Safeguard Waterproofing - Ram Jack Illinois

AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!! Here is a list so you can read everything we’ve been through with this company. Spent over $11,000 in 2020 to have interior drain tile and a landing drain connected to a new sump pump Had water enter through the doorway by the drain 3 times since 2020, with the most water coming inside September of 2022 Called Safeguard in September 2022. Safeguard refused to even check the system, sent us a quote for $1,800 more work to “fix us up” without even checking anything on our property Had a 3rd party company out to inspect the drain that Safeguard refused to check. Discovered they breached our contract and connected the drain to village stormwater tiling without our consent or the consent of the village. Have never received as much as an apology. Instead, Safeguard blamed us saying the drain was clogged with leaves, and that is why we flooded. This was disproved by Roto-Rooter. Update as of 3/3/2023 AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!! Here is a list so you can read everything we’ve been through with this company. Spent over $10,800 in 2020 to have interior drain tile and a landing drain connected to a new sump pump. Had water enter through the doorway by the drain 3 times since 2020, with the most water coming inside September of 2022. Called Safeguard in September 2022. Safeguard refused to even check the system, sent us a quote for $1,800 more work to “fix us up” without even checking anything on our property. Had a 3rd party company out to inspect the drain that Safeguard refused to check. Discovered they breached our contract and connected the drain to village stormwater tiling without our consent or the consent of the village. Have never received as much as an apology. Instead, Safeguard blamed us saying the drain was clogged with leaves, and that is why we flooded. This was disproved by Roto-Rooter. The company refused to fix anything and did not respond to requests until I submitted a formal complaint on the BBB website exposing the breach of contract Have spent months (5) trying to come to an agreement we are comfortable with in order to have them out to fix the work. They do say they will repair the work for free, BUT… They tried to get us to waive their liability should the village fine us for the stormwater connection. There will be NO WARRANTY of this free work. So, if the concrete starts breaking a few months after the fix, they’re not liable. They claim they did not connect the drain incorrectly, and they are doing this fix to appease us (even though I have my contact that clearly states what was to be done, and a signed letter from the president stating that they did in fact do something else). As a result, we asked for a simple 1 year work and materials warranty just to ease our fears about something breaking in the future. Their response- WE WILL NOT ALTER THIS CONTRACT. Bob, John and Karen have been nothing but awful to work with. They are argumentative at best. The amount of times sarcasm and ALL CAPS have been used in emails by Karen, as well as the amount of times my husband has been screamed at over the phone or in person by Bob and John are immeasurable. As soon as you write them a check and they finish the work, they’re done. Even if they blatantly breach your contract (like with us), or the work is faulty, I believe they will not fix or stand by anything. They claim they have one of the strongest warranties in the business- I assure you this is a lie. If they do work and it never breaks, consider yourself lucky, because if something goes wrong they will not help you in any way shape or form to solve the problem, in my opinion. Instead, they will blame you as the customer and ignore you until you become too loud to ignore. Do yourself a favor, spend a little bit more money and go somewhere else that actually backs up their work and treats their consumers well. This is not that place. RUN AWAY. The company refused to fix anything and did not respond to requests until I submitted a formal complaint on the BBB website exposing the breach of contract Have spent months (5) trying to come to an agreement we are comfortable with in order to have them out to fix the work They do say they will repair the work for free, BUT… They tried to get us to waive their liability should the village fine us for the stormwater connection There will be NO WARRANTY of this free work. So, if the concrete starts breaking a few months after the fix, they’re not liable They claim they did not connect the drain incorrectly, and they are doing this fix to appease us (even though I have my contact that clearly states what was to be done, and a signed letter from the president stating that they did in fact do something else) As a result, we asked for a simple 1 year work and materials warranty just to ease our fears about something breaking in the future. Their response- WE WILL NOT ALTER THIS CONTRACT Bob, John and Karen have been nothing but awful to work with. They are argumentative at best. The amount of times sarcasm and ALL CAPS have been used in emails by Karen, as well as the amount of times my husband has been screamed at over the phone or in person by Bob and John are immeasurable. As soon as you write them a check and they finish the work, they’re done. Even if they blatantly breach your contract (like with us), or the work is faulty, they will not fix or stand by anything. They claim they have one of the strongest warranties in the business- I assure you this is a lie. If they do work and it never breaks, consider yourself lucky, because if something goes wrong they will not help you in any way shape or form to solve the problem. Instead, they will blame you as the customer and ignore you until you become too loud to ignore. Do yourself a favor, spend a little bit more money and go somewhere else that actually backs up their work and treats their consumers well. This is not that place. RUN AWAY.

