U.S. Waterproofing

James repaired the original crack that the work was estimated for, cleaned out my window well, and repaired a couple of other cracks.

- Unbelievably poor customer service. - Never followed-up with a written proposal. - Failed to respond to repeated phone messages and emails to the sales rep and owner. I'm absolutely astounded by the lack of follow-through by the team at US Waterproofing. In early July, I scheduled an appointment with US Waterproofing to take a look at the foundation of my home. Two of the poured-concrete foundation walls are bowing inwards and contain cracks from which water is entering the basement. I scheduled the appointment online, received a confirmation email, and an "advisor" for US Waterproofing appeared promptly on the date and time as scheduled. He spent an hour or so surveying the foundation walls and stated that he would follow-up with a written proposal that he would email to me within 7 business days. 12 business days passed and I heard nothing. I emailed him asking for the status of the proposal. Another 4 business days passed with no response. I emailed him yet again seeking a response. He responded and stated that he required an additional visit to finalize numbers and that a structural engineer would be needed to properly assess the issue. Hmmm...strange, because why would you send out a person to bid on a job who is not qualified to properly assess the condition of my home? Kind of a waste of my time. But, I gave him the benefit of the doubt (given the good reputation of the company) and called him to schedule an appointment to have a structural engineer come out to the house. He told me that the office would call to schedule later that day or the next day. To his credit, he emailed me 4 days later to confirm that the office had called. They hadn't and I let him know that. I sent a follow-up email 5 days later looking for a response. I never heard from US Waterproofing again (and that was 30+ days ago). It seems that they do not want my business. In the emails exchanges with the advisor, I copied the owner of US Waterproofing and the general sales email mailbox because, again, I wanted to give US Waterproofing the benefit of the doubt thinking that the advisor was solely to blame for the lack of communication. But, I never heard anything from the owner or a member of the sales team either. If I were you and was considering laying down a substantial amount of money to solve a leaking foundation problem and needed to rely on the goodwill and guarantee/warranty of the company performing the work, I would carefully re-consider awarding the job to US Waterproofing - an organization that has proven to me that the customer (or, in my case, the prospective customer) does not come first. Just think how responsive US Waterproofing might be when you called them within the warranty period when water seepage may reappear from one of their repairs and you're looking to them to make good on their warranty. That's not a gamble I'd be willing to take.

US Waterproofing has lost me as a customer. First, a little history. I have used this company twice in the past to repair cracks in my house's foundation. The work was, for the most part, satisfactory. I have had them out twice to repair poorly poured concrete that has heaved out of the sidewalk where foundation repairs were made. They have had to fix the same problem twice - no big deal as their work is warrantied. They missed some cracks on first inspection so our basement still took on water in Why have they lost me and my referrals? This spring, my basement again took on water after a heavy rain. Having worked with US Waterproofing in the past, I figured I'd just have them come in and see if they could diagnose the problem. I made the appointment for the earliest date which was almost 2 months out. Two days before the date, they called and left me a confirmation message. One day before, the sent me a confirmation email. On the day of the appointment, I took half a day off of work to wait at home during their 2-hour window. 20 minutes before the window was to expire, I called to make sure they were still coming. I was told by an operator that they would contact the dispatcher and have them send me an update. No update came. When the window of time had come and gone, I called again to find out if they were planning on coming late. They seemed surprised that no one had contacted me and transferred me to a dispatcher. The dispatcher said "you're in the system but you're not really in the system. Something funky happened." He then asked if I wanted to reschedule. At that point, I was incredulous. I had taken half a day, wasted my time and they were not the least bit apologetic. I didn't want to reschedule but I did want them to come out and fix the heaving cement that had again come out of the sidewalk - he transferred me to their warranty department. I called back to see if I could talk to a manager or owner about the attitude of the dispatcher as I couldn't figure out why he was annoyed with me when it was their problem the made me kill half a vacation day. They transferred me back to the same guy - He answered "This is Lance again" in an annoyed tone. They had obviously told him it was me again. He said "look, all I can do is reschedule. They system messed up." So, here is what he could have done to save this customer and avoid this negative review. 1. Apologize. Realize the inconvenience to a regular customer and try to find a solution. 2. Offer an appointment at my convenience - not put me back into the system that messed up to begin with. 3. And this isn't even necessary if the other two are done - offer a discount on services. 4. Did I say apologize? Yeah, that never happened once.

