HONTHY TRENCHING

Went very well

Everything is working well

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I had to schedule several weeks in advance, however I was fine with that. As TV's Mike Holmes says, "You don't want the guy who can come tomorrow. Good guys stay busy." Joe Honthy is very good and he's very busy. Joe arrived with his brother Greg on the morning of the date promised, and they went right to it. I had considered renting a trencher and doing the job myself, but after watching them I realize that would have been a colossal mistake. There's a lot to getting the fall of a drain line right including constant laser measurements along the trench, so I'm glad I paid for this job because they did it exactly right the first time, and Joe had some much better ideas for execution than what I'd visualized. In addition to a fine job, you can't ask for nicer guys than Joe and his brother. One thing that surprised me was how neat and clean they work. The trencher threw some dirt onto a decorative creek rock area and they cleaned the rocks completely before they left. I was gone by that point, but there was not a trace of them having had been there, other than the actual installation. Also since the 6" drain line ended in my yard, Joe did a nice treatment at the discharge end involving a 45 degree cut and a specific ending depth so as not to interfere with my mowing. Nice touch. During the scheduling process you will probably speak to Joe's wife, who's truly a lovely person and quite fun to talk to. They have seven children, so don't be alarmed if you hear a crashing sound in the background at some point in the conversation.

He was referred to me by a colleague. He came to my home and told me of his expertise and gave references. I thought about the work to be done, the cost, and the moving of established plants and buses that would have to be moved. We spoke, very good communication skills and detailed explanations. He called the OOPS, moved and replanted plants, left the area manicured. No problems and a whole lot of piece of mind!

The project went very well overall. Joe came out to give an estimate within a week of my calling. It took about 2-3 weeks for him to come out and start the job. He started on a Thursday night (around 5), came back Friday morning, and was finished by 2 pm. It was Joe and one laborer performing the work, some of which was done with a trencher, and some done by hand. The work was done very neatly, and he didn't leave my yard a mess. They even filled in some low spots in my yard with the extra dirt. I had bids from 2 other companies I found on Angie's list. Both were in the $7k to $8k range and were for essentially the same work. Joe is not a big company. He does this on the side (he's a teacher at his 9-5 job) so his wife can stay home with the kids. He's very knowledgeable, and has been doing this kind of work for a long time.

I am very pleased. We originally got a quote in the Fall of 2011. I got 2 additional quotes, one for $1200 and one for $1600. Plus, everyone told me it would be months before they could get out to do my work, probably Spring. With Honthy Trenching they could not tell me an exact date but I got put on the list of projects. We tried a few times to schedule the work but then it got cancelled due to weather so it was February before the work actually happened. Laurie Honthly called every few weeks to assure me that we were still on the list and they would get to me as soon as they could so I knew I had not fallen through the cracks. Once they did call to come out to start but we were going out of town so it didn't work for us. The work took several days but it is great. The area was left very clean. We were given instructions not to try to reseed the trench area or we would just clog up the pipe. We have had several rains since then and the drain is doing a great job of keeping water off of the patio. I am very happy with the results. The price was the best, they got to us sooner than the other companies, and through the many phone calls with Laurie, I got to know a little about the family so they felt like friends in the end. I am very pleased with the work and would recommend this company to anyone who needs drainage help.

