenches and holes, then also taped a 6ml tarp to the house and over the bad area. We had a bad storm, and the water filled up the trenches. (Covered by the tarp, but the tarp just sunk into the trenches from the weight of the water.) I then pumped the water off the tarp.

A drainage company came, and said that a French drain would not work fast enough for my problem, and that I needed a trench and channel drain, listed second on this page. Which did make perfect sense...I have watched how long it takes water to seep into my clay soil. He would run a pipe out from the drain (buried) and daylight it far from the house.

I have another company coming out to get another opinion. I will also pull the siding off the front of that part of the house and have a rubber membrane added. The rain also runs down the side of the house, splashes on the horizontal part of the old driveway that sticks out a bit, and runs back into the house. (At least I think that is what is also happening.) Hmmm. Maybe just the rubber membrane would fix things.

The drainage in my neighborhood is bad everywhere - I am not the only one with problems.

Just a couple of comments/observations. The sump pump can also be required if the water table rises below the house.

A common entry point for the water to enter inside is between the perimeter of the concrete foundation wall and the concrete floor slab which is not joined to the wall. Sand inside along the edge of the wall/floor can indicate hydrostatic pressure/water entry.

Also drain tile from downpipe/gutters may be clogged and backing up if water coming from the roof is flooding the basement.

Thanks for the input. The gutters/downpipe are spotless...I have been religious about keeping them clean. I even blow out the downpipe and the draintile connected to it with my leaf blower :)

I will copy and paste the 'whole story' that I posted on another forum....a little repeat of my original post above, but with more info added.
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Hi, I hope someone can help. Some previous owner enclosed the garage to make an additional room. House is slab on grade, built in 1951. The room that used to be the garage is 5" lower than the rest of the house, and perfectly even with the grade. (more on that later.)

About 6 months ago, after a bad rain, I found water about 1/4" deep in the front portion of the room (where the garage door used to be). When I walked on that area, more water squooshed up from under the wood laminate floor. I ripped out the floor (moldy underneath), and cut the bottom of the wall out (drywall wet.)

There I could see that when they enclosed the garage, they built a little (3") cement curb, and the studwall is attached to that. The top of the little curb wasn't perfectly smooth, and no sealing was apparent - I could see daylight :(

I had someone seal that up with waterproof caulking. Then had a new laminate floor laid, with plastic sheeting underneath. (it's pink.) Before he laid the floor, he caulked along where the walls meet the floor. Then after laying the floor, he caulked in the expansion gap between the edge of the floor and the wall.

All was well until last week - another storm - another pool of water in the house. I can't imagine that the water gets 3" deep, enough to splash over the little cement curb, so maybe there are little gaps between where the little curb meets the slab?

Regarding the grade - I cannot slope it because it's hemmed in by the driveway and the sidewalk. here is a picture:
{{gwi:326897}}

Another storm was coming, so I dug a trench along the front of the leaking area, then another trench perpendicular to it that led to a deeper hole. Then I taped 6m tarp to the house. It worked - the water collected in the tarp/trenches. I pumped that off.

I had a drainage guy come out, telling him I needed a french drain. He took one look and said I needed a grated trench drain instead, sort of like this:

{{gwi:326898}}

He would attach underground piping and daylight it away from the house.
Then he suggested pulling the siding off and putting a rubber membrane on that area too. I don't know if he meant the paint on kind, like Eco-Flex, or an actual hunk of rubber.

There is also a smaller leak on the side of the house, where a sidewalk is right up against the house. I think the sidewalk is actually higher than the slab, so the water is probably seeping down where the sidewalk meets the house, and then under the sillplate. When I previously cut the drywall out there, it was obvious this is not the first time it leaked. The sillplate does not look so great - I guess it is dryrot? (why call it dry rot when it comes from being wet??)

SO....... does this sound like a good idea? The trench drain and the rubber membrane? The only thing I can think of to do about where the sidewalk meets the house it to caulk that joint really well. The other guy did that, but some of it came off.

One more thing --- the water that leaks into the house is perfectly clear. Is that weird? I would think it would be murky because it is coming off of dirt. The one explanation for that might be: There is still some of the old driveway attached past the little curb, you can see it outside of the house. Maybe rain is hitting that and then running back towards the curb/slab.

Another important point: The house I live in is a teardown - speculaters are buying them as they go up for sale and building $600K homes. I am not planning on living here forever, maybe another year or so, and since they'll be tearing it down anyway, I am not compelled to do really expensive fixes, like rebuilding this room. I won't have the disclosure issue to worry about like when you sell to an individual.
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Update since I posted that on the other forum:

Another landscape place came to bid, and only suggested to take off a few inches of soil from the existing bed. Wouldn't that just trap the water in the bed, forming a small lake? Shouldn't the water be somehow moved AWAY from the house?

In other news, the waterproofing guy is suggesting putting a rubber membrane on the problem area, plus digging a trench, filling it with rock and a sump pump. If that worked, I could skip the whole french drain, trench drain, etc.