Dr Dry Inc

Chris' team helped reroute clogged standpipes, remediate mold, install a french drain, and replace a water damaged staircase at my parents house. Chris examined the house from top to bottom during the initial quote, and was far more thorough than anyone else we brought out. He price was very reasonable and competitive as well. The team worked hard for the three day project and helped transform a space that was noticeable damaged and moldy to a clean new state. Highly recommend.

It didn’t. When the serviceman arrived, he wasn’t wearing a mask. I asked if he had one and he said no. I said I’d get one for him and provided a new, packaged mask. Clearly irritated, he slapped it on under his nose. I asked if he’d wear it over his nose and he pulled it off angrily, and snapped, “Get another contractor” before huffing off. After a year of taking precautions I’m not about to let a stranger, who regularly enters other properties, into my house unmasked. If this company doesn’t require its employees to mask, they should tell the customer. I wasted days waiting for this appt when I could’ve called someone else. From other reviews, it appears this company has belligerent employees and a bad record of customer service. I called another company whose serviceman came right out, wore a mask without having a hissy fit, and acted with the professionalism “Dr. Dry” would do well to emulate.

Company cancelled scheduled estimate. For unforeseen circumstances my wife wasn't home so they cancelled 30 min before the scheduled estimate. It's their company policy that all homeowners have to be present. I'm an educated homeowner and I know what I need, so I didn't necessarily agree. I can only speculate why they have the policy. They did offer to reschedule, but based on experience with other companies, rescheduling takes weeks and I don't have the time. Bummer, they may have missed an opportunity.

Dr. Dry did an excellent job on our basement at a very reasonable price. Very professional and hard working. Would highly recommend to anyone.

The process to set up an evaluation of my home was quick and efficient. They scheduled an appointment that fit with my work schedule; however, I did feel that the timing was a little late in the evening to view the outside of my house (8:00 pm). Not a big deal, since I figured it would only take 30 - 40 minutes for an evaluation. Prior to the appointment, John called to confirm that he was running a few minutes behind, and I was impressed he took the time to let me know. We did a walk-through of my basement (including the problem area, the bathroom) and the garage. John did a test of my existing sump pump in the garage and confirmed it was in good working order (so far, so good). Then we went outside to the corner of my house by the bathroom wall (it was dark and I had to provide a flashlight)!! Uh oh, red flag #1. Then he suggested we sit down to discuss my repair/remediation options and price, etc. His emphasis was more on the waterproofing than the mold remediation, which truthfully, is one of my biggest concerns. He recommended that I DO NOT get a mold test of my house prior to his team doing their work, that we could do the test after. I asked about proper handling of the demo material and possible cross contamination into my home, but that didn't seem to be a concern of his. His team would come in, rip out the bad wall material, do the waterproofing and it would probably be a big mess - red flag #2. At this point, we were an hour plus into the assessment, and it only got worse. I asked for him to leave an estimate for the proposed work, or send one so I could compare Dr. Dry to other companies "apples to apples", he made it clear that the offer he was about to give would be off the table if we didn't sign tonight. He pretty much implied that if I weren't willing to go with his team now, then he would not be willing to work with me going forward. Why I did not ask him to leave at that time, I don't know. I didn't like his "bully-like" aggressive sales tactics, but I guess I wanted to have several options to consider (I contacted them because the seemed to be a niche company who deals with waterproofing AND mold remediation). By now, it was going on 11:00 pm and I had told him several times throughout the night that I had to get up early - red flag #3. He agreed that if I signed a contract and gave him a deposit check, that I could break the agreement in 3 days' time. After investing 3 hours of my time, I agreed (believe me, this is not my normal nature - maybe I was too tired) - red flag #4. The following morning I came to my senses and realized I could not possibly get other estimates in such a short period before my chance to cancel the contract expired. I contacted the office to cancel and request that my check be returned. As required, I sent the original paperwork back (I used certified mail w/ return receipt to be safe). I received my voided check back in a couple days, thank goodness. Subsequently, I hired an independent home inspector to run a mold test of my house. I want to be confident knowing that the demo of my basement bathroom is done properly, especially if there is an issue with mold. At the time of this writing, I am still waiting to review my results from the lab with the inspector. Buyer beware!! Although John's team of workers might be good at what they do, I couldn't get past his formula for getting the deal signed in such a poor manner. If his team is the best, and offers the best price (as he reminded me several times), then there shouldn't be any fear by providing me a quote to compare with his competitors. I think his tactics are a little unorthodox, and I'm kicking myself for wasting so much time.