Overall I gave this company a D which is an average of D for adviser/customer service and C- for the actual work done. Let's start with the adviser. We was helpful, friendly and responsive up until after our first appointment. Once the check was sent, communication slowed and at one point stopped. I was slightly annoyed by being ignored by our adviser, but the deposit was sent I hope trusted in the reviews I had heard/read about the company and figured the work would be good. I knew what date the appointment was, but no idea what time. It was not listed on the appointment reminder card and when I called customer service at 4:45pm the day before I got bounced around from customer service rep to the next one until it was after 5pm and no one was required to answer my question. I began calling again the next day and finally talked to Andy who said it has been standard practice for the customer to call the day of the appt to find out the time. It would have been nice if that was printed on the postcard or if one of the reps I did talk to had simply mentioned that, instead of saying, "Let me transfer you to scheduling". Andy was nice, calmed me down and assured me that his men would call 30 minutes before they got there. And they did. They were right on time. Andy said if I ever needed another adviser he promised I wouldn't have Chris. I was content. The digging began and the work was done. My landscaping stones were all messed up and my hastas were not exactly placed back the way I wanted them, but it was all stuff that I could handle. Until I realized our electrical was messed up because of all of the digging. I believe the crew knew they hit something because they turned off the electrical in the entire house and shortly later turned in back on. I wondered why, but didn't spend too much time thinking about it. Until I couldn't open our garage doors and none of our motion lights worked, then I knew they hit something and said nothing. So there is a live wire somewhere in our grass. I'll be sure to tell my 2 year old not to dig over there... I contacted Andy who said they would pay for the repairs, but in the meantime I am trying to find someone to play detective and figure out what happened. And dealing with manually lifting my garage doors every time I need to get in is no picnic. Also in my email to Andy, I mentioned that I am still having seepage in my basement and that I need to schedule an appointment with another adviser. I got no response. Just like Chris, my previous adviser. So I emailed again 6 days later. Still waiting. Update: I did get a call back and someone came out to inspect the work that was done. A temporary fix was suggested that I opted not to get. Instead a more extensive job needs to be done to fix the problem...a job that should have been done in the first place and basically means we wasted $2,500 Worth mentioning...during one of my phone calls I mentioned I was going to write a review, I was told there are so many good reviews of the company, that one bad review won't hurt.

At this time, I have not decided on moving forward with the quoted work so I can't really rate the finished product. Still deciding on on which route to take. I will say that their response time from initial contact to follow-up calls & emails is great. Their scheduling option through the website is good in that you pick the date based on what's open. It allows you to plan ahead. Their estimator, Bob, was very friendly and walked me through the options and pricing. Their follows-up are good.

The rep looked around inside and out, then gave a solution for slight seepeage the I though was way too overboard for the amount of seepage we get only when it rains heavy. H e gave the cost, then asked if we wanted to go with it and when we hesitated he asked why we didn't want todo it. This is toopushy for me.

Wonderful company. Came over and told me not to spend my money with them but instead gave me a home tip on how to protect my foundation myself. Spent at least 15 minutes walking me through the steps. Incredibly professional and generous with their time.

From the initial visit by Mike for the extensions quote, to the follow up from Ron and Matt, I was never pressured. The work was completed quickly, professionally, and I was satisfied with the cost. I would recommend them.

