Will a Sump Pump Stop my Basement from Leaking?
Sump pumps are designed to ingest water and force them away to another via a discharge pipe (1.5 to 2 inches usually) to another location (usually out of a basement, elevator pit, and also commonly out of the bilge of a boat). The well they often reside in is designed to hold the pump and as a reservoir to collect the water for the pump to pump.
If a basement is leaking it is almost always doing so from under the floor, the walls or cove seam. This is the concrete seam where the wall and floor meet. By itself a sump pump will not drain this area. To drain the cove seam requires (most often) an interior drainage system that will guide the water using drainage pipes to the well so that the pump can pump the water out. Pumps themselves will not stop a wall or floor even 2 feet away from leaking.
In exterior drainage system sump pumps are only a part of the entire waterproofing design.