Basement Detective

Very positive experience from initial phone contact through to completion and follow-up. During the initial assessment, they explained why we were experiencing water collection in our basement and thoroughly described their recommendation to resolve. We agreed on a date for the work to be done, but they called a few days later to say that they could come earlier than we had scheduled. We were glad to do so, even though their suggested date was a Saturday. The crew arrived at the prearranged time and were courteous and professional. They took precautions to limit disruption to us and covered the work area to reduce the amount of dirt, dust and debris coming from the basement. As they had predicted, it was an all-day job, even with the crew taking only a few short breaks. They cleaned-up after the job was done and removed all excess materials. The real test came over the past few days with all the heavy rain that has fallen in our neighborhood. Before the work was done, our basement would have had standing water in several spots, some as much as an inch deep. After the work was done, there was not a single area of dampness in the entire basement. A little bit costly, but knowing that moisture is no longer collecting in the basement walls and that water is no longer entering the basement is quite comforting.

Very smooth with this contractor. They came out immediately to diagnose my moisture problem, including inspection the inside and outside of my home. Mark determined my problem was that moisture was building up between my garage wall and basement wall, causing it to make its way into my home. He explained how this works and why I was seeing moisture exactly where it was appearing. They had to dig a trench in my concrete slab in the basement all around the portion of the basement that was below grade. They installed all the stuff that goes with the trench- screen, rocks, etc.. They also dug out the well for the sump pump, installed the pump and PVC pipe to send the offending water outside. They then patched the trench over with cement, installed the well cover, and it looks flawless- really beautiful work! Mark checked in with me after to make sure I was happy. And then.... when I thought I saw moisture in the basement about 3 weeks later, I called them in a bit of a panic. Anthony grabbed a plumber and they were at my house within two hours! It turned out my house water filtration system's flush hose was no longer (for whatever reason), attached to the drain and so water was getting on my floor. So it had nothing to do with the pump or diagnosis. But the point is they came immediately when I called and were super, super nice when we all realized it had nothing to do with their work. :) And the plumber noticed I have a hot water heater (newly installed) that is not up to code- yikes! But that was a bonus to find out about that. In short, good people, good work, and I would use them again for sure.

On the good side, Basement Detective representatives were very courteous and responsive. Many of the other contractors that we contacted about our water problem said, "We do this kind of work, so we'll do it for you," without really diagnosing the problem or explaining how their one-size-fits-all solution would likely address our problem. Basement Detective claimed to be able to do several different kinds of work and first diagnosed our problem before beginning. They created weep holes in the walls to direct incoming water into the French drain system they installed, and they provided a professional-looking sump and effective pump to get the water out of our basement. In order to address the problem of exterior standing water, particularly that affecting our hearth (see below), they provided a proposal for an exterior drain system to help manage the standing underground water near our house and car port. On the down side, the water is still coming through our walls before getting captured in the system. In the case of our brick-and-mortar hearth, that is causing damage to the mortar. They closed off their own drain system with tile in one place, forcing them to come back and re-open it. When they did this, they used an off-colored tile for the repair, which did not match our existing tile. They did offer to replace the off-color tile with correctly-colored tile when they noticed it. The open gap in this one room is an eyesore and will likely get filled with dirt from the floor over time. Overall they are responsive, professional, and seem honest. They have so far stood behind their work.

i went through several companies i found on Angies List and this was the one i was most comfortable with. One company couldn't give me a straight answer, another wanted to talk about my fishing poles more than my problem, another said it was a $30 fix when i had a crack in my foundation, and another tried to sell me everything under the sun. best part was the last company tried to tell me how their piping cost so much more than everyone else's because their engineers specifically designed it for them, but Basement Detective used the same stuff. Roland was very helpful and sold me on shooting it straight and coming off human.

We called Anthony 4 years after doing some work for us back in 2010. He worked with us when the company was under another owner, Northern Virginia Remodelers. Anthony apparently bought the company and is now focusing solely on basement issues under the name Basement Detective. He did not hesitate to honor the warranty that was promised us under NV remodellers and was extremely prompt in getting out to the property to take a look. The previous work under the other company has not held up and there was more water in a problem area. He agreed to do some additional work to get the job done right and is not charging us at all for the repairs to the prior work completed. The work has yet to be completed but so far I have been very impressed with his honorable business practices and am very relieved not to be starting from scratch. I will follow up with another review once the work is complete!

Roland was not only prompt but early (he called first), and assessed area where I have noticed small amount of water. He determined that there were no areas of concern and recommended not taking any remedial action at this time. I appreciate his honesty and will likely call them again should the problem resurface.