The job in question involved the work listed above, and was performed in July, 2013. We started having issues the following winter. During a rainstorm, we found that the sump pump outlet pipe had opened at a joint inside the basement, and was spraying water all over our basement area. We called US Waterproofing?s warrantee department, and they sent out a technician the next day. He tightened the joint, but told us that the job had not been done properly ? there should not have been a joint there. They had connected the new sump pump outlet pipe to the existing outlet pipe where it went through the exterior wall of the house. The technician said that they should have put in a new pipe all the way to the outside of the house, with no joint. We called back to the warrantee department, telling them what the technician had said, and they re-did the outlet pipe in the spring. Later in the spring, during heavy rains, we experienced the window wells (whose liners and covers they had replaced) filling with water and overflowing into the basement. We had not had this problem in the past. US Waterproofing sent out a project manager, who suggested that the problem was clogged gutters. However, event after cleaning the gutters, we experienced water coming in through the window wells after a rainfall of less than one inch. We called again, and they sent out the salesman (same one from the previous year), who proposed adding window well drains to the two wells for a cost of approximately $6000, more than we had paid for all of the previous work. He insisted that the new issue was not a result of the previous work, but he did note that at least one of the new window well liners was not properly attached to the foundation. The salesman subsequently sent us a link to an article about window wells on US Waterproofing?s web site, and I noted that the article mentioned that "Properly designed and built window wells will have a drain that carries rainwater to interior or exterior drain tile or out to daylight to prevent the window well from flooding." When I asked the salesman why he had not recommended installing window well drains last year, I got no reply. We've had other contractors propose adding drains to the window wells for considerably less cost. I had received an email from ?CustomerExperience@uswaterproofing.org? signed by the company owner and president asking if I had any questions, praises or complaints. I responded that I had some issues that I would like to discuss, gave my phone number and asked for a call back. I never heard back from them. We have used US Waterproofing numerous times for different repairs over a period of approximately 35 years, and in the past we had always felt that they did a good job at a reasonable price. However, after our latest experience with them, I would not ever call on them again or recommend them to others.

Gary, the salesperson is a personable man, and he is disarming in his charming approach; he was training a young man who was also very polite and unassuming. They were on time, and nice to our family dog. That, unfortunately, is where the compliments end. The estimate was thorough, in that no part of her house was exempt from blame for the water. Downspouts, rain barrel, flooring, grading, landscaping, brick work? all were contributors as major problems. A rain barrel caused 6" of water in a 600+ square foot crawlspace?! I am surprised that he didn't suggest that the home was haunted, and that malevolent spirits were diverting water into the home. He didn?t just overwhelm her in an already stressful situation; he frightened a seventy year old woman. Gary described her home as the ?low part? of the neighborhood, where she would get the all of the water from the surrounding homes. In the four decades that she has owned the home, the house has never, ever flooded before, even when the street itself flooded. Hers is the highest point of the street for blocks around. I know a little about the subject, and I know a lot about the home. The recommendations weren?t just impossible to achieve, they were largely unnecessary. Gary was trying to scare my mother into compliance with anything he suggested. Gary used the auto sales technique of high pressure by asking her for an immediate deposit, telling her that any discount would "disappear" if she did not pay on the spot. That was a huge red flag to us. Miraculously, after I suggested that she pursue other options, he ?found a way? to allow her time to consider it. I simply don?t, and won?t, believe that their salesmen don?t have that necessary level of flexibility in the field. It was a maneuver that belied his opinion that she was both malleable and vulnerable, and it made them look very shady. After looking at the proposal he left with her, he hadn?t detailed any portion of his estimate by cost. I would never take such an estimate myself without more detail, and I suggested that she request the breakdown that explained such an exorbitant proposal. U.S. Waterproofing has a reputation for being very expensive, but I never expected that price for the work he recommended. When she didn?t receive the breakdown, she took the advice of everyone she spoke with, and declined the work. Her friends at daily mass, (including the retired owner of a plumbing company), her family, even her contractor told her that this was a play being made on her. US Waterproofing left her feeling insulted, manipulated, and with the opinion that their company is willing to make money on the backs of widows in bad situations. She received a call back from the salesperson who offered a discount, thinking that the hesitation was simply financial hardship, but at that point she begged off. I have suggested that she continue with searching for a reputable company to do the work for her, but at this point she is very concerned that someone else will try to take advantage of her. She won?t listen to an estimate unless there is a younger man with her, protecting her from what she is concerned will be a scam. It is shameful that this experience took that independent confidence from her, and she is angry about it. She is also sharing it with everyone she can find, to warn them of the experience. We have had work from this company before, (which didn't do what it was intended to do), and they seem incapable of fixing that issue without (literally) taking the side of the home out. I shared this, (almost verbatim), in an email with the company owner, Matt Stock a few days after the estimate. A month later, still no response. I sent another email, questioning that there was no response, and still none. A professional response would have at least been polite and "oh, too bad you didn't like the estimate, good luck to you." They ignored it. Amazingly unprofessional, (and the reason that they earned a "D" rating on the punctuality scale).