I had this provider come to home after research on Home Advisor via web. They contacted me shortly after and we set a time and date for the inspection. A sales rep by the name of John arrived at my house to do the assessment. He did a thorough inspection of my situation and problem. I was very pleased with the information he provided. John began discussing what needed to be done. He recommended and internal french drain for my basement to address water issues and carbon fiber straps for wall support. John was very open to questions and concerns after he announced his solutions to me. I was fairly content with his recommendations. We then began discussing the cost of the project. The price was significantly below all other competitors that I had consulted. He then began showing pictures of past work that was done on previous jobs. He showed the companies credentials and insurances along with ratings they had from the BBB and Angies List. John then showed me the proposed work/contract along with price. When asked if there were any other questions or concerns he recommended that I sign today. He mentioned that his quoted price could increase by 25% if I did not make a commitment today. I told him that I needed a few days to think about this. Which in my opinion is what normal people would say when it comes to a job thats going to costs them $7000. He then said to me If I needed to think about it that it would mean that I was not serious and that he could accept other more "important jobs". My response to this was again, leave me a copy of proposed work and a few days to think about this. He began to seem frustrated and pulled out personal checks from his breast pocket from other customers and said "see this is how we do business. We get paid and get the job done." I found this a little inappropriate that he was showing me customers checks with their personal information on them. I again told him I would like a day or two to think about this and I would get back to him. He then got up and began to leave. I asked if he would leave his proposed work that was to be done for my reviewal, he then said that this company does not leave proposals of work for customers to review because I would use it as leverage with other company estimates/quotes. And that they prefer to discuss work face to face and agree only then. So the next day I contacted the company call center and asked if they would send me the contract of work since John the sales rep would not. They told me to contact John so I did. Over the phone with John I told him to provide me with info of work to be done so I could go over it with my family. He told me "no, we aren't going to do that". He then began raising his voice with me so I politely ended the call and contacted the call center again. I spoke with Roberta from call center and told her I wanted to review the contract and proposed work and that John would not provide it to me. I also mentioned to her that he gotten a little belligerent and ignorant with me over the phone. She then she told me she would have to get back to me. Several hours later that same day John called my cell phone and got extremely ignorant with me and was very upset that I contacted Dr Dry call center and mentioned he was being rude. He then with threatening voice said to me "are you trying to jeopardize my job?" I then tried to respond but he was basically yelling me so I had to end the call. The purpose of me writing this review was to address to this company that it is proper practice to leave proposed work for the customer to review in his/her own house/ their own will. High pressure sale tactics of pushing someone to sign same day are not appropriate and are not professional. And your employee John was totally out of control yelling at me on the phone. You never argue with a customer let alone yell at them. This company never returned my call for and apology. In the end they lost a customer to one of their competitors.

Too pushy. And ultimately would not have fixed the problem.

The rep was courteous and called on his way and was on time. Without us mentioning who else provided a quote he dismissed other local basement and foundation providers one by one. He prided Dr.Dry with having an individual solution for every job. He did a very good job of investigating the issues and offering various solutions at different price points. We were impressed and liked that he wasn't offering a blanket solution. But when we asked for the details of his solution in writing so we could think it over, he refused and said if we had to think about it overnight, he knew he wouldn't get the business. If we wanted his solution, we would need to sign right then and there and give him a down payment on the work. He pulled out a stack of checks from other customers who signed that day and said that's how he does business... not by waiting overnight and having to follow up with homeowners who couldn't make up their mind. At that point we were finished with him and Dr.Dry.

