All Aspects Waterproofing

Overall, it went well but there were a few disappointments and tense discussions along the way. Details below. 1. Contractor made great emphasis on the quality of his work, in particular that it was critical for the drain to be installed at the bottom of the footer, rather than merely alongside or on top of the footer. Doing this would take more work (deeper trenching), but there were a number of important technical reasons why the greater depth was important. Another aspect of the work that was emphasized was that there would be an English-speaking supervisor on site at all times, and that the laborers were long-time direct employees of the company (rather than subs). Finally, I was assured that this would only take one day, as a crew of 4-5 workers would be on the team. 2. On Day One, four guys showed up (including the supervisor). They wroked very clean, and were pleasant, respectful, and helpful - no complaints there. The work is loud and dirty, but the crew did everything they could do keep the noise and dust to a minimum - very impressive, in truth. I asked the supervisor to alert me at the various stages in the construction process, so I could inspect the work to make sure it was being done properly, and to take photos that would document construction details that would ultimately be covered up with concrete. After a few hours, I went downstairs to gage progress, only to find that the supervisor had left the site, and that the drainage pipe was already partially installed, but clearly not at the specified depth. 3. After a little bit of fussing on my part, including a phone argument with the salesman, the crew immediately started removing the improperly-installed pipe, and the supervisor eventually returned. We ended up having to haggle somewhat over the depth of the drainage trench - in the end it was not installed at the promised depth or location, but what can you do once they've already jack-hammered up half your basement floor - fire them? 3. After announcing that the pipe installation had been completed properly, I was invited to inspect the job. Other than the depth issue, which continues to trouble me, I also noted that one complete run of pipe was missing; the sump was supposed to drain two separate arms of the drainage system - only one connection was visible inside the sump. The supervisor agreed this was an error and the necessary additional piping was installed, although not at the agreed location (not as deep, not as close to the wall). You get tired of arguing at some point, and become afraid that too much arguing will p*** off the contractor and cause him to do shoddy work when you're not looking. Maybe this is only my nightmare.... 4. Probably due to the undersized crew, supevisor absence, and delays caused by having to redo a few aspects of the job, the job ended up taking another day (originally promised as a one-day job). It is my impression, from work on the first day, that the crew were all fairly new - none of them seemed to be the experienced veterans implied by the salesman. I also noted that some of the crew worked a lot harder than others - maybe if everybody had worked rqually hard, the job would have been finished in a day. To be clear, I was not upset that it took two days - just offering an opinion on why. 5. An even smaller crew returned (arrived later than promised) on the second day to finish up the job, which consisted of drilling the weep holes and pouring the replacement concrete floor, and installing the outfall for the sump pump. The work was completed without incident, although there were a few occasions where it appeared that the crew had finished a task to its satisfaction, but upon my inspection, further work was needed. There was no problem getting them to redo or complete the task properly properly, but I'm not sure what work quality would have been without my intervention. 6. The crew did a good job cleaning up, with exception of leaving a plate-sized pile of concrete in my back yard which I didn't see and has now set. I'm not unhappy with the work of this contractor, but I am slightly disappointed at having to bicker and push to get the job done as specified. I would recommend using them, but would also recommend that you commit to being on-site while they work, and check up on them every hour or so throughout the job.

(SEEE MORE ABOVE) They were outstanding and very professional throughout. Very customer oriented and willing to answer any questions. I delt directly with the owner on a couple of occasions when I had questions about the financing. They left the basement and yard completely clean and clear and did not leave me to do anything as far as cleanup.

We chose All Aspects to install our sump pump system since their price was competitive and the sales representative gave us an outstanding presentation, which included items that were not offered by other companies, such as window well taps and use of a negative air machine to help keep dust contained. The crew that performed the work were courteous, polite and hard working. We did experience a few problems as the work was being done, but All Aspects took immediate action to resolve the issues. This company was very concerned about the problems we experienced and went above and beyond the norm to ensure we were satisfied. All Aspects commitment to customer satisfaction was outstanding and the attention and care provided to us demonstrated that this company is truly dedicated to performing to quality work. We highly recommend All Aspects for any water proofing projects.

