[Jarre]

So I'm not sure if it was from the adding of dirt in comparison to a housing exterior that wasn't designed to be below ground or what, but we used to get leaks all the time.

Since my dad had the cement work done, we haven't had problems, but you're saying that in a few years, they might resurface!?

Is there even a problem?
How can we check?

Is there a way to reinforce it from the inside? We haven't even done work on the basement - it's more or less a place we put all our junk. No carpeting, so wall paneling, no significant lighting.

Its extreemly difficult to say without doing a full face to face survey. instead I'll give you the 3 principles of basement walls.

structural - able to withstand the expansion and contraction of the ground and also the weight of the building above. The walls are usually reinforced as it has to take both compression and tensile forced. Concret is great in compression but crap in tension which is while reinforcement is added to strengthen it in tension.

Waterproofing - a basement should have a waterproof membrane. this can be in many forms, but mainly is a bitumen/pvc dense sheet or membrane that basically stops any passage of water through. Known as tanking this is teh only thing that stops water getting through.

Insulation - yes the ground can insulate, but the problem is you can get condensation when their is a difference between temperatures in the concrete. in basements you insualte the walls to keep the heat in the basement and prevent intersticial condensation from being formed within the concrete walls.

intersticial condensation is the point of where airborn water vapour gets cool enough to condese from a gas to a liquid. It can happen anywhere and is bad when it can happen inside the structure of a concrete wall.

So what your saying is they put cement on the walls and covered it up? The question i would ask is were the walls originally tanked (or waterproofed) or is this cement meant to be a waterproof layer (a method here in the Uk I am not familiar with)
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We're getting Season 4 on Sci Fi, Jarre. We're just a bit behind you guys with regard to where we are in the season.

which episode are you on? and don;t you think catherine tate (I hate her) the Dr's assistant is fecking anoying?