Basement Innovations Waterproofing

Chris Cunningham is a zero-BS guy -- he didn't try to sell us something we didn't need. He was like, "you guys don't need basement waterproofing, you just need to make sure your water spouts outside your house don't drain into your foundation." That's IT. HOW REFRESHING!! I would DEFINITELY trust Chris when he gives you an assessment of your basement.

Fantastic job. Provided accurate assessment of what needed to be done at reasonable cost for our unfinished basement. Resolved all water issues completely and have not had water in the basement despite rainy spring/summer.

Prior to the job, I had a few questions which were answered to my satisfaction. On the day of the job, Anthony (the crew chief) and his crew arrived exactly on time (actually a few minutes early, which I appreciate). Anthony and team were totally professionally and really nice... when we had an unexpected issue (the width of the well for the sump pump was larger than could fit in the closet where we originally wanted it, to put it out of the way) they worked with us (patiently) until we found an acceptable solution. Also, when Anthony discovered a previously unknown pipe that was used possibly as a unused (no fan) radon system, he got me to let me know about it. From Mike the sales rep to Brian at the front office to Anthony and his team (Billy etc), everyone was totally professionally, and the job that was done was first rate. I say "first rate" only for two reasons... the first is when our contractor came over a week later to assess the job for putting the new dry wall/ tile back in, he really marvelled at the job and said "these guys did a great job" (and he knows a lot more than me about this stuff)... and the second reason is that it just down poured today and normally we would had a quarter inch of water in our basement and now it's totally dry... so far so good!! THANKS Basement Innovations!!

Basement Innovations did a great job with installing a sump pump and underground water piping. very responsive.

The services Basement Innovations provided were great.

Workers were on time, completed the work quickly and were very professional.

The basement waterproofing went fine. HOWEVER, do yourself a favor and get educated about sump pump drainage BEFORE the waterproofing is done. This company got the water out of our basement just fine, but changed the location of where the sump pump drained outside. This is now a major problem for us outside - estimates to fix the new outside water problem are almost equal to what we paid for the inside work. We should have thought twice when the worker suggested a "day of" change to the location of the sump pump from where it was located in the estimate. The company's response was basically "Hey, we got the water out of your basement." And "If you bury the drain pipe, you void the warranty." So I guess our bad for not understanding more about where the water was going to go. But, we've had a sump pump for the 25+ years that we've lived in this house and never had an outside water problem before now. Just sayin'.

Very professional and responsive. Excellent communication. Work was completed efficiently and well. Would definitely hire them again. Price was reasonable. The technician who came out initially was helpful and made appropriate suggestions--was not pushy & did not over-sell services

After speaking with several different service providers, we immediately felt comfortable with Mike Doolittle. Everyone from Mike to Brian (the owner) was extremely knowledgeable, kind, respectful, and responsive. We thoroughly enjoyed working with them and found them to be the utmost professionals. We would recommend highly and without hesitation.

The crew was punctual, worked quickly/meticulously and left our home clean. Mike and Brian were a pleasure to work with. I was surprised how fast the job went. No water in our basement anymore! Sigh of relief when I hear the rain pouring down.

Anthony and his crew showed up a couple minutes early, got straight to work and made sure everything was clean before leaving.

Excellent work. Took one day and was completed to expectations. Highly recommend

Professional, responsive, punctual, affordable. Highly recommend them for basement waterproofing services.

They arrived at earliest time, worked steadily, did what was needed, cleaned up. Very professional and courteous. Cost was competitive with another company consulted.

Five Stars... BUT... Not only did Basement Innovations come in at the lowest price for the work, but Mike Doolittle was the most professional representative and had the best plan out of the four contractors I got quotes from. Much of the perimeter work we needed was around the edge of an existing bedroom in our basement. The other three contractors' plans included putting the sump in the corner of the bedroom. Mike considered how that would look (and how my wife would feel about that) and suggested that we extend the system slightly so that the sump could be located in the adjacent unfinished space. All at no additional cost. Chris and his team came in to do the work. Chris laid out the plan in detail before they started and it was really reassuring that he was exactly on point with the plan and had some great suggestions on how to make the installation look clean. Team of 5 for one day - they got an incredible amount of work done and they were polite and professional. It's been a few weeks now and we've had some significant rains and the system is running flawlessly. Their pump are 3/4 hp so they pump more quickly and quietly than my previous pump. I'm very happy with the system and very happy that I chose Basement Innovations over the other. If you're looking into this type of project, odds are you aren't doing it for fun. It is a loud, messy job and it can be scary to think of the impact it will have. The guys at Basement Innovations made this process as smooth and painless for me as I could have hoped. Other companies will come in and try to scare you into using them. These guys don't do that. They are legit. >>>Here's the BUT. After the work was done, my newly trained eye spotted a crack in my foundation on the other side of the basement - where I did not have any work done (should have done the whole perimeter...). I called Basement Innovations to see what it would take to have them come and fix this crack, since they had just done so on the other side of the basement. They asked for some pictures, I sent them. Then no response. I called, emailed, called again and nothing. So, that's super annoying.

Couldn't be happier with the professionalism, quality of work and responsiveness. The crew even cleaned up the work area, and were extremely polite and informative. No one likes having to waterproof their basement, but basement innovations took a bit of the sting away.

It went remarkably very well. Workers were very amiable. Work was very hard and finished work was very good. Of course time will tell if I have no more basement water problems. Workers were very good at explaining what they were doing. For the labor involved the pricing was very good. Estimate beat 2 other recommended estimates and materials used are very good. Responsiveness a bit slow to inquiries pre installation, other that that very satisfied so far. I can recommend them without hesitation. I recommend getting in-depth explanation of how system works as this helps understand what they are doing and if you should get other estimates.

