Drainage and Erosion Solutions

It was a very slow and frustrating process to get something scheduled. I would not blame them but there was some communication issues between the company. I was able to get someone to come out and see me and he never finished the bid. I had to follow up with them to have them finish. Everything was wonderful once they were able to come out and they were able to fix the problem.

Drainage & Erosion Solutions LLC did a pretty good job. They were very nice. It came out well, but there is one corner that is low and it probably needs some more work. They were hard workers.

It was an odd experience. The technician gave me good information in our appointment. They never gave me a written estimate. They seemed knowledgeable and always called to follow up with me on the inspection and see what I wanted to do but I never could do anything since I never received an estimate.

I called Drainage and Erosion Solutions because of some cracks in our foundation that we wanted repaired. D&E had installed our drainage system several years ago and we were extremely happy with the work they did at that time. Within a day of my calling, Dave Robey who supervised the drainage project back in 2011 returned my call within a day and arranged to come out and look at what we wanted to do this time. Dave went over the job requirements. I also had him look at the drainage system which had some dirt that I was afraid might clog up the system. He recommended having the drainage system cleaned at the same time we were having them do the foundation repairs. The crew came a day early and got right to work, making the repairs and doing the maintenance on the drainage system in one day. We could not be happier with the responsiveness of the company and its crew. Dave went the extra mile for us and kept on top of the job from start to finish. If you need drainage or foundation work done on your home, you could not do better in my opinion than going with Drainage and Erosion Solutions.

The designer's name was Len. It was complicated with different levels , curved stairs and stone walls . The work was begun and finished on time.excellent stonework. Easy to work with, and high quality work.

Excellent work. This company helped us with a huge drainage problem 10 years ago when our gargage and back door flooded after heavy rain. Drainage & Erosion redirected all the drains away from the rear of our home and redirected a stream that is on the side of our property. The results were amazing. No more flooding. Since that time, we have had Drainage & Erosion come out to our home to take care of the landscape and make sure that the drains are not clogged and to repair any damage to the stream. Our home is situated at the bottom of a hill and we had an 11,000 square foot house built at the top of the hill five years ago. This caused a huge runoff issue. Fortunately, we have been able to call Drainage & Erosion to solve any probelm that occured.

My experience with purchasing a Big Deal with Drainage & Erosion Solutions LLC didn't go so well. When they came out to talk to us said that the person who sold us the Big Deal had given us incorrect information and that what we wanted, they couldn't do. But then, we made other arrangements with them, and they came back, and they did some different work for us. And they took the amount of Big Deal and added that to the overall cost of what we were buying. All the work they ended up doing for us really looks nice. They did it well, and we were pleased.

DES moved the plants that were in the way, graded the area, installed landscape fabric and the stones for the dry creek bed. Overall they were professional and cleaned up most of the debris from the area. Job was completed in ~1 day.

The work that they did solved 90% of our issues and they are coming back to evaluate the remaining minor concerns. I appreciated their responsiveness, the reasonableness of their quote (especially compared to the other 2 we got), and the fact they stand behind their work.

We made an appointment with someone to come out and he never showed up. It's too bad because we were looking for someone who could "do it all" and this company seemed to fit the bill. We have a gutter and downspout that need repair and we have a backyard water problem. Need regrading so that water runs away from our house. If anyone knows who could help us out, please let me know. Thanks.

The provider got so many appointments in a day that he only has 5-10 minutes to quickly check the situation and propose a solution that does not quite make sense to us. What we expect is a more consulting session of at least 20 minutes for different options that we can actually implement. We did not go for the no-sense solution that they proposed. We simply wasted $89.