There was a cave-in at one location outside the foundation where they had put their equipment, and they came quickly to repair it. They did not clean up very well after themselves for the interior work, and they left cracked tile. They have not come back to look at the extra cracks.

the porch was raised approximately 2", which is fine. I was also led to believe the gap between the porch and the home which had developed as a result of the porch settling would be closed as the porch was raised (and rotated back toward the house). The gap was not closed, which was my primary reason for contracting the work. While I have to believe that the porch is now completely stable based on the helical piers, the aesthetics were not improved. Furthermore, when I returned home, the gap had now been filled with a caulk (about 2" wide) across the entire length of my porch. Unfortunately, whoever put applied the caulk did an extremely poor job. After a $9000 job, I now have to have someone else come out to meticulously remove the caulk and reapply in it in congruent and professional manner. When I questioned John about this, he said "Well, caulking is not our forte'". If it is not their forte, why did they do this? I did not ask him to do it nor was it a part of our agreement. What was further irritating, after they completed the job at approximately 4pm on a Tuesday, I rec'd a call at 8am Wednesday morning demanding payment of the balance of the bill. When I let the admin know that I was about ready to get in a cab to the airport, she got nasty and said "The Contract states that full payment is due upon completion!". While that is technically true, it wasn't more than 16 hours after the fact. Understandably, this left a bad taste in my mouth and feel that the professionalism and courtesy that drew me to RamJack was dissolved as soon as $$ was in the picture. For the record, I provided her my credit card number and paid them during the phone call. In the end, I'm not sure whether another firm would have 'closed the gap' or not, but the point is that John all-but-promised me that it would be closed. I of course didn't anticipate it being flush with the house once more, but certainly expected some progress and I would not have expected a botched caulk job to cover it up. I am neutral on my rating, but the test of time will determine whether they stabilized the porch.

Came out promptly and took a few weeks for an estimate. The estimate given was not what I asked them to quote. It took another few weeks of phone calls and emails to get a response back. In the end, they never ended up giving me the quote I requested. Therefore, this job was given to another company

Their solution fixed the problem and was much cheaper than other alternatives

We had been having problems with leaks in our sunken living room for quite a while. The leaks started last year and we had PermaSeal come out and do a "repair" which ended up not working. (The amount of water was reduced, but it still kept coming in, even after PermaSeal did a wrap seal of our foundation.) Frustrated, especially after PermaSeal did not guarantee their last job and wanted to charge us 1000s of dollars for a redo, we consulted with our neighbor across the street who had a similar problem that arose right when ours did. They said Safeguard had IDd and fixed their leak issue (same spot as ours) for a third of what PermaSeal charged, so we called Safeguard. Phil from Safeguard came out very promptly (actually early! He asked permission to come a full 2 hours early if it was convenient for me, and I said yes). He looked at the area where we suspected the leak occurred and commented that PermaSeal (his former employer!) had done a poor job. He also remarked that the leak might not even be a foundation leak, but rather an above-grade leak like a mortar problem or chimney problem that was then dripping down behind the drywall. He conducted a series of tests using water from our hose to see where water might seep in depending on where the water was pointed. He did a "flood" test of the ground near the foundation---no leak. Then he pointed to some spots where there was missing caulk on our chimney seams, and said that the water could be getting in there instead. He had me go inside and look inside the fireplace while he trained the hose on these side seams, and BINGO! That's where the water was getting in. He found the exact leak location when PermaSeal could not (they just "guessed") Phil then said, "Well, we don't fix that since it's above-grade, so I recommend you contact a siding or chimney company to make those repairs. I'm not going to sell you something that won't fix the real problem just to make my commission." Phil spent nearly 2 hours identifying the true source of our water problem, even when it would not benefit him or his company. Very honest and decent guy, and we WILL use this company when we do have a foundation problem. Great!