Initially we met with a Dr. Dry rep in July 2014 who gave us a price of around $6000 for the outside French drain and the inside sump pump installation. He collected a $1100 deposit, and told us they had 3 months to come to start the work which can be along time if you have water coming into your basement. Dr. Dry insisted that a couple be present for the presentation which turned out to be a huge sales pitch.. Because we had good reviews from Angies list and were desperate to fix the water leak into our basement, and could not find another company who could or would even suggest what to do , we went with Dr. Dry. The did arrive in late September to start the job and returned daily until it was complete. They did the work outside and replaced the dirt over the French drain and the drainage pipes so it looked good. The big problem was the work they did inside our finished basement. The workers had to jackhammer about 25 feet along the perimeter of the basement floor to create a trough to place a sump pump. They also cut out and removed about 1.5 feet of finished and painted wallboard above the 25 feet of floor trough. They also had to drill a hole through the foundation about 7 feet off the floor for access to a drainage pipe from the sump pump. These activities created an unbelievable mess of plaster dust, wallboard pieces, concrete dust and particles in addition to significant wall damage from their attempts to drill through the foundation. , Problem? Dr. Dry stated that they were not qualified to fix the cracked plaster or to replace the wall board that they had cut out so we were left with major repairs that the contract failed to mention and did not cover. The workers did cart out the majority of the concrete that they jackhammered up but we spent days with the shop-vac cleaning up the dust and pebble size pieces that they did not remove. We are still left with a crooked pipe running up the wall in our basement workout room. The workers appeared to have no respect for our property. They could have spent a few minutes sealing doors so that the mess was at least confined to part of the basement. I was the one who pulled up the carpet, covered furniture and laid down plastic. Dr. Dry wanted full payment even before they started the job, but luckily my husband held back a few hundred dollars (which didn't come close to covering the repairs we had to have done on the basement walls). We met with a Dr. Dry boss and made many phone calls but we were left with the repairs to pay for ourselves. The good thing is that we have not seen water in the basement although it has only been 6 months. We feel that replacing the outside French drain probably did the job (since the sump pump has never come on) and that the inside work was unnecessary. It is difficult to grade this company. We do have a dry basement, but feel that we were bullied into doing too much, paid much more than it was worth, and were left with major damage that added even more thousands to our cost.

This guy was overbearing and a little frightening. As we explained our situation he kept telling us that our perception of OUR situation was wrong and he knew the real problems were. He then proceeded to start scheduling the work before we agreed to use his company. When we tried to slow him down or back him off, he became hostile and argumentative. I could see that my wife was getting uncomfortfable and then cared so I told him we would have to get back to him. At this point he started railing about how we needed to make a commitment right then and there because he had already taken the time and effort to come to see us and intimated that we owed it to him. At that point I only half-jokingly told him that I would pay for his gas, but he had to leave immediately. It still took another 10 or 15 minutes to get rid of him with him complaining how unfair we were being all the way to his car. Very scary.

gentleman came out to give estimate. told him we were getting other estimates before choosing a company to do work since we never had this problem before. wanted to make sure we got best price and workmanship. we thought we would get a written estimate and listing of work to be done. did not receive that. was told cost without it being in writing and wanted us to sign that day and wanted a 20% down payment. I believe this is a wrong way to do business and told salesman that. then said he would give discount if we signed that day. continued to pressure us and lost the sale. me and my husband will never sign same day or give down payment on job. we went with company that left us an estimate, not needing down payment and said call us when ready to choose company to do job.

Prior to calling Dr Dry we had several waterproofing companies give us estimates for our basement moisture problems for a house that we wanted to sale. We decided to called Dr Dry based on reviews on AngiesList. The owner, Chris, came to our house and took the time to explain, in detail, all the problems and solutions that would address our moisture problems. He not only looked at the inside of the house, but also did an analysis of the outside that other companies, that we called, did not do. He suggested we reroute our downspouts. He quoted a bid for doing the entire perimeter of the basement and the rerouting of downspouts. He projected a degree of confidence that his company was the best and would completely solve the problem. We suggest you call them for your moisture problems. We planned to give them the contract, but we got a bid on the house to sale it "AS IS" without any repairs, which we decided to do.

I didn't go with them and I wasn't impressed with them.

If you want to bring a company into your home that is HONEST and that cares about the work that they do for their customers, then this is the company you want to call. Our basement always had some water issues. We have used other companies in the past that did not correct the issue. Frankly, we were not sure how to correct the problem and we always felt that we were being sold a product that we might or might not need OR that might or might not correct the problem. When Dr. Dry came out to our house, they suggested a course of action and explained WHY their suggested course would work. We decided to go with them, after interviewing others, and for the first time in 20 years, we have absolutely NO WATER in our basement. None! (this is not n exaggeration) When they did the basement, there was a paint issue with the resin paint adhering to the wall, but they came out and the issue was resolved. We did not need to hound them - they just think a job should be finished 'the right way'. Months later, we contracted with them to do the same for our basement garage (same issues). I highly recommend the Dr. Dry company without reservation.

He was good. I liked the rating that he had on Angie's List. They were really, really good. There was no mess at all.