After several estimates all coming in around the same price range, (11-12K), I than referred to the Angies list grading system ruling out several other companies. I am a out of state home owner who rents this home; therefore, trust and honesty is paramount. All Aspect s Waterproofing provided me with online documents for review and was able to start the work almost immediately. It is now April 14, 2011 and my understanding is that it has rained for several days and the basement is DRY. The loyal tenants are happy that the basement is again usable. What did they do? Diagnosis of the problem is key to fixing it and the explanation to why they need to do this and that, in layman terms, provided the tenants and myself with a sense of confidences in their work. They hand duged the entire front of the house foundation 6 inches below floor and sealed it with a durable 6 ml membrane. Put in new french draining system and professionally replaced all the dirt, mulch, and connected the drain spouts into a second french draining system. The neighbors and tenants were amazed on their clean up noting that it appeared as if nothing happen been done. Inside, they removed and disposed of mold ridden sheetrock and provided a negative air system to remove the particles from the air. This was done immediately upon signing the contract, which was about 7 days before work was started. Great Job, Clean Up, and Professionalism earned all A's in my review. Dale Griffis, White Plains MD.

They arrived on time on March 14 as promised. The crew was hard-working and were at our house for nearly 12 hours. Most of the work was completed the first day (Monday). They returned on Wednesday to waterproof the block wall around the stairwell and backfill behind the wall. Overall, the work was done well in accordance with the contract and for the price quoted.

Having this job done was so much easier than what we were expecting. Dorothy, in the office, was quick to return our calls, followed up on our conversation, and was patient with our questions. Jeff, who gave us the estimate, was remarkable. He was very thorough in his inspection and in his explanation of why he thought we needed the work he suggested. He spent over an hour with us explaining the mechanics of what was happening and why it affected our house. His professionalism was in stark contrast to another estimator that looked at the basement for less than 10 minutes, did not measure for moisture or the even the length of affected area, and took 3 days before we received the estimate via email after 2 phone calls! Scheduling the job was very quick.The team, supervised by Mark, arrived when expected and began to work. The crew was very polite and friendly. Once the job was completed all our questions were thoroughly answered. Our basement was cleaner after they left than before the job was started! The doors had been sealed and the negative air containment system was used to manage the dust made when digging the trench. The entire floor was so completely swept clean that I only wish they could've taken care of our kitchen floor as well! There was no evidence that a huge pile of gravel and dirt had been in our driveway and front yard. The price was very competitive compared with other estimates. We would have more than likely gone with All Aspects anyway because we felt confident that the job would have been done correctly. All in all, we are very pleased! Thank you!

They were very honest and said I didn't need any work done, just a waterproof paint.

I found the information Jeff gave me when he gave the quote to be useful, the price was competitive compared to 3 other providers I had come out to price out the job. Happy with the final product but it was stressful getting there, Most of the crew didn't speak english and the crew supervisor wasn't there for most of the job, which meant I had watch the crew closely while also working from home which made the experience very stressful. For example the sump pump well originally wasn't flat with the basement slab till I pointed that out and had them correct it. Crew member said the concrete was sloping not the sump pump well. With the help of a level I demonstrated that wasn't the case. They also didn't check the drain tile was dropping an inch every 10 feet and at one section was higher in the middle, so wouldn't drain correctly, again this was corrected before the concrete was poured. After contacting the company the owner came out to review the work and make sure that everything was corrected to spec, Also suggested improvements to make the sump pump system a lot quieter, and confirmed my my suspicion that we should extend the work into a room in basement that wasn't included in the orignal quote and wasn't obvious was needed till the concrete slab was opened and the level of the water was observed.

Background: When we purchased the home in late 2004, the basement-level garage had recently been closed off and finished for use as a family room. After our first big snow melt, we learned we had an undisclosed water problem. We "unfinished" the room ourselves, removing the carpet, moldy wallboard and insulation, and learning more than we ever wanted to know about N95 masks and our county's hazmat/construction materials disposal process. Two or three times a year, with heavy rains and fast snow melts, we'd get an inch or two of water in the room. Over time, we graduated from bucket and towel brigade, to small shop-vac, to large shop vac, and maintained health and safety by dryingout and disinfecting the room after every flood. We cemented cracks ourselves, but we started to have small leaks in other parts of the basement. After living like this for six years, we finally called in professionals. We contacted five companies to request estimates, and were able to schedule three. All Aspects' proposed cost was in the mid-range of the three. The reason we chose All Aspects was their technical approach -- the priority they placed on working according to code, installing two separate systems so as not to compromise our foundation. (The other two companies proposed using one system and drilling through or digging beneath the footer). From start to finish, the professionalism was extremely high. The company representative was thorough in his inspection and analysis, listened carefully to our observations, answered our detailed questins and explained our options carefully. They waited patiently for a few months while we worked out financing through our credit union, and scheduled the job at our convenience. They were curteous and efficient on the job. The job was scheduled for 3 days and took 1.5 days. After the first day, I checked out the job site and was impressed with how clean the work area was -- they had swept up after themselves midway through. A negative pressure machine pulled the dust outside and kept it from circulating into the rest of our home. We were able to keep our central heat on and stay comfortably in our home througout the process (though we went out, and kept our dog out, while the jackhammers were going on the first day). After six years of living with repeated flooding and the great disappointment of not being able to fully utilize our space, we look forward to testing out the system and in time, finally making our home into what we thought it was when we bought it. I can't tell you how good it feels to finally have a dry, solid foundation to work from. Of course I can't vouch yet for how well it works, but from my neighbors' experiences with similar systems, I have a feeling that it will be worth every penny.