The patio they build with the pavers looks great and the treatment they put around the edges surpassed our expectations. Their drainage solution to keep water from the downspout pooling in our backyard is practically invisible as it runs under the patio to the edge of the property, with a hidden exit for the water. The project manager we worked with was very good at explaining our options when we met for a consultation on the backyard patio. Helping us come up with a solution that would solve our drainage solution, provide us with a nice patio and keep to as close to our budget as possible. When he checked out our yard, he noticed that our neighbors downspout setup was actually draining into our yard, and gave us some flexible tubing along with instructions on what to ask our neighbor to dot solve the issue with his water runoff going into our yard. They estimated the time to build the patio would be a week, but it actually ended up getting finished early. It is nice to see a contractor finish ahead of schedule, not behind. The cost seemed a bit high when we first got the quote for the work, but after talking with neighbors we found that it was in line with what other contractors charge for a similar work. All in all we are very happy with the work that was done and wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to our friends.

They arrived on-time. David went over what was to be done just to make sure everyone was on the same page. They guys did their thing. When it was finished, the area was so clean that you could not tell that all this work had just been done. About 10 days later, there was quite a bit of rain. When it was over, there was no pooling of water. The work they did fixed my problem.

The exterior waterproofing took 2 days. Applied a black coating that resembled black tar around the foundation wall and then applied a black sheeting on the foundation. Sprinkler heads were placed back to their original position and landscaping was replanted to their original spot. Overall a nice job.

It turned out well. We had the stone. We merely hired the people for an allotted time. They continued to lay the stone on our patio. It worked out fine. They came out pretty promptly. It was quite so simple. I think that's why it went so well probably because it was so straightforward. It was like "Here are the stones, please work for 20 hours." We had all the stones and all they had to do was to do the work. They were fine. I thought it was a good price. I'm a little bit influenced by a ladder experience I had with them. They came when they said they would and they left when they said they would.

Two gentleman appeared for the appointment. One indicated he was a structural engineer and examined the exterior foundation and grading to determine whether exterior issues may be contributing to the moisture problem. The other person visually inspected and used a moisture meter on the interior walls and checked windows for possible water intrusion. Foundation problems were ruled out. Despite their best efforts, the source of possible water intrusion could not be determined. It was suggested that the roof be inspected as another potential area of intrusion. Overall, I was pleased with the services provided.

He did a thorough analysis and explanation of what their service would entail. The quoted price seemed reasonable. We decided on another approach.