The whole process was great. They provided a detailed quote and were honest about what we needed. The work was done in a timely manner with the guys always communicating what was going on. Given the scale of the job, they kept things quiet and clean. We received several quotes for this type of work and Dr Dry had by far the best prices and provided the best service. They didn't try to upsell all this crazy stuff or make their products seem cutting edge (french drains are old tech!). Couldn't be happier.

**Original Post 10/31/13-Indoor French Drain. Went great and will recommend them to anyone. Just check your water heater pilot before they leave each day LOL! **Update 11/18/15-Last year I was still getting some water from an area that wasn't previously done so I had them come back out for a quote to finish the wine cellar. John showed up and said that's smaller than our minimum job of $1500.00 but if they did by back wall in the garage it would increase the footage and still be under the $1500.00 minimum. I told him it wasn't worth $1500.00 to me and asked if I were to put a drain grate across the door and tie it into their system would it void their warranty. John said he would have to get with Chris and get back to me. Still waiting for that call months later. Initially when they installed the system they did not put the pit, pump, or discharge where John and I had agreed upon the day I signed the contract. Instead they put all of the above on the opposite corner of the room and tied the discharge into below where my kitchen sink drains. When I asked if they were even allowed to tie into the drain their response was "Oh yeah, this is the City so we can drain it into the sewer.". At the time I had no idea that that was a complete lie or that it would cause my sink to rattle and stink any time the pump kicked on. 3 things to note here are be sure you are watching when they start to dig the pit, if you live in the City of Pittsburgh make sure you know which sewage line you are on because you cannot tie into the sewer just because it is the City, and if anyone touches your plumbing they should be a certified master plumber and you should get a permit from the City. All of these things can cause issues when you go to sell your home. September 2015-Tuesday I leave the house through the basement at 530 PM as its raining and the basement is dry, return at 7PM and the basement has water pouring over the French drain across the basement from all sides making its way to my floor drain. I walk over to the pump and it is not running so I prime it at the plug and plug it in and it runs continuously for 5 minutes or so and throughout the night as it should. I call Dr. Dry and leave a message explaining what happened. Cindy calls back and apologizes and says the earliest they can get a service call is Saturday. I explain that I have carpet and a couch that now needs thrown away and is stinking up the house but she apologizes again and says she can't get anyone out sooner. Saturday comes and Dr Dry is a no call-no show. I call and leave a message but no return call until Monday. Cindy explains the crew was broken down on the side of the road and the next time they can get out is the following Saturday. Next Saturday rolls around and the tech calls and says he is picking up a new pump and will be over but explains he will have to charge me for the pump because it is no longer under warranty. He shows up a couple hours later and I explain the pump is still under warranty because the system was installed on Halloween 2 years prior. He begins troubleshooting and I explain the cone in the pump may have just been stuck because of a long stretch of dry weather but the tech tells me this is impossible. He calls the owner, Chris, and now tells me my sewer couldn't handle the water and backed up. I explain that clearly didn't happen and showed him the pictures of the water coming out of the system and draining to the sewer. We'll just say they are really stuck on the fact that the sewer backed up and that's when I explain that when the system was installed it was agreed upon that it would drain out to the corner of the yard. At that point he does offer to run a drain pipe all the way across my basement ceiling and out into the yard so I said lets stop and just finish the wine cellar and back of the garage at a later date. He spoke with Chris and they said they would have John call me to come out and give me a price to finish. Oh, and the tech said they didn't make it the week before because they were finishing up a BIG job. A week goes by and no call from John so I call the office and Cindy says nobody told her to schedule anything so she sets up an appointment for Thursday. Thursday comes and John doesn't show but calls, late. I say I'd like to do the work that he said would be $1500.00 and he says they can't do it for that price now. He tells me that the price of milk and food has gone up and a wet spring has made it so that they can charge twice as much now that there is such demand. I ask so how much then? He tells me he can't say without seeing but asks me to go measure for him so I go measure. He ballparks at $3800. I explain that its less than half as much as they did for $2375 initially so he continues to tell me that they are turning away jobs this small and even walked away from a $50k job. During this conversation John also explains that the manufacturer of the pump has since reinforced the cone inside the pump because they were prone to drying up and sticking, which is what I initially thought happened but was told this was impossible by the tech. So folks, I wouldn't recommend using this company. I'm now stuck with either voiding the warranty and having another contractor finishing the job or paying this company almost twice as much for less than half of the work they originally did. Also, if you do hire them in hopes of finishing your basement please do not feel like you have piece of mind that if you do get flooded again that you will be offered even an apology for lost items. Do yourself a favor and pay a little more for a company that stands behind their work because I regret not going with Advanced Basement Solutions now. John did say that they would call if they got slow and possibly work on the $3800 price but I'm not holding my breathe.