I would and will recommend US Waterproofing to others in my neighborhood. I received four quotes for the job. US Waterproofing did not give the lowest absolute quote, but if you adjust it for the value, it was definitely the lowest. Another quote was lower, but they wanted to cut corners like doing things against city codes. Mr. Jerry Stock came for my quote. He was right on time and gave me a heads-up when he was on his way to meet me (this is great if you're trying to work--two of the other firms were over one hour late for the quote appointments). The next day, Mr. Stock called and wanted to make sure that I understood the quote and work to be done. I had a few questions, and he wanted to come by for a second visit which was very helpful. One thing that separated US Waterproofing from the others was the professionalism which started with Mr. Stock's quote. His quote was very detailed, easy to understand and included a clear diagram of the proposed job. US Waterproofing really worked with my schedule and desire to get started as soon as possible, even though their schedule was full due to Chicago-land's rainfall in the spring. They did a walk-through with me two days prior to the date of work. I really appreciated this. Mr. Stock came with his engineering specialist, Mr. Mike Torres. Mr. Torres went through all little details of the job with me, including a couple of excellent new suggestions. This walk-through was really helpful. The crew led by Mr. Angel showed up on time and was also very professional. I walked through the job site twice and they stopped their work to see if I had any questions. Very courteous crew. One thing I really appreciate is they left the job site in good shape ie not a mess. This is messy work too, jackhammers, breaking concrete, etc. The job was finished as planned, on-time. Then, US Waterproofing really proved why they're the best. Less than a week later, Chicago received the 'rain of the century'. Mr. Stock called me proactively while Mr. Torres emailed me and asked if we were 'dry'. I told them all was dry, but I had a few questions. Mr. Stock came out that day even though they were clearly busy because of the huge rainfall. I would and will recommend US Waterproofing to others in my neighborhood. This is an example of a classy, professional small business. These are expensive projects US Waterproofing is doing, and they are there to walk you through it and put your mind at ease.