A terrible experience with Drainage & Erosion Solutions LLC. The $16,085 I paid them was a total waste of money. So far, I've spent an additional $5,280 to repair their bad work. I hired DES in June of 2010 because rainwater was seeping through the soil outside my house, going through the exterior foundation walls of my house (the basement walls) and then onto the basement floor. Not only did the DES waterproofing fail, allowing water to enter my basement, but while installing a new catch basin drain at the bottom of my outdoor basement stairwell, DES violated DC Plumbing Code by cutting off the drain’s sewer trap. I was alerted to this two years after DES did the work, when, sitting on my back porch, I smelled noxious odors coming from the new drain. I asked two plumbers and one waterproofing expert to look at the new drain DES had installed: * Plumber Billy Silk of Master Mechanical Plumbing * Plumber J.D. Springer * Waterproofing & drainage expert Hal Woodyard of Always Basements All three were horrified. They confirmed that cutting off a sewer trap is illegal in Washington, DC because it violates the DC Plumbing Code. They also said that if I ever wanted to sell my house, I’d have to replace the sewer trap. I spent $1,550 to install a new sewer trap to replace the one DES had cut off. I emailed DES, requesting reimbursement. DES employee Evan Anolik told me over the phone that if the sewer trap replacement cost had been under $1,000, DES would have reimbursed me. But Mr. Anolik said that since the replacement cost exceeded $1,000, I should have asked DES to do the work, and DES would have replaced the sewer trap for free. I however do not trust the quality of their work. The DES nightmare continued. Two years and a half years after DES did the waterproofing work, I discovered that water had seeped in along my left basement wall, where the wall and floor meet. The visible water trail was one inch wide and seven feet long. The water trail was below one of the stone window wells that DES had constructed. To repair the leaky basement wall, I called on Mr. Hal Woodyard, the waterproofing & drainage expert. Mr. Woodyard never saw the water trail, because it had dried out by the time he came to look at the basement. But he said the water trail I described was evidence that the DES waterproofing or drainage system had failed. Mr. Woodyard said the most effective (and expensive) solution would be to re-do the waterproofing of the exterior foundation wall (but that would mean digging up all that soil all over again). He suggested a far less expensive repair: waterproofing the interior of the foundation wall (30 inches up from the floor slab x 18 feet). The cost was $770. So far, Mr. Woodyard’s interior waterproofing has kept water from collecting along my left basement wall. At this point, I thought the DES nightmare was over. It wasn’t. Three years after DES did its waterproofing work, I discovered water damage on the interior surface of the retaining wall that is to the left of my outside basement door. The interior surface of this retaining wall was dry as a bone when DES waterproofed the wall’s exterior in June of 2010. But by June of 2013 the interior surface of the retaining wall showed water penetration and big, dark water stains. To fix the waterproofing of the retaining wall, I again called Mr. Woodyard’s firm and contracted for repairs. His crew dug a deep trench below the depth of the retaining wall. Now that all the soil was removed, he could see the exterior surface of the retaining wall…and determine what was causing water damage to the wall's other side. Mr. Woodyard said the waterproofing of the exterior of the retaining wall failed because DES had used a poor waterproofing method. He said DES had applied a thin coat of tar to the wall and then pressed onto the wall a thin layer of plastic sheeting - 6 mil polyethylene – which is just six-thousandths of an inch thick. When Mr. Woodyard and his crew removed the polyethylene sheeting from the the tar-coated wall, they discovered that both sides of the polyethylene sheeting were damp and stained with soil. They also found wetness and soil stains in between the plastic sheeting and the tar coating, which Mr. Woodyard said demonstrated the failure of DES’s waterproofing application. Mr. Woodyard said that in his experience, polyethylene sheeting can easily rip from rocks and other sharp debris when workers re-fill the trench with soil. He said that once water finds its way between the plastic sheeting and the tar coating, the water invariably finds an entry point through the tar coating. The water is then absorbed into the masonry