They did an amazing job and they were great. They were right within the time frame that they said. They were available right when they said. They showed up. Overall, I will give them high marks because they did a great job. They were able to give us quite a few discounts throughout the entire project. They even went out of their way to get the permits because I could pay them to do the permits or I could save money & do the permits. They did the work without charging me anything.

I had water that was coming into my basement near the floor at the front of my house whenever there was significant amount of rain or snow melt. This had been happening for quite some time. My carpet and baseboard was ruined in the corner where the water was coming in. There was also the obvious odor of mildew. I called basement detective and they were able to send out Roland to inspect the issue the very next day. He arrived on time on a Friday night at 6 pm. Within a few minutes he had diagnosed the problem and was prepared to put together a quote for the services required. He explained everything clearly and had diagrams and photos to show exactly what needed to be done. With the Angie's List discount and coupon the cost was significantly lower than we had expected. We decided to schedule the work right away. We scheduled the work to be performed on the following Tuesday. Monday morning the workmen showed up unannounced as there was apparently a miscommunication somewhere along the line. This was not a problem for us since we were home from work that whole week anyway and we were eager to have the problem fixed. They work crew were courteous and covered everything with plastic from floor to ceiling in the work area. They finished up faster than expected and cleaned up the area to my satisfaction. The final product looks great and is guaranteed - even if we sell the house. We still have to repair the drywall and repaint but Roland suggested that we either do it ourselves or hire a handyman as his minimum rates for that sort of work would exceed what we would pay someone else. I appreciated his honesty regarding the drywall.

In order to do this they tore down drywall. They did a good job and their price is very competitive.

After a basement flood we had Basement Detectives come out to evaluate our situation. Our schedule was tough to find a time where both owners could be available at the same time so we made an appt for the day after Thanskgiving. Roland arrived exactly at the agreed upon time and inspected our sump basin and pump as well as took dampness readings of our basement floor. He reviewed the info on our current pump and determined that we simply had a pump that was not as big and powerful enough to handle the water that could come into the basin. He advised us to work with a plumber to replace the pump and clean out the basin. We offered him gas money since he came from northern Virginia to northern Maryland, but he wouldn't take it. We really appreciated Roland's time and talents to come all this way to confidently tell us we didn't need his services. If we should ever need work that Basement Detectives performs we would certainly use them.

Inspector/supervisor Roland Hook came out on short notice to provide an estimate. He was very experienced, knowledgeable, and easy to talk to. However, we decided to contract with a different waterproofing firm with comparable experience and positive reviews but whose similar proposal was several thousand dollars lower in price.

I would highly recommend them for the waterproofing. They did a great job. I would not recommend them to prep the walls. I felt they took short cuts and then made us feel like we were being too picky when we questioned the work.

The technician arrived on time and gave us an expert consultation about how to fix our leaking window well. It turned out this is a job I can do myself or get a contractor to do for about $100. It simply involves replacing the window well, sealing the point of entry and making sure there is some drainage. I couldn't be more satisfied with their service and they did not charge me! I only hire people with all or almost all top ratings. These folks are highly recommended: professional, dependable and ethical from my experience.

From the first contact by phone to the day on which the work was completed, Basement Detective was top notch. Roland Hook was especially helpful in walking us through in evaluating the problem, identifying the options to address it, and then providing the time and cost estimate. Although the house we live in is over 40 years old, no sump pump had ever been installed in the basement. Thus, the work did require breaking a lot of concrete to install the French drain. It also involved moving heavy appliances, a large sink and going through sheet rock walls! The crew who came to install the system arrived on time (acutally, a little early), worked a little extra time into the evening, and finished everything (drain and pump) in one day. Roland stopped by the next day to survey how things went as well as answer any further questions we had. We could not have been more satisfied with the outcome of an unwelcomed necessity to address the leaking basement. It has been a year since the work was performed and we continue to be quite grateful for the professionalism and quality of work that Basement Detective provided!

The technician arrived and walked us though the basement while explaining signs and specific details that are needed for our specific basement and lay out. He listened well to our comments and answered all our questions. Left us with a specific plan and drawing with quotes for the services. Gave no pressure to sell us the job. He offered us discounts we were unaware of which helped out our bottom line. We plan on using them in the near future.

Very professional and knowledgeable, knew exactly what was wrong with our basement and was able to provide a detailed estimate on the spot.

Went great. Basement Detective came out and said that we didn't need to do anything to the current system that we have. Which was in contradiction to the previous quote. Previous guy gave us a quote of 13k for their systems installation and called what I had already installed garbage. Basement Detective deduced that the cause of our leak was the HVAC. Said not to waste our money on replacing the current system since it worked, and as he put it, someone had already put a lot of money in the current system...so we didn't install a new system and kept a watch on teh HVAC. It turned out to be the HVAC, Basement Detective came out one more time, looked at it and gave me a number to a HVAC guy they trust. I plan on calling their HVAC guy, I trusted them, they kept me from spending a ton of money (and how many companies do that!).

