American Dry Basement Systems

Fabulous I would recommend them!

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Overall, the estimation experience went well. The technician arrived on time, and he was very knowledgable. He drew up a map, and provided me with several prices, depending on how detailed I wanted the project to be. The price was a little high, so I decided not to go with their service, but I'm happy with their estimation process.

The salesman who gave us the estimate was extremely aggressive. He gave a very long presentation after briefly inspecting our basement, remaining in our home for several hours and departing after 9:00 p.m. (it may even have been 10 p.m.--this was 18 months ago now). He refused to take no--or even, "We'll get back to you"-- for an answer, and was insensitive to the fact that we had finished dinner, put our children to bed, and turned off most of the lights in the house during his interminable visit. In fact, I was in my pajamas and brushing my teeth when we finally got a price! Despite our decision not to use ADBS, this was only the beginning of our "relationship" with them. They have been calling us continually for about a year and a half. At first, we politely informed them that we had chosen to replace our roofing and siding before turning our resources to the basement; their response was to accuse us of being irresponsible homeowners! When they continued to call us, both at home and on our cell phone--including multiple times while we were on vacation--I asked to speak to the person in charge. Both my husband and I firmly and clearly explained that we would not be in need of ADBS' services anytime soon. Yet the calls persisted. Sometimes they came from a woman clearly reading from a script, other times they were made by a salesman. Many, many, MANY times we told them to please stop calling. I blocked their phone number, which seemed to work for a short while. Then the calls resumed. In fact, just a few weeks ago, they called, and my husband told them point blank that he was finishing up the work himself as they spoke. Yet, guess who called again today? Unbelievable. I let the caller give her little spiel, then told her politely that we had already completed the work--yet she interrupted me, talking over me about how they would send someone out to perform a 10-point inspection, and didn't we say we had a problem with efflorescence or something like that? Once again I told her that we had already completed the work, would not be needing their services, and to stop harassing us or I would call the DA's office and lodge a complaint. If they call again, that is exactly what I will do. This company seems to care nothing about actually satisfying customers. Others may have been happy with the work they completed, but based on the blatant lack of professionalism displayed by ADBS, I would NEVER hire them. I have told them as much, yet still they call. Do not invite these people into your life, or you will never get them out!

First of all, it took over a month to get an inspector to come to our house (they had to reschedule once, adding to the delay). When he did come, he was an hour late; to be fair, he did call to say he was going to be late. Then he gave us a 90-minute, highly choreographed, absolutely fear-based sales pitch. It was clear that the inspector did not understand the science behind what he was selling, and it was clear that he did not tailor his sales pitch to our actual situation. Instead, he talked about how he was going to dig up the ground surrounding our house and it was going to cost $56,000. But no! Instead he's going to install these trench drains and it was going to cost just $11,000. But no! These drains are terrible. Instead.... It just kept going. In the end, it took 90 minutes for a song and dance that could have been accomplished in 10 minutes of straight talk. The estimate still came in at over 3 times our next-highest bid, again reflecting that the estimate was not based on our house (but instead what he wanted to sell). We will not use this company, and I regret the Saturday afternoon I lost having to listen to this man go on and on. As a side note, although liscensed to work in Massachusetts, this Connecticut company did not appear to know about the new lead laws/certification requirement about to go into effect in Massachusetts.

After struggling for 4 years with recurring flooding in our living areas I was determined to take care of the problem once and for all. I had masons, roofers, structural enginieers, and even the City's Water & Sewer department out to evaluate the problem and identify solutions. ADBS was included in the cadre of contractors that paraded thorugh the house and heard the tale of woe. Hope seemed on the horizon when during their sales call I learned of the 'double' lifetime guarantee - which stated that there would be no water penetration from their work not only during my ownership of the property but the next owner as well. Wow! A guarantee against water! I was visited over a handfull of weeks by three sales inspectors. They all listened carefully and offered their strategic assessment of the best approaches to solving the problem. Each rep re-worked the proposal. The final proposal was presented twice: to me and then again to both the other owner in my Condo Association and me. When it came time to sign the contract, Rod worked to educate us and was quite willing to take into account the structural engineer's report we'd had conducted on the foundation. The installation took one day as promised and they really were dust free! We did not have to vacate our bedroom even for 1 night. They did great demolition, cutting our sheetrock at a uniform 2' from the bottom, which made replacing it much cheaper. They jackhammered out the foundation along the interior of the foundation, removed part of the concrete pad in the closet where they dug a pit and sunk a pump, added a special flow channel material and vapor barrier, excavated along the foundation perimiter, dug below a supporting wall to connect the drains with the pump system, added gravel and drains, and replaced the concrete with a special super concrete that continues to cure and fill any weak spots in the foundation. The foundation belongs to a Victorian brick bowfront rowhouse that was built in 1900. The foundation was rubble which would not accept the waterproofing treatment of cement. After completion of the work I kept the walls open to observe if any water would come in in any of the areas they had worked. Rod even came back around to take a look at the work after it was completed and answer a few questions I had before I set up for contractors to come and close the walls. He did a great job assessing the work that was complete and walking me thorugh the warranty if there should ever be any problem in the future. What a relief to know that we are done with water in our bedrooms!

My husband was pleased with the work. The work was tougher than anticipated. They did the work that was contracted to do. They were extremely clean and neat in doing the work. They were very professional.

The work went well, it took 3 full days, which was 1 day longer than they expected. They were very careful and neat both during and after the completion of the job. The system handles a large volume of ground water without a problem. The one thing I would advise is that everyone take in account the sales pitch these types of companies use. They try to sell you on technology of their systems, or patents, etc...That is a load of crap. These are basic systems using stock parts, there is no special technology involved. It's all labor, and therefore, total costs is very negotiable. We looked at 4 different companies to do this for us and we chose not the cheapest, but the company we thought would do the best job and not BS us along the way. ADBS did what they said they would and did it well. No complaints so far; the basement is dry and the worry during big storms is gone. I'm very happy about our decision.

They scheduled the work the day after Christmas and did the work in two days. It seams to have worked. I have recommended them.

THEY'RE PROFESSIONAL SO I EXPECT THEM TO COVER THE WHOLE BASEMENT, BUT THEY DIDN'T SO NOW THERE'S WATER IN ONE PART OF THE BASEMENT. THEY STILL HAVE MY 2500 DOLLARS, AND I HAVE A PROBLEM.