Drainage and Erosion Solutions

I can't say enough good things about Evan and the team at Drainage and Erosion! I have a forty year old home that was having significant drainage issues. After receiving several quotes for what would be a substantial job (>$30k), I decided to go with Evan and Drainage and Erosion. They exceeded expectations before, during and after the job. Evan was diligent and thoughtful during the quote process and addressed all of my questions. Perhaps most importantly, was able to guarantee the work (something several other contractors would not do for some reason). On the day of the project kickoff, the team showed up promptly and got to work. They completed several significant subprojects in less than a week. When the work concluded you could not tell my entire front yard had been dug up and the drains were landscaped wonderfully. ...not to mention the beautiful new patio that was constructed. All of my drainage issues have been solved and Evan has been prompt and responsive with all of my after project questions etc. With an old home in need of constant attention, I am a regular to the contractor circuit and my expectations are very rarely exceeded. I can say without reservation Evan and Drainage and Erosion will not disappoint.

They were punctual, professional. Explained everything in what I wanted to do, But like I said I just haven't acted on it yet. Um again, I don't have anything to compare with they're price, Concerned that they're moving, you know again sure I’d liked to pay less. They're moving a lot of dirt. The procedures they talked about made since to me. I done some internet research about the kind of materials they were using and how they compare with others. Oh they were very responsive. They were prompt, they came when they said they were, on the agreed upon time. I would talk to them in the future. Again I can't judge they're work because they haven't done anything.

Excellent! It saved our front yard from May rainstorms.

Drainage and Erosion Solutions installed a 130 foot drainage channel (an "armored swale") lined with fabric and 3'-8' river jack stone. They backfilled the eroded areas and stabilized the area between the street and the swale with gravel. We've received several compliments from neighbors who were impressed with the work. They also went above and beyond by mulching some adjacent areas. We would hire them again and highly recommend them to all.

Fantastic job, it looks beautiful and it has stopped the erosion from rain water. Very knowledgeable professional, he knew exactly what had to be done, and gave us several options. The crew worked very quickly, they were very neat, very pleasant. We were very impressed!

The job has been completed for 5 months and we have observed how the work handled several spring deluges. We have lived on our property for over 30 years and were aware of the drainage problems for some time. I put off trying to correct them because I was skeptical that the situation could be significantly improved. The performance of these improvements has been outstanding and far exceeded my expectations. It was music to my ears to stand at the driveway channel drain and hear the water getting captured and rushing out the exit pipe. The flow pretty nearly filled the capacity of the 8-inch pipe. We had several energetic discussions with Tom about how big the drain pipes would be. He listened to our concerns and eventually we came to agreement. We had many buried lines in front of our house that had to be located and protected during all this digging. At the peak, there were about 20 workers with shovels working this job. I was nervous about all these wires. In the end, we did sever the underground dog wire, but that was of no consequence. We removed the wire from the front of the house but kept it in other parts of the property. The workmanship on this project was outstanding. The visible porch and walkway are sparkling. The best materials were used for the downspout drains. The design work for the drainage was excellent and has been shown to be a great solution to the many problems. The responsiveness of the team was excellent. They provided an extra downspout drain with popup at no cost. At no extra cost they provided a 15-foot 10-inch drain pipe, with rocks at the exit to the pond, in the pasture that was not part of the contract. They provided some significant amount of sod that I would not have thought necessary, but which I appreciated. The cost for the job seemed high to us, but we insisted on larger drain pipes and more expensive options in several respects. In light of the number of workers, the size of the different parts of the job, and the huge quantity of materials, I consider the cost quite reasonable. I am confident that we will not have to deal with drainage solutions again for as long as we are at this property. With the drainage issues resolved, we were able to go forward with a rework of the landscaping on our property. That has been completed with another contractor, and we now have a property that looks good and gives us a great deal of satisfaction. Picture shows a portion of the work in front of the house while the project was underway.

Very good service and responsiveness. Workmanship was great.

Very professional and responsible. We're very pleased.

I really liked the idea that this company was focused on engineering the solution. We are building a basketball court in our backyard, but the water flow in the area was horrible. I had Rick come out to check it out to give us a quote. He seemed knowledge and had a plan. After a week or so, I inquired about the quote. He said he needed to come back out and look at it. He did, and said it should be easy enough and would get us a quote. Another week later, he says that the owner needs to come out and check it out. Almost a week later, he finally did. Mark also seemed knowledgeable and had a different plan for what he wanted to do. Both sounded good, so I was fine. After over a week, I had to ask for an update on the quote. At this point, he pawned me off on the office manager. She wrote back informing me that it would be 7-10 days. That was almost 5 weeks from my initial visit from Rick. I expressed frustration to this poor office manager that was tasked with giving me the bad news, and her response was that they couldn't do the estimate until I had the court installed. She suggested I contact them after I had it installed. No response after I emailed back complaining that they could have just told me that a month earlier. I was interested in their quote because they seemed to have good ideas, so I was extremely disappointed that they treated me that way. I have gotten quotes from other people since then that agree I should wait to get the court in, but they still were able to give me a quote. The worst part to me was the fact that they pawned me off on another person. At least have the decency to contact me directly. I essentially wasted 5 weeks on them and had to start over from scratch. I would never call them again.