Safeguard gave me a quote, told me it will take two days for the work, took my deposit and locked in a date. Few days before the date they called and told me that the work could be done in 1 day. The day of the job they came out and started doing the work then 1 hr in, they took off saying the job was misquoted. Unreliable! Took over 3 weeks to get my deposit back.

Phil was great, professional and reliable; provided his cell phone just in case any questions came up. Also wanted to make sure he understood the job so came back for second visit to ensure alignment. Great customer service and quality of work, no need to look further. No pressure sales pitch and understood what we wanted and injected opinion based on experience. Job well done. UPDATE: following the winter we turned on our sprinkler system and had a lead where the drainage pipe goes, after removing the rocks I noticed that the sprinkler pipe was bent *probably to fit the drainage under the bent. The bent was so bad that it disconnected that sprinkler pipe from main connection underground and had a hole due to the bend. I am disappointed that not only this was not communicated during install but was not fixed *it is right above the drainage pipe covered by gravel was installed and the soil that was put back on the side of the house is higher then the "normal" ground.

It was suggested by another trusted service provider that I call Ram Jack for my structural repair work. They charged me $250 to provide the estimate for services needed (support a load-bearing post and weld repairs underneath to tie it to a structural beam and then weld in beam web stiffeners), which seemed fine as I was planning on using them and the $250 gets credited to the cost of the work to be done. The estimator spent 15 minutes looking at the repair site and then we discussed what needed to be done for another 10 minutes or so. I waited a few days and ultimately needed to chase him down for the estimate. The price was reasonable and, based on the recommendation, I engaged them to do the work. The welder arrived promptly on the scheduled day (a day I took off of work), along with the person that estimated the job. I was shocked when the welder asked ME what HE was supposed to be doing when he looked at the repair site, especially since I had provided a drawing by my structural engineer to the estimator. The welder indicated he hadn't seen the drawing until that moment. After looking at the repair, the welder indicated that he was not prepared to do the work as he did not have adequate support for the post to safely do what was drawn up. The estimator has not responded to me ever since a phone call indicating that they were working on a solution (the day after the original appointment). I have tried other routes to try to get the work done, but the company is now unresponsive. At this point, I've paid $250 for roughly 30 minutes of an estimators time (this is over 1/3 the total cost of the repair, by the way). I have requested a refund, since they have not performed under the contract. I have yet to hear back from them, let alone see my money again. I might understand keeping my money if I cancelled on them, but I have been waiting for them to do the work and no one responds. This is no way to do business.

It went fine. They did a nice job. I got them off Angie’s List. It was the best price.

Job completed in 2 days. Over 2 month wait from time contract signed; but other providers were almost as long and were booked solid due to many request for foundation repair due to dry summers. Technician showed up on time for our initial consultantion/ appointment and was very knowledgable. Signed contract same day to get on the job list and have repair done before end of summer. Would use them again. Only company with warranty that will transfer to new owner that I talked with.

They are not so great. They did a lot of work to find out the problem with water level but could not find a solution for it. Eventually, I found out what was causing it. They also installed a new sump pump and left without plugging it in. They could pay much more attention to detail.

I would not recommend this company if you have a finished basement. The workmen were careless and caused damage to the room that was not discussed during the meeting with the salesman. They put duct tape on newly painted walls causing the paint to be removed with the tape. They were climbing in and out of a window and caused damage to the window ledge. Quarter sized holes were made in the drywall at all levels of the walls and a chunk of my staircase was gouged out. In total it cost $250 to repair. The company acknowledged that it was neglectful on the workers part but would only reimburse $125. Apparently they felt that we were partially responsible for the damage...I guess we were in that we hired them!