This job was for installing drainage in the yard between and around 2 apartment buildings (4 units in each building) that I own and had recently purchased. One building had a basement that was flooding because it was the lowest point in the neighborhood. The other basement had small rivers going to the drain. All the downspouts went to no-where because the drains where plugged up with dirt / debris from old piping. Because the basements were made of cement block and water had no where else to go, the basements would flood because of getting through the block. I originally quoted waterproofing vendors and to waterproof the basement, it was going to cost $20,000 - $40,000 to waterproof. That was a bit of a shocker. I determined that rather than waterproof, it was better to divert the water away before it gets to the basement by installing drains around the property. I quoted 3 vendors, including Honthy Trenching. The 2 other vendors quoted $14,000 and $16,000 for their work. Honthy Trenching quoted $4,400. Because of the price and Honthy Trenching's good reports on Angie's list, I decided to go with them. Joe, the owner, was very knowledgebase on installing french drains. I found out he had been installing french drains for approximately 20 years, first working for his father-in-law when he started out. He originally did it to put himself through college to become a teacher. I found out he teaches and does this part-time in the evenings, weekends, school breaks, and in the summer. He was very professional and he and his wife were great to work with. I had a little wait before they could do the work (approximately 2-3 weeks) because of multiple jobs ahead of mine, being part-time, and it was the middle of winter so rain / snow also affected the schedule. Because of the price they quoted me vs. the other vendors, timing was not as important to me. Laurie, who was Joe's wife, always kept me informed on scheduling when I called to see how things were going and I understood there were other jobs lined up. Once they started, the job took approximately 2 weeks to finish because it required a large amount of drainage (approximately 650 ft). Joe (the owner) did a great job getting the french drains installed and downspouts tied into all the french drains. The work included removing portions of roots from 2 large water maples in the path of one of the drains and a cutting through / removing roots on one side of the building that had a lot of brush. In addition to installing the drains, Joe excavated dirt around the buildings that was causing water to go towards the buildings instead of away from it. The excavation diverted the water to the french drains. The other thing that Joe recommended that really made sense was to NOT cover the drains with dirt & grass. The other vendors that were quoted were planning on putting dirt over the gravel in the drain, but the issue you have is after a couple years, the dirt/grass prevents the water from getting into the drain since it takes the path of least resistance. He had indicated after a couple seasons, the grass would grow around the drain to a point where you don't even see it. By doing this, it increases the effectiveness of the drain from getting water off the property. He was very knowledgeable on the process and was genuine in explaining the process to me. Another nice thing was they did not ask for any payment upfront, but waited until they finished to receive payment. This lessoned my worries about the job getting finished before any payment was exchanged. Other vendors typically want payment for supplies (e.g. drain hose, plastic piping, gravel, etc) upfront, but Lauri said she wanted the job to be completed before they ask for payment. I thought it was nice that they worked that way. I have another rental property that has some drainage issues and I plan on using them again on that job later this year.

Joe came out the same week we contacted him for an estimate to install a french drain in the back as well as to replace the drain pipe for the gutters and run the new pipes for both projects out to the street. He was timely and professional and his price was fair. He returned within 2 weeks to complete both projects. He went above and beyond our expectations. Our back yard where he installed the french drain and 2 additonal drains in our window wells looks better landscaped than it was before. Joe even took care to preserve my herb garden where he regraded the soil. We are very satisfied and happy with the work performed and would recommend him to anyone who has any water or drainage problems around their home.

He came out and gave me an estimate for the entire job which included the trenching, laying of the drain pipe dumping in gravel and moving of the dirt that was left over. I was looking to save some money and so he agreed to do the trenching for 1/2 the price and I did the rest with the help of my sons. He gave me a lot of good pointers on how to lay the drain pipe and what to do to save time, money and effort. The job he did was excellent and timely. My only regret was not having him do the entire job moving all the dirt and gravel was a bigger job than I anticipated.

Joe did an exceptional job. The work was completed professionally and in a timely manner. The job site was cleaned up and left in good order. Joe left extra materials for me to place after I completed a wiring run that crossed his work . Judging from the performance of some similar work he did for my neighbor, I have no doubt this work will resolve our problem. Would recommend Joe to anyone.

Mr. Honthy does all of the work himself - the positive of this is that you know you will get his quality work; the negative is that scheduling can be tough. With a combination of a failure of his trenching equipment, a small medical emergency in his family and uncooperative weather, it took a very long time - over 7 weeks - to actually get the work completed once we authorized it. I'm guessing that my experience may have been a bit unusual in this regard. However, once he got out there, as far as I can tell he did a great job at a very reasonable price. The Honthys seem like very nice and incredibly honest, trustworthy people - I would use them again in spite of the scheduling difficulties we had.

I needed my gutter drain pipe system replaced. I phoned Honthy Trenching and left a message. My call was returned the next day and I schedueled Joe to come and give an estimate. Joe showed up right on time and looked at my situation and gave a very fair estimate. I called back with approval and to schedule the dates to begin the work. Lourie Honthy set the dates and said she would call back about a week before to confirm and schedule the call before you dig folks. I waited until about three days before and called her after realizing the utilities had not been marked. After a bit of confusion she worked everything out and got Joe to come out the following Tuesday to begin the work. They were both very upbeat and professional with a can-do attitude that makes you feel confident. They did great work and cleaned up the trenching to my picky standards. The work Joe and Daniel and Lourie did was very professional, and he had a great solution to the problems with trees and utilities on the west side of the house. Thanks for a job well done!