foundation wall, causing interior wetness. Mr. Woodyard said this is what caused the water damage to my retaining wall. He said DES should have used something called a drainage plane, which directs rainwater downward and away from the foundation of the house. The cost to repair the DES waterproofing of the retaining wall was $2,960. So far, I have spent $5,280 to repair the defective work of Drainage & Erosion Solutions LLC. $1,550 – to replace sewer trap that DES illegally cut off $770 - to waterproof interior of left basement wall (water had seeped in) $2,960 – to re-do waterproofing of retaining wall (DES exterior waterproofing failed) I emailed Ken Fraine and three other DES employees. I told them I had hired Mr. Woodyard to repair their defective waterproofing work on my rear basement stairway retaining wall. I shared some comments from Mr. Woodyard about DES’s waterproofing work. I also invited DES employees to come see the repair work being done. I received this reply from Ken Fraine of DES. Thank you very much for the invitation and for compiling the notes from Hal Woodyard. While I doubt we can send a representative there between these times tomorrow morning given the relatively short notice, I have made all our designers and our head supervisor aware of Mr. Woodyard's observations. Best, Ken To give DES some credit, Mr. Woodyard said they had made a large effort and that much of their work was good. But he said DES did not understand the crucial details necessary, especially drainage plane application, for successful waterproofing and water management. I should mention that when DES waterproofed my retaining wall, it used ONE layer of 6 mil polyethylene. When DES waterproofed my three foundation walls, it used TWO layers of 6 mil polyethylene. But Mr. Woodyard says that even when two layers of 6 mil polyethylene are used, the polyethylene almost invariably fails. My advice: Do not hire Drainage & Erosion Services LLC! Addendum One: Mr. Woodyard said that even though the International Residential Code (2009) allows the use of 6 mil (six-thousandths of an inch thick) polyethylene sheeting for waterproofing, he considers it a poor choice. He said the best choice for waterproofing is to use a drainage plane (1/2 inch thick), which is designed to direct rainwater downward and away from the foundation of the house. Mr. Woodyard said that using a drainage plane eliminates the water collection which often happens with polyethylene sheeting. He said that although the use of a drainage plane is not required by the International Residential Code, it is considered to be a “best practice” because it is a foundation water management system that is truly “waterproof.” Addendum Two: When Mr. Woodyard re-did the waterproofing of the retaining wall, instead of using 6 mil polyethylene, he used a drainage plane. Instead of using tar, he used a polymer- and resin-modified, fiberglass-reinforced two-component liquid system that cures into a solid, flexible membrane. It is highly waterproof and also bonds tightly to the exterior masonry surface, eliminating the water collection which so often happens with polyethylene sheeting. Addendum Three: JUNE 2010 CONTRACT with Drainage & Erosion Solutions LLC - Complete List of Work - FRONT OF HOUSE Excavate along full depth of foundation wall, parge and waterproof wall, install footing drainage system, compact soil backfill to grade LEFT SIDE OF HOUSE Excavate along full depth of foundation wall, parge and waterproof wall, install footing drainage system, compact soil backfill to grade Install plastic liner system along foundation wall and below ground surface Install two stacked stone window wells with drainage systems Install buried pipe from window well drains and connect to weep hole through base of rear area way retaining wall RIGHT SIDE OF HOUSE Excavate along full depth of foundation wall, parge and waterproof wall, install footing drainage system, compact soil backfill to grade Install plastic liner system along foundation wall and below ground surface. Reset existing stepper back into place REAR OF HOUSE Install buried 4”ADS pipe from rear corners terminating into pop-up drain emitters Demolish concrete pad at base of area way. Install new drainage intake and new PVC pipe from rear wall, and place new concrete pad. Attempt to connect window well drain to drainage intake below new concrete pad EXTRA WORK Place pachysandra ground cover along left side fence Raise area way brick wall by three courses Place shredded hardwood mulch along right side ($50 credit given for not placing seed and straw) Regrade for positive drainage and shredded hardwood mulch