It was pulling teeth to get a quote from the salesman. He said he would have it to me within a week, no phone call, no contact and I get a garbled estimate in the mail two weeks later after three phone calls to their customer service.

The work was performed in cold weather (6 degrees above zero). The crew was extremely hard working, neat and efficient. All work from making holes in the concrete and digging in the soil outside through removing debris was clean and neat. The work was completed faster than expected and the site was cleaned up beautifully. They did a great job!!!

I was very happy with the experience. The work looks nicely done and haven't had any problems since. They epoxied a number of large cracks in my basement and a ton of tie-rods that were leaking. They even came back and did some follow-up work after that was beyond the scope of the initial work. I would definitely use them again and did an extensive search prior to hiring them with a number of viable options.

Friendly helpful assessor, on time. Team were great. And they came back promptly when we had a second separate issue and provided advice.

No reply to first Angie's List Message on 10/5/13 but 1 day response to second Message on 10/9/13. Appointment scheduled for free estimate. Timely arrival. Nice guy. Unfortunately they don't handle well pumps. I would use them again for other work.

But I have not used them yet, they had just quoted. Actually I liked the guy he was nice, but a little too much. He was very confident.

I did have them come out. We had cracks in the drywall by our door and settling. They were real nice and he did spend some time here. But he was going to do more than I wanted him to do. He was a nice guy though. He gave me a quote. He was nice over the phone and everything. It was more than I planned on spending. He was out here pretty soon. He was here on time. He was professional. He went around the house and told me what he was going to do.

I hired him because they are the only company that would fix it from the outside and they are a structural engineering company. They were professional, prompt and returned my calls. Communication has been fine, you call them, they call you back and give you the information that you need.

In April 2013, we wake up at 5am to water pouring in the basement and the sump pump not working again. We call the service and we are told they will pass this along. So at 8a.m we get a call and are told they will get there soon. All the time water is pouring in - at 12:30 they show up and we have 2 ft of water in our basement. They pump it out, replace the pump (which again is bad) and leave us to clean up the basement and throw away all the things that are damaged. The lifetime warrenty I guess is just to continue pumping the water out and replacing bad pumps. THIS HASN'T EVEN BEEN TWO YEARS. SAVE YOUR MONEY AND GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!

I selected Safeguard after getting bids from two other companies, and I'm glad I did. Everyone I interacted with - from the field representative to the technicians to the office staff - was professional, friendly, and helpful. I had three foundation cracks and a pretty weak secondary sump pump that I decided to replace. The work was done quickly and skillfully. A few weeks after the job was completed, the office called me as a courtesy follow-up to ensure my satisfaction, and to see if there were any issues or questions I had. I mentioned that I found what appeared to be another very subtle crack that was missed at the time of the first estimate. I also mentioned that I was having an issue with my primary pump. Later that night I spoke with a technician that went out of his way to help diagnose the primary pump issue. The next morning, the field representative was back at my house to look at this other crack and confirmed what I suspected. A few days later, the crew was back and repaired the final crack as well as replaced my primary pump. Turns out my primary pump had bitten the dust. I had used an Angie's list coupon on the first job, and after talking to Safeguard, they agreed to apply that coupon to the second job as well since they missed that last crack. In the end, no harm done, and they went above and beyond to make sure that all work was complete, and that I was a satisfied customer. I would recommend Safeguard for foundation repair, although I hope I don't need any further foundation work for a while! - Steve

Overall it was an expensive but successful experience.

They honored the warranty, which I believe was at least 10 years, and found some new problems in the home that were unrelated to the original work. They were easy to work with, took their time to study the problem, and cleaned up what was a huge mountain of dirt. They even replaced one of our rusting window wells at no charge!