AAW was a life saver. My basement flooded during the August rainstorm with inches of water covering the floor on two occasions. AAW provided the most timely and professional estimate of work to repair the breach and seal both the area affected or the entire basement. Being short of money I went against AAW's recommendation and opted for the local fix. Sure enough, big rains 6 weeks later led to flooding in a different area of the basement. AAW was utterly great on price by agreeing to do the second job as if it were part of the original job. The tenant at the house was seriously inconvenienced and AAW worked around his schedule, including advancing the dates of the work. They were very clear that the needs of the customer were paramount and they lived that belief every day. AAW also took care and made many welcome suggestions on areas that were not their direct responsibility, such as minimizing follow up tile/drywall repair costs. I am living overseas and throughout this flooding nightmare I was in regular touch with my property manager, tenant, and AAW. It was amply clear to me that AAW demonstrated an exceptional level of professionalism and expertise. That would have been more than enough but AAW also bends over backwards to accommodate the needs of the customer and you always feel you are dealing with empathetic people rather than an impersonal company.

The work done was very quick and highly professional. I have a tenant living in the place, and he met up with the team, was highly complimentary. The substance of the work also appears to be very positive, and he guaranteed it with a multi-year transferable warranty. My only problem was that he took awhile to get back to me after he first did the estimate though it may have been the fault of an answering service that he let go. Overall, I was very pleased with their work.

We found water in the basement, and All Aspects came out to give a free estimate and explained in detail what the problem was, and what needed to be done. They were extremely knowledgeable, patient, and thorough (far more than the other estimators that came), and we ended up going with them. Their price was a little higher than the others, but the matched another bid for the same work, and rearranged their schedule to our time frame and came out within a week. They were very nice, very neat and clean, and finished the work in less than 2 days. When we had some other water issues, they came right out on a service call and took care of something that wasn't even their responsibility, and did not even charge us. They are accessible, prompt, nice, and excellent at what they do.

I came very close to using these folks, but then things began to unravel. First, the good part. Initially, I was impressed by the thoroughness of their representative, who fully explained the reasons for everything he proposed to do, both during his inspection and in several follow-up emails and phone calls. Even though their price was nearly double the proposal by another equally highly-ranked firm in Angie’s List (which we would up using), their system seemed more robust (two sump pits, stronger back-up pump, doing all four walls rather than just three). I was leaning toward using them, even though our independent building inspector thought that they were “selling up” and proposing more than we really needed. Then several things happened. First there was the issue of the wooden baseboard molding. Both during their inspection and in their original proposal they clearly stated “remove 4-6” max from bottom.” (Our molding is 4 inches, so that would have meant removal of at most another 2 inches of paneling, all of which could be repaired with 6 inch molding.) I then told the rep by phone that I was strongly considering their proposal but would be inclined to go with a contractor who could offer “one-stop” shopping (ie: for an extra fee they would take care of all restoration work). He said they could do the molding, confirmed the 6” maximum, and said they would charge less than $600 for that. I asked for a contract, but when it arrived it specified $1,200 to replace the molding. I called to ask how it could cost that much to cut and hammer in about 30 feet of unfinished wood, and the rep then backed off to a fee of $50/hour for labor (capped at $250) plus materials which he said probably would run $50-100. When I confirmed this by email, he responded that he could offer no firm number after all – and that he might have to remove up to four feet of the paneling. When I called to ask about that, he said that carpenters charge what they charge and that it could be up to a month before he could get one to come in. So … five attempts to pin down this aspect produced five radically different results. That, in turn, made meaningful comparisons with others impossible – and made me wonder about the basis for the other elements of their bid. Second, when I mentioned that another equally-reputable company had bid at around half their price, their rep assured me that they would be competitive on price (but not compromise quality). The result was to offer a whopping 2% discount (after deducting the 10% we were entitled to from Angie’s List anyway), leaving them still $3,500 more than the bid we accepted (from another “A-rated” firm). From that he wouldn’t budge. So much for being competitive. (He said that the owners had approved this price, thus suggesting extra layers of administrative cost.) Finally, and most severe of all, when I named the other firm with the lower but equally credible offer, the rep said that it was affiliated with a major multi-state company (that has dreadful Angie’s List ratings). I called both companies, and each insisted that it was fully independent, had no relationship with any other, and used only their own crews. I called the rep back, told him this and asked the basis for his information. At that point he became quite vague, even while repeatedly assuring me that the last thing he would want to do was to impugn the reputation of a competitor (!). At that point my decision became easy – I don’t deal with firms that would stoop to such tactics.