Basement Innovations came with 3 men ahead of schedule. They jackhammered the basement floor, installed a sump pump and dug a trench to collect water. I was surprised how much water was actually under our floor. Immediately, the sump pump was doing its job and expelling gallons of water from a pipe they installed to the back yard. They cleaned up all the debris and finished the job in 4 hours.

We hired Basement Innovations to deal with drain issue at the bottom of our outdoor basement steps. While it took them some time to come out and give an estimate, the process was painless and fast. Mike followed up pretty quickly afterwards with our options. After we settled on them, we had to wait a few weeks to schedule the work due to other jobs. I took the day off work to wait for the guys and got a call from an apologetic Brian that the crew had car issues. That was pretty annoying but they went out of their way to get the job done just a few days later (on a Saturday morning no less). The crew showed up early (I actually had to let them know they could start as they waited for the time they promised) and they got to work. The jackhammered out our existing base and drain (which took some time), put in the sump and related piping, etc., and laid the new concrete. The entire job took about 4 hours. They cleaned up the site and the whole setup has worked as designed since. The proposed work was much less costly and far more simple than others we received (no indoor work, no dealing with potential asbestos, etc.) and the work done is what was agreed. With few exceptions it was a pretty no frills interaction. I hope to never need a company like this again, but if I needed it, I would definitely use them again.

Everything from the sales process and consultation to the installation If our French drain sump pump system was pretty smooth and efficient. Mike was very quick with responses to my questions prior to the install. The install team arrived promptly and on-time, they were friendly and walked me through everything, and they compeleted the project ahead of the estimated finish time.

They did an excellent job! I will definitely recommend them and absolutely use them, again.

From the initial visit and quote, Basement Innovations was great. I had three contractors come in to quote the same job. Mike Doolittle was a great contact - honest, frank and willing to work within the constraints we had - for a great price. The project lasted two days. On both days the team arrived on time, and explained each step as it was being completed. Chris, the team lead - answered all of my questions - and was able to make changes/decisions on the fly without adding cost to the job. At the end of the job, the team cleaned up the property and hauled away all of the debris, leaving the space clean. I highly recommend Basement Innovations for any waterproofing needs.

The first day the work was supposed to be done, I got a call telling me one of the guys was sick, so they couldn't come. They offered to come the next day, where they apologized for the truck being broken the day before. They arrived only to find the salesman had not accurately relayed the job to them, and they didn't have the tools with them to remove the wood paneling, despite me emailing a second time to confirm with the salesman that they knew they were going to have to remove wood paneling. From my email: "I just don’t want the workers to show up expecting clean block walls and be surprised to find it covered in wood paneling." But that's exactly what happened. So they postponed again. Then they arrived a month later and broke a drain pipe. They claimed it was deteriorated, so it wasn't their fault. But it was also exposed, so a careful person probably would have avoided it. I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, that the damage was unavoidable, except... They also destroyed three of our stairs in the process of taking them out to put the French drain in. They said the wood was dry rotted, and the damage was unavoidable. Sort of still willing to give the benefit of the doubt, except... We had contractors come a couple weeks later to refinish our basement. They pulled the vinyl covering off all the other steps. They were all fine. Old, but fine. We've repainted them and continue to use them. So they leave, and the French drain is sloped all wrong, with a dip where the pipe broke, so no water ever would have reached the sump, and it would have all pooled at that spot under our foundation, and then probably leaked in. I called the next day and sent pictures of the poorly installed drain and water that was already coming out of it (which you could see because it hadn't been concreted over, because we still needed to have a plumber come repair the pipe). Things improved here. The management office was very apologetic and very professional. They said they were planning to come back to reset that part of the drain, even though the guys who left were definitely not planning to come back. Regardless of whether they would have come back if I hadn't called, they sent another team back, which noted that not only was the "trap" a problem, but the whole thing had been set with the wrong slope. So they pulled up the entire drain and redid the whole thing. So I was very happy with the second team, which replaced everything without question and seemed to do a much better job. And the professionalism of the office staff was also very good from start to finish. Very friendly, very willing to set things right from the perspective of the drain itself. But still sticking to the claim that everything else was unavoidable. I won't give them an F, because I think they did get the drain right in the end, and I believe they were trying to do the right thing. But I was still out an additional $4,000 to repair the pipe that was broken, and an additional $400 to repair the stairs, and we couldn't use our kitchen sink or dishwasher for a week while we got the pipe repaired. There were no offers for compensation, despite requests, and the usual response was that the damage was unavoidable, and that they have lots of good reviews on Angie's List. I think for very straightforward houses, this company might be fine, and some teams may be able to handle more complex jobs. But on the whole, they didn't seem to have the appropriate care to deal with old houses or working around existing structures. I know as well as anyone that old houses can be more challenging than new houses, but leaving the house with a mis-sloped drain, not to mention all the damage, really left me feeling very displeased with this experience. The photo I attached shows the first install, with the sump side of the drain (left) higher than the "upstream" side of the pipe (right), and all the water pooling out of it, due to the duct-taped "trap" in the middle.

Basement Innovations were responsive, easy to work with, and did the job quickly for a reasonable price! The transferable lifetime guarantee on the Water Trek system also really puts my mind at ease.

Mike Doolittle took time to listen to my concerns. He explained everything that would happen. The day of installation Steve and Chris arrived around 8am. Steve walked me through what they will be doing. He listened to my concerns. During installation Steve kept me updated on progress. When they were done everything was cleaned up and Steve asked if I had any questions. Steve answered my questions even offering advice. Definitely would use again.