Roland arrived thirty minutes early, was very pleasant and extremely professional. We explained the problem we had after the most recent storm and he took the time to carefully inspect our basement. After a couple of minutes and careful inspection he discovered that the leak had nothing to do with our foundation but instead, was being caused by the lack of flashing on our deck. Refreshingly, he was happy to inform us that our problem was not as bad as we thought (foundation). Even though that meant he would not be providing his services to us. It's nice to know that there are honest and well meaning companies out there. If we're ever in the market for this type of service, we will be sure to call Basement Detectives.

We were very satisfied with the promptness and the relatively clean job that was done. They came on time and the work was accomplished well before we expected it would be. We were impressed with their efficiency in getting the work done. The pathway to the basement was covered in cloths to keep out the dirt throughout the house. They thoroughly covered the furnishings and things that we left in the basement. Even the noise was less than we expected. The contractor left things covered up so that when the wall board is replaced by another contractor he won't have to duplicate that effort. He left the electrical outlets and cable hook ups along the back wall accessible so that they can be reinstalled when the other contractor comes. All other coverings were taken away and all debris was disposed of into their truck and hauled away. We used a separate contractor because we have built-in bookcases and we did not want them to be demolished with the wall board. This was our choice. We would recommend the workmanship to anyone.

I had contacted them because I had water infiltrating my carpet in my finished basement - as it turned out, the problem was because of an issue with my HVAC system (friends helped me figure that out in between when I had set up the appt and when Roland from Basement Detectives arrived). Roland told me that they see that HVAC problem a lot, and he went around and tested my walls just to be sure there were no issues with the foundation, then he gave me a referral to a flooring company they work with, as I told him I was planning to rip out and replace the existing carpet. Since I haven't had issues prior to this (except a little leakage during last year's hurricane), he said they do not recommend fixing something that isn't broken. I feel like he did a thorough evaluation, taking a look at everything and asking me a number of questions as well as pointing out some things, and I really appreciated his honesty and lack of attempt to sell me something I didn't need. Hopefully I will never have foundation issues, but if I do I won't hesitate to contact them!

Fantastic. Simply fantastic. Basement Detective came out promptly and gave a great estimate, along with materials showing what would be done and what the finished product would do. I had four different estimates come, ranging from $6k-$45k, and BD's had the best proposal for a very fair estimate. I was on vacation and they even arranged to have the work done while I was gone. Finished product was done perfectly, very clean, and with absolutely no mess what so ever. Highly recommended.

We actually had three other companies that we looked at for the job. We are not going to use them to fix our problem since their bid came in higher than one of the other companies and they are not doing as much work. We got the three companies from Angie's List and they had the 10% discount for Angie's List customers. I liked the fact that the guy actually spent a lot of time explaining to us what, from their perspective, they see was happening and that they had a solution for it. He went through it and explained step by step how they want to do it. The one thing that I did not like with his presentation was when I asked him what they would do with the debris because they have got to bust up the concrete floor. I asked him what they would do with the concrete and he said that they would stick it in a trench and that was not the right answer in my opinion. The company that we actually hired to do it would not work that way and their estimate was considerably less for more work. I cannot say that I did not like the presentation or anything, it was just that I think that the price was too high and I think that their method of handling the debris was not acceptable to us. They were here exactly when they said that they were going to be and they spent as much time here as they needed. The people that we hired to do the job are giving us a lifetime warranty while Basement Detective would only give us a 20-year warranty or something like that. The difference in the warranty was important. Well, I do not plan on living in this house forever but when I sell it I can transfer the warranty and if it is a lifetime, it would be transferred to the lifetime of whoever buys the house. That was another thing that I was not happy about.

The Basement Detective came out and reviewed our basement, which had a musty smell and humid feeling. They put in a French drain in our basement, filled one sump pump well and dug two new wells. They also consulted on our drainage. Really happy with the work and services provided. They were responsive and very thorough.

One room of my basement flooded after several hard rains. Called Basement Detectives to discuss options. Roland came out to inspect and provide a free estimate. Several weeks later a crew arrived to dig a trench, emplace a vapor barrier, and install a sump pump in our basement. The crew was professional and cleaned up their mess. I will be renting the house out in the next few years so I am happy to have one less maintenance issue to worry about. Very high quality work, fair price, and professional service.

Roland Hook and the team from Basement Detective were great to work with. They came in, diagnosed our problem, offered a couple of solutions, and once we chose a solution they were thorough and completed the work on time. They answered all of our questions and we would recommend them highly. Anthony the owner visited our house several times during the work and understood our concerns and we could tell he really cared.