We bought a home a few years ago. The owners said that they installed drain tile in the basement. So we were unpleasantly surprised to go down to the basement one morning to find several square feet of standing water (1 - 2 inches deep) in different areas of the basement. The previous owners had left us the paperwork from the installation of their drain tile, which showed that US Waterproofing had done the work. So we called them. We were pleasantly surprised to hear that they were more than willing to stand by their work, and they sent a representative to visit us within a few days to take a look. From the inspector, we learned that the previous owners had installed drain tile only in one corner of the basement (serves us right for not looking at that more carefully). The US Waterproofing representative agreed that an area of damp floor in the basement was covered by their guarantee and that they would fix it by applying another coat of sealant. I want to again point out that they did the work for a previous owner but honored the work for us. The representative also pointed out that 90% of the water problem we were experiencing was due to water appearing in areas of the basement that they had not worked on, and due to water from that area flowing down into the area where they did the work. The representative meticulously demonstrated to us why it was clear this was the case and, yes, it was clear. The representative offered a few ideas for how the problem could be fixed. The most expensive--but also the one that he said they could guarantee 100%--was to dig a trench and install drain tile. It was a big price tag but water in the basement is a huge problem. With such a big price tag, we decided to call two other companies to get second opinions. They confirmed everything that US Waterproofing said (including which part was due to their work and which part was not). They also said they could install drain tile for us, and their estimates were within 10% of US Waterproofing. Since we already knew that US Waterproofing stands by their work we decided to go with them. It took us almost a year to save for the project, during which time we experienced some more water in the basement (sometimes a couple inches worse than before) but we finally scheduled it. (The reason we're giving them a 'B' for pricing is that we know the price is 'good' compared to other firms--in other words, about the same. But hey, when it's a good company, I'm not sure you can also expect it will be less expensive than the norm..) The US Waterproofing crew came to do the work. They arrived on time, and man they worked hard! As you might know, installing drain tile requires jackhammering a narrow trench around the perimeter of the basement, hauling all the cement pieces and soil out of the basement and then installing the system. They did their work efficiently, they did it with a minimum of mess (amazing given how much stuff they were pulling out of the basement), and they finished as planned on time. We decided to wait a full year before giving this review. During the past year, we had some of the same kinds of heavy rains we experienced in the previous year. Not a drop of water in the basement. We also had a winter that came close to beating the record for the highest amount of snowfall ever, and much of it melted within a week or so. We held our breath and experienced no water. Last night there was a huge rainstorm. Water was rushing out of our gutters like a firehose and there was a flash flood in our street--we had to move our cars because the water level in the street was so high that water was flowing into the car doors. Again, the US Waterproofing system held up.

We found their contact information on Angie's List. They completed the job about 2 weeks ago. There was one part of the process where there was one guy who kind of dropped the ball and I kind of had to chase him on the phone. It was about a week and half were I was waiting for this guy to email me the description of work and the verification of their insurance so that I could get it to the neighbor. The work was done and in a timely fashion. The assessments were done and they were incredibly professional. They had a better option for us than other waterproofing companies.

I noticed that our front door was sticking and hard to open, then it would not open at all. Then we noticed cracks on the wall coming from the top frame of the door, cracks on the wall in the hall and cracks on our foundation outside. There were also cracks forming on our front stoop and on the brick in front of the house. I had two other companies give me an estimate and wanted a third because of the amount of money they were saying it would cost. I was told that my foundation was sinking and that I would need piers installed in various locations around the house to raise and stabilize it. All three companies were in agreement on what needed to be done with slight variations of where the piers should be placed. One of the companies was rejected because his price was much higher than the other two. The other company's cost was just above USW, however he did not do concrete work. So, anywhere concrete was removed to place a pier, would then have to have concrete reinstalled by a separate company for an additional cost. USW is able to reinstall the concrete were necessary. Their cost, which was the lowest of the three, also included a new garage floor, which was in bad shape and cracking. Several people eventually came out to inspect and prepare the engineering drawings. I was told that they should have the permit back from the village and would probably be able to start the middle of April. Around the middle of April I contacted USW and was told that the permit had not yet been received. On April 30 I called again and was told the same thing. I then called the village office and was told that the permit could not be issued yet because USW did not have current registration in the village to perform any work. I contacted USW and informed them of this. I got a call back the next day from USW informing me that there was miscommunication with the village and that everything got straightened out. They should have the permit back by next Tuesday (May 6) and then I would be contacted by the scheduler. I called the village on May 7 to find out if the permit had been issued and they told me that it had. I then called USW to schedule my work after informing them that they did have the permits in their office. The crew started on Tuesday, May 27 at 8 am and worked until 4. Throughout the period that the crew was working on my house they were very professional. They were hard workers - only took an hour for lunch every day and it did not look like they really took any breaks. They seemed to know what they were doing and went about their job. They worked all day Tuesday, Wednesday and most of Thursday. As they left each day they would let me know they were done for the day. On Friday no one showed up at the usual 8 am time. A little later I called and they informed me they would be there at 10:30 that day. I think they should have called and informed me of the later time start as I could have ran some errands before they got there that day. They returned on the following Tuesday and finished the job. Only time will tell if they did a good job or not. They dug holes for the piers they installed and tried to put the dirt back as best they could afterward. They had to dig up my flower garden in the front of the house and even tried to put back my perennials as best they could afterward. I had some edging that got buried by the dirt from the hole and they dug through to find the edging and put it back in place. At one point my husband was working on installing a new sump pump in the garage and one of the workers came over and helped him a little. The only issue was there was a little lack of communication with the permits and late start one day, but otherwise I was happy with the work they did.