Job took 5 days. They were careful to avoid our sprinkler system and repaired the lines that had to be broken in order to lay the drain. All debris were removed and they try hard not to damage the rest of the lawn.

John was proactive and responsive to my request for service. He returned my call promptly and service was scheduled quickly. Chris and his team were fast, efficient and very professional. They arrived in the morning and had everything finished by 3:00pm. They located the source of the water problem and installed a new pumping system. I feel more secure about finishing the basement now that the water problem is resolved.

They did good work from the time started and ended also cleaned up when finished.

Was not professional at all. Very rude and abrupt on the phone. Barely listened to our request and was talking over me the whole time during the conversation. Not service oriented whatsoever. I would not refer.

It went well and they were very fast. Done in 3 days and they even avoided having to move the water heater so I did not have to go without hot water. They moved the major appliances and sink and then reattached everything when finished. I did have a problem with the sink trap leaking an hour after they left, so I had that replaced and had to pay a plumber for that. The exterior blocks around the front were not patched enough and they are leaking water again but those may need complete repointing anyway which was beyond the scope of this job. Overall, the basement is great and I'm happy. I have a usable space and I'm not afraid to store things in my basement again. thank you,

I found Dr. Dry at the Home Show and made an appointment. The salesman arrived promptly for the appointment and after investigating he thoroughly explained the problems with the basement and with the exterior of the house. The entire process of what work would be done was explained. After a couple of hours and having talked to other companies, I felt confident to hire Dr Dry. I then proceeded to move stuff away from the walls and waited for the phone call for work to start. Chris and his crew arrived promptly. A french drain was installed in the interior of the house using one sump pump. They also dug up each side of the house (2 exterior sides) and installed an exterior drain that would take water to the existing drainpipe. The sump pump discharge also fed into the existing drainpipe.They then leveled my walkway on the side of the house. I was pleased with the professionalism of the crew and the work that was done, putting in long hours to finish on time. They also cleaned everything up before they left. I would not hesitate to hire them.

John came out to look at the problem and give an estimate. Show up on time and examined the issue. He then explained in plain and simple English what the problem was and how to fix it. While other companies had come out and had laptops and high tech printers to show what the problem was and how to fix it they all had the same answer. Decided to go with Dr Dry that day. He said he would put us on the list and that it would be about 6 weeks until they could do the job. Got the call the were coming out to do the job in 6 weeks. They showed up to start the job at the time they said they would be here and worked steady until the work was done. Finished that same day. Left everything clean and in order. I will recommend them to anyone I know that has a wet basement. 100% satisfied!!!

We interviewed 8 french drain installers we met at last year's home show. The estimates ranged from $6,000-$17,000 to eliminate the water issues we were having in our basement. Our cellar flooded several times since December 2010, and we also had water seep through the cracks in our 100 year old concrete floor. The salesman, John, made every effort to meet with us as many times as we needed to ask as many questions as we had. He was very no-nonsense and honest and even met us at 10:30 on a Sunday night after we returned home from out of town. Chris was able to schedule us in quickly, and after we moved everything off of the walls, they got started. The work took about a week. Each night, the cellar was left extremely clean which could not be easy as they were removing loads of concrete to install the drains. They also removed a bathroom which was unfortunately necessary to install the drains around the entire cellar. Some companies we met with suggested running the drains around the bathroom or stopping the drains at the bathroom wall which would not completely fix the water issue. On the exterior, Chris asked which plants if any we would like to keep. In our case, we wanted all landscaping removed except for a few bulbs which they dug up and replaced when the work was completed. They also connected our gutters. Since the drains were installed we have had no water in the basement. Chris returned a few weeks after the installation to spray the walls with a sealer and check the old cracks in the middle of the floor that were still wet. He told me to give it some time to displace and we would see the dampness would disappear. He was right, the cracks are now dry even in spots where bins are sitting on them which were always an issue. A few weeks ago, he returned again at my request to check a few cracks in the new concrete. After checking the areas, he reassured me that things were fine. He also reminded me to tell the contractors finishing my basement not to nail or screw into the walls or floor. We appreciate the friendliness and professionalism. At this year's home show, Chris and John even gave our two-year-old a box of cookies. They treat you like your family and they treat your home like it's theirs.