The experience was excellent - Joe came out about two weeks ago to give a quote on the job - He was courteous and friendly and said that doing drain work was all he did - He had a good quote and and I accepted his price and said to schedule me for the job - He scheduled me for a Thursday but he had to reschedule for Saturday during the week that he was coming (the reschedule did not bother us) - He arrived around 1 PM on that Saturday and did some preliminary work on the "old" curtain (installed 4-5 years ago) to see where the problem was - We found out that the "clog" was further down the drain line than we had anticipated (1 acre property) - This entailed additional work (more money) but Joe was up to it and he quoted a fair extension of the price. Joe worked diligently on the drain and he also explained to me what he was doing and what I needed to do after he was done. We also had him work on our front culvert area to lower the grade up front as well - He worked for 7.5 hrs and we are very happy with the job that he did and would definitely work with him in the future if we have more excavating work to be done

Joe responded promptly to my initial call and provided a quick estimate. It was several weeks before he was able to do the job, this wasn't a problem for me. His solutions to my drainage problems were not quite as elegent as some of his competitors, however what he did was adequate for my needs and much more reasonably priced. He took time to be careful as he trenched, and spent quite a bit of time cleaning up afterwards.

Work was done to eliminate water in basement occurring with heavy rains as well as reduce accumulation of water in back yard following heavy rains. Joe was very thorough and professional in getting this major project done. Some grading and new grass seed will have to be planted this spring or summer to bring the appearance of the yard back to normal, but we knew in advance that would have to be done.

Excellent work. Friendly, professional, prompt and good clean-up. I would recommend Honthy to anyone.

He was supposed to give me a written bid but he didn't get the bid to me for a very long time. His price seemed very reasonable. I will use him in the future.

I bid out this same job to 3 different companies. 1st estimate was $3400, 2nd was $2300. And those people were not as professional or friendly as Honthy Trenching. After discussing & getting the $1300 quote from Joe, we decided to go with him. Joe is a school teacher full-time, and does trenching on weekday evenings and weekends... for the last 20 years!!! His wife answers the phone and schedules. Both were as kind, professional and good-to-their-word as any contractor I've met in the Cincinnati area to date... and their price was 1/2 or 1/3 of the other quotes!!! Once we agreed for Honthy to do the work, there was a few week wait to do the work (the weather to dig was so bad this spring.. it rarely dried out enough to do in our yard). The wait was no issue, since we contained the sump discharge problem at our home and time was not so critical (ran temp discharge line to 10ft outside the house into our yard). And, as promised, his wife called when the job got closer to confirm/ schedule. Joe showed up at 4:15pm on a Tuesday w/ his trencher and tools. He left about 4 hours later having completed the entire job, including a meticulous cleanup... well beyond what i had imagined would be done. His helper garden raked all dirt remnants onto the very skinny dirt pile where he trenched and installed the pipe. He worked w/ the "Call before you dig" folks and had the yard marked prior to his arrival. He also worked very carefully not to break our invisible dog fence. Joe was very friendly, professional & very helpful in answering my many many questions. We did a walk through after the work was done. All work was completely as good or better than I had hoped. Gave me advice for me how to prevent my woods area from eroding by the discharge line (getting some river rock and making kind of a dry creek bed when the area dried out). Answered many more of my questions and shared the 5" diameter X 18 inch root he pulled out to run the gutter lines by my foundation. Indicated how severely the root was pressing on foundation and then gave advice on how to ensure better waterflow away from my foundation. before he left, the sump ran on its own, and we went to see the water finally discharge 125 ft from my home.... full flow. What a load lifted off our worried minds. As I said, Joe was one of the best local contractors I've met in terms of price, commitment, professionalism & doing fantastic work without being asked to do so.. He went the extra mile w/ the incredible cleanup! So my 3 yr old and 16 mo old kids have less chances of getting super muddy now while the dirt settles. I'm still overly excited how well it went... its heavily raining today and I can smile knowing my home is safe & the bank wasn't broken doing it. And our yard is pretty clean given what kind of work was completed! I feel sure that Joe Honthy solved our problem... long-term w/ the best materials & workmanship possible!

Excellent. We agreed on a mutually favorable time and day. Joe came on time as promised with a helper. He measured grading to ascertain how deep to trench in each section of the future home of my French drain. Then he trenched, put the pipe in, covered with gravel and cleaned up. It was great.

Joe completed the job in one day. The work was complete and professional. He cleaned up nicely afterwards. Water is once again draining away from our house as it should.

HE IS WONDERFUL. HE WAS VERY RESPONSIVE AND GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE. THE WORK WAS TOP NOTCH.