He looked around and said we had other cracks. I had them repair the 3 bigger cracks. They did a good job at repairing the crack. I think they charged too much. I used another company as well and he charged less.

I sent an email thru angies list requesting an estimate on a basement emergency/egress window. I never received a response.

Mike from Us Waterproofing came out to give me an estimate on repairing a foundation crack, which over time caused seepage into my lower family room, resulting in mold behind the drywall. He explained a process that could be done from the outside to seal the crack, instead of cutting out the wall. The following week a hole was dug down to the foundation, filled with clay powder, and the crack above the soil was sealed with something like tar. With rain the clay powder hardens and seals the crack. I tested using a garden hose and it worked! No water leaking into the family room. US Waterproofing quickly fixed my issue and it is warranted for life.

They were great! They were professional and efficient. Even in heavy rains, our basement is now dry! No problems with water since they were out. I would highly recommend US Waterproofing!

We asked for estimates for repair of our block style foundation and waterproofing. Angie's list provided a 10% off coupon. After getting the worst kind of estimates for the job, i.e. screen prints from their computer system, I asked that the estimates be sent via a pdf so we could match them up to the contracts they also sent. They didn't have the capability to do that so they resent the same screen shots, but condensed them into just 3 instead of 4. Turned out the estimates they provided contained multiple math errors. in the extensions so I asked for corrections. I got a snarky reply that there was a computer glitch with new screen shots. Well, again minor math errors, but worse this time I was able to determine that the price they wanted to charge us was the full price, but they added a line item reflecting the 'retail' price which was simply 10% higher than the normal price. Considering the number of bad reviews given here, I'm glad we're moving on to someone else for our estimates.

It went terrible. The one side leaked after they were done. There was dirty water about a foot in and a half that came down the wall, onto the floor and into the drain. Then another place started leaking. They came out about 4-5 times to fix the leaks. Then this year they came out and said they were putting in a new septic system from the back to the front of the basement for nothing, which was wonderful. They didn’t put it across the whole back. So, now they are going to have to come back out to fix it. This has been going on for year. I’m not very happy.

We are very unhappy with the service provided by this company - they completely wasted our time!! First, the salesman gave us a quote and when I questioned it, he said he "pushed the wrong button" and the price magically went from $3600 to $2400. He spent almost 2 hours at our home talking to us about all the options and wrote up a contract for us for when we decided to move forward with the job. We asked for another option of a different size window and since it took several steps to get the price we said it was more than fine for him to email us later that day. Never got an email and had to call to get a follow up response! When we called to ask for the price of the larger window, he almost DOUBLED the original quote ($2400 to $4500) and now told us we only had the option of a full egress window. We currently have a small vent window in the basement and were looking to put a full size window in. We needed a cutout in our basement foundation for the new window. We did not want a full egress window with all the specs. The salesmen stated no problem we can cutout a 36inch by 36 inch space in the foundation and install the window with a window well and drain. When I called to book the job he stated the company only does a full egress install. When asked how did you not know your company does not perform that work, the salesmen stated "I must have missed that meeting."

They were very efficient. On time and provided the services that were set up. They did prep work and came back to put back appliances.

Went very well. The technician was very punctual, professional, and thorough. He explained what he was doing and approxately how long in would take. He cleaned his work area when he was done and so far I have not noticed any leak.

Very professional company. Upgraded our sump pumps. Also installed a crawl space liner so there is no pea gravel or dirt in the crawl space area anymore. Filled 2 cracks in the basement walls with epoxy. Once the winter snow melted, installed an underground drainage system off the back of the house. Very smooth scheduling of all the parts of the project.

Repaired one from the inside, and one from the outside in the finished portion of the basement.