All work that was promised was completed. Additional cracks were located and repaired without additional cost.

Job went without a hitch. Crew of five worked for about half a day. Installed and buried PVC drain pipes and installed 20 plus feet of french drain pipe. Coverd with gravel and cleaned area. All piping worked as needed during subsequent rain storm. Very pleased with entire job

Workmanship was excellent and drainage probems corrected in an excellent way. Job was completed promptly. What was previously an eyesore is not a beautiful walkway and pation. The only concern I had was the design of the pario was changed without consulting us. Fortunately we were pleased with the end result. We would probably have agreed with the design change, if it had been communicated to us. Under different circumstances though, could have been bad news.

Very professional. He felt bad that I don't need much work done so offered a tone of useful advice to ensure I got value for money. This is an engineering company so be aware the work will be excellent but costly.

I was able to get a quote very quickly (I was quoted in February, their slow season) and David was able to give me some good information about the condition of the home and the water concerns we had with the basement. The original solution he recommended was way out of our price range, but we were able to come to a compromise and find a solution that we think will resolve our immediate concerns. We were able to schedule the work within a month of our agreement (which by now was during their busy season). The crew was quick and the work was done within a half day. We would hire them again.

Very helpful. Did not use his services after the consultation.

I have mixed feelings about this whole job. On one hand, the workers themselves were great and sweated for hours in the hot & humid weather. I know they have chosen to do this kind of work, but my heart goes out to them. They worked around issues that came up and left my yard looking very clean. I know it takes a while for sod to settle and grow in and the mud will wash away the next hard rain. It took weeks to see someone and even more weeks until their schedule was open to do the work. I cannot fault them for being busy but it did seem to take too long to get the job started. I hope they have a system for emergencies. My main issue had to do with the company itself. I was constantly promised one thing and got something else. No one seems to listen and follows up on what is discussed. I see this so often in companies I have hired I am not surprised, but it is incredibly annoying anyway. It is like they have "a way of doing things" and they just pacify you anyway they can when they speak with you. But in the end you are not really being heard. And so you find they are not really going to do all they promise. We found this company at a home show. We were promised the head engineer/owner would come out to find our water source under our home. We got Evan instead. While he is a nice person, we were disappointed given we have had water issues for over 25+ years and wanted to know "where" the water was coming from. We went with this company based on their selling this great engineer to help us and their being on Angie's List. Evan and I talked and emailed until we agreed on what work was to be done. In this process, I asked to add a drain pipe for some rear roof gutters and also some other issues that I will not go into. He promised he would be at the site on the first day so we could review everything, including where under ground sprinkler systems were located and other under ground issues I knew about as a home owner. We discussed this issue of him being there at the start of each day (but especially the first day) numerous times and I took the morning off from work to be there to meet with him. Instead, I got a truck full of workers I had to stop working and my frantically trying to get a hold of Evan. Evan told me he had already been over earlier, but why he did not come to the door or come while the workers were not there is not clear to me or my wife - this all did not make sense and we sensed he was not being truthful. When he did finally come to the house I went over a half a dozen issues with him, many of which he and I had discussed on the phone or by email. He had not remembered many of these until I brought them up again. I did not like having to stop the men but they were not updated on these issues. The company stresses in their contract that they want to know where under ground pipes etc. may be located and Evan asked me to be sure I told him about these the first day. His response that morning was to not worry as they would fix anything they broke. My response was I preferred they know where things were located and not break anything in the first place. Clearly, whenever he and I spoke he was saying anything to take away my concerns; but he never noted what was discussed so he would follow up later. For the purposes of brevity I will not continue as I think my point about this issue is well made. Even wheh he did finally arrive on the first day he really erked me. First, he kept telling me while we talked on our cell phones that he could not get over to my place right away as he had 2 other jobs to get started. The message I got from this statment was clear - our job was not a priority! This really ticked me off. Later on after he had arrived and as we were wrapping up our final discussions I walked him down again to the electrical panel in the basement and where they could bring the wiring for the outside sump pump they were installing. I assumed they would bring in electricity so my new sump pump would actually work. He and I had walked through this area weeks eariler so I assumed they would do this work. His flipped remark when I asked about this issue was, " We are not electricians!" Then he went on to say it would cost $1500 to bring in an electrical line. This is about 40% of the entire job! [If he is not an electrician how does he know what this costs?] Then he said he knew of a cheap guy and would get me his name. I did not like the term cheap as it kind of implies cheap workmanship in my mind. I never heard any more about this. There was no mention of an electrical source for this out side sump pump in the contract, but I assumed this given I had received other quotes for this work from other companies and they all included the electirical work. In the end, they draped a long entension cord around my back steps and to my patio where there is an outside plug. Very tacky looking and I will have to deal with getting an electrical box installed soon. This is all very unprofessional in my opinion. I walked away from him after his flipped remarks, telling him that my idea of professionalism was very different than his. It is like buying a car and then the salesmen saying, "We are not locksmiths. You will have to get a set of keys made if you want to drive the car off the lot." Really?!?! He called me tonight and left a voice mail now that the job is done. He said he wanted to walk through the job but I saw no reason to do so. I think what he really wanted was a final check. I sent a check in the mail. I also sent him an email too to wrap a few things up. They did not install a clean out pipe as he said he would for the side drain pipe. Not being heard again and my having to remind the company. We will see if they follow up. Just want to move on and forget this whole thing.