Lake Simcoe country is flat, low and full of clay, so standing water is a fact of life for a lot of properties in Keswick, Pefferlaw, Beaverton and Sunderland. The fix is almost always some combination of grading and a drain, and both are rental machine jobs.
Start with where the water is coming from
Walk the property during a rain. Water against the foundation is usually a grading problem. A soggy lawn that never dries is usually clay with nowhere to drain to. A wet corner is usually a low spot with no outlet. The fix follows the cause.
Fix 1: Grading
The ground should fall away from the house at least six inches over the first ten feet on every side. If it does not, the SVL75-3 track loader reshapes it in a day. Often that alone solves a wet basement.
Fix 2: A swale
A shallow, wide grassed ditch that carries surface water to a lower point or a ditch. Cheap, effective and easy to mow. Loader work.
Fix 3: A French drain
A trench with a perforated pipe in a bed of clear stone, wrapped in filter fabric so the clay does not clog it, sloped at least one percent, about one inch per eight feet, to a discharge point such as a ditch, a dry well or daylight on a slope. The Kubota U17 is the ideal trencher for this: narrow, light on the lawn, and it digs the eighteen to thirty inch trench quickly. Remember the drain needs somewhere to go; a French drain with no outlet is just a buried bathtub.
Fix 4: A dry well
Where there is no outlet, a dry well, a large stone-filled pit or a plastic chamber, stores runoff and lets it soak in slowly. Works in sand, works poorly in heavy clay. U17 or U35 depending on size.
Fix 5: Downspouts and sump discharge
Run them underground in solid pipe to a point well away from the house. It is the cheapest drainage improvement there is and a U17 trenches it in an hour.
Utility trenching
The same U17 trenches water lines, hydro to a shed or garage, and low voltage. Depth and bedding requirements come from the utility or the electrical code, and burying hydro is licensed electrician work. Ontario One Call locates are required by law before any of it and are free; allow five business days.
A note on clay and timing
Trenching in wet clay in April is miserable and the walls slump. If the job can wait until the ground firms up, the rental goes faster and the trench is cleaner. Nobody enters a trench deeper than four feet without sloping or shoring.
The U17 is $250 a day and $400 for a weekend, delivered. Call or text 905-251-2521 and describe the wet spot; we will tell you which fix and which machine.