The owner was on hand and everyone was very responsible. We did talk to a lot of providers and they were the most sincere and friendliest and they had the most documentation and we have been pleased so far. They did have a decent price and we wanted this job well done. They did compare the notes with the contractor when the demolition was taking place and we decided that they were going to do a better job than the contractor. I would recommend them to others.

Their sales guy Steve was very good. He found the source of the problem as soon as he walked in. He asked for my permission to remove parts of the wall to expose the leak. It turned out there was a window behind all the paneling that was leaky. The team that came to fix everything was led by a guy that spoke good english. The rest didn't know very much but they worked hard all day and managed to finish the job in one day. They put down drop cloths as promised and hung plastic sheets to protect my belongings from dust. They scrubbed the floors when they were done and made sure they left everything clean. They didn't know what to do about the leaky window so they consulted the head honcho at the company, who personally came down and gave me options to fix the leak, not just manage the water coming into the basement, I opted not to have it done because it meant tearing off the patio. I would definitely recommend these guys. They do not use high pressure sales tactics (which their competitor Aquaguard seemed to love), know their business, deal with you very nicely and get the work done on time, on budget and to your satisfaction.

The proposed work was unnecessarily extensive and expensive. Therefore not accepted.

They came on time for the estimate and told me exactly what they were going to do. On the first day of the job they arrived on time and prepared to work. They started jackhammer the floor in one spot as a test and found that my old house had a rather thicker basement floor. They told me they had to stop work and come back the next day with an air jackhammer (like you see the guys in the street). They arrived on time the next day and worked all day. Finished the job in three days as promised, cleaned up as best they could. Note: This is a dusty job, no matter how much pumping of air out of the house it still gets everything dusty. If you hire anyone to do this job expect a lot of dust and deal with it. Their guys cleaned everything up larger than a rice grain. They cemented the floor very nicely over the drain. One of the discharge lines outside the house was not far enough away from the foundation. I called them and within a week they came and rectified the situation. All and all a very good experience for a dirty job.

Rob told us that it was mildew and not mold. He seemed very knowlegable, punctual.

The sales person was prompt and very courteous. He was quite knowledgeable about the situation. The solution he proposed was more than I'm willling to do right now, so although there was nothing wrong with the estimate or suggestion, it's just not the path I choose to take at the moment.

They did a great job. They finished on schedule and per their estimate. The workers were professional and competent.

I had spoken to several companies that do this work and found it to be one of the worst contracting experiences ever as far as getting a feel for who would do me a good job for a good price. Most of the guys that do a "good" business usually don't talk about their competition with the exception of a couple companies out there. I had 4 companies come look at the job and I would have been fine with any of the 3 of the 4, and their prices were consistent with each other within a few hundred dollars. The 4th company was a huge outlier and were pretty high pressure. That being said, I went with All Aspects because the discussion with the rep that came to look at the job was on a much more technical level, and not only went into fixing the flooding problems, but also some recommendations on framing out the basement to prevent mold. I also didn't get a hard sell; he told me what he thought I needed and why. He was also the only one that was going to supply a dehumidifier, which has been a great addition down there. In addition to all that, I got the Angie's list discount which knocked another $800 off the price which put it as the clear front runner to get the work. They started and finished in less than 2 days including inspections. They got it "broom clean" which is what they stated in their contract. I got a good turnover from the foreman as far as how often to check the pump operation, etc and all has been good since.

The waterproofing seems to have been very well done, and the company was professional. The salesperson was not trying a "hard sell" on us but was straight-forward and even suggested some things we could do ourselves if we didn't hire them. The materials they used for the water control seem to be good quality and were praised by another contractor we had in the basement for a quote on a separate issue. Our only complaint is that they did not use very high-quality support beams for the replacement of the ones they removed. The ones they used were the same type we had purchased ourselves for a temporary fix of a different problem, and these were only about $75 at Home Depot. Would have been nice to see something higher quality on this, but their specialty is clearly waterproofing and water control, and they do a very good job on this.

They were very professional. They showed up on time and walked me through things. I ultimately found someone who was going to do pretty much the same work for less money.

Excellent. They explained carefully what they would do, and gave us a fair price. They arrived promptly and did very thorough and tidy work -- it's a very messy process, but disruption to our home was minimal. All employees were professional and polite.

They did a great job. They were highly responsive and they were able to beat our lowest estimate. They were courteous and professional. They were able to fit us in during the same week that we decided to hire them.