They're a super service, they've received the 2013 super service award so I thought that they would job. I would never use them again. The owner should have gotten back in touch with me and the fact that they didn't was just, shows lack of professionalism. I would communicate to the owner that if he has a situation like that he has to talk to the customer, he has to. I mean he has to come out and look at what happens and talk to the customer. I'm very disappointed in them and and I'm sure that they have better people there than the one that we got because they wouldn't have gotten that service award.

This is my second job with DES and they did an excellent job once again. My job was fairly large, so they showed up with an extra large crew and were able to finish in 1 day. The crew does excellent work and is willing to make adjustments as necessary as the job progresses. Overall they are an excellent company to work with and I will use them again.

Very nice work, even somewhat beyond what I expected. Good communication with David Arias and everything went well on the day of the job. Highly recommended for anyone having drainage issues that they aren't sure how to handle.

Long story short: Things started off really well, and we're happy with the work that they have now completed. Communication between the employees in the field, the clients, and the office is problematic. We were having multiple issues with drainage in the back of our house and the sideyard/walkway, and based on reviews here we contacted DES. They were able to send a consultant out to make an estimate within a few days of my call, and he was very knowledgeable and personable. Once we signed a contract, the work was scheduled to begin very soon - within 1-2 weeks, which was great. I was told the job would take one day to complete. There were some strange hiccups in scheduling; for example, the consultant called me four times to schedule the work, each time acting like we'd never spoken before (although once we had just spoken 30 minutes earlier). But the morning work began went fine; the same consultant came out, confirmed the work to be done, introduced the crew, and they got started. The consultant said he would be in touch at the end of the day to make sure we were happy with everything. This is the point where communication became an issue. The crew left without finishing, and when we hadn't heard from the consultant we called him and the office, which both went to voicemail. We never heard back from either party, but when we came home the next evening the work looked complete. The flagstone walkway they installed was a great upgrade, and the new drain pipe to the front yard worked well to divert water from the gutters and sump pump. On further inspection, we noticed that the French drain had not been rerouted, just replaced. I called the consultant and left a message, and a few days later called the office to see what had happened (assuming that rerouting just hadn't been possible) and the amount of our final payment based on the work they'd been able to do. I was told I'd get a call back from the consultant about coming out to walk through what was done and collect payment. I called the consultant a few more times, but didn't hear back from anyone for two weeks. When I did hear back the office was just following up on the final payment. I reiterated the issue and said I'd been trying to contact the consultant. It turns out he was no longer with the company. The office scheduled the owner to come out and look things over. Showing a pattern, the owner called me again a week later trying to schedule a visit for that same day/time. The owner came out as promised, looked over what was done and said the original estimate did not include rerouting the French drain, although it was possible to do so. This was in contrast to the conversations I'd had with the original consultant while he wrote out and explained the estimate, and while he introduced the crew and confirmed the work to be done. But I agreed that some obviously necessary supplies weren't listed on the estimate (e.g., bricks) so we set up a (very reasonable, probably too low) additional payment to complete that work, and paid everything in full. The owner said the office would call us in a day or two to schedule a time for the work to be completed, but two weeks later we called ourselves and eventually set it up. On the scheduled day no one came out and no work was done (unsurprising as it was raining), and we didn't hear back from the company. Two weeks later we finally talked to someone in the office who said we were already on the schedule for later that same day. But again, no one came out and no work was done. The next day the office called to say there had been a problem getting the supplies needed, but the work would definitely be completed the following Monday (and if not, that the office would be in touch). The following Monday the crew came out and the project was about half completed by that evening. No contact from the company, but the next day when we got home the work was finished. Everything looks great and all seems to work fine; overall we're happy with the finished product, but very frustrated by the communication issues.

Drainage and Erosion is a great company. We had our entire yard (0.5 acres) done back in 2014 and the work was outstanding! Ask for David Arias (Operations Manager). Him and his crew are awesome! Great service!

Weather made the project last a day longer than expected, but I couldn't be happier with the result. The guys were very responsible with my house and it was neat and clean when they left. They also made my yard look better than expected and certainly better than it looked when they arrived. I highly recommend them.

Grant and his team are awesome. First off, Grant is very responsive to both email and text (he responded to me via email one night past 11pm!). Also, Grant is the kind of guy that sells you what you need (not what makes the company the most money) and gives you straight answers. He doesn't use fear or high-pressure tactics to sell you on his work. One other thing - the guy is a real gentleman (plenty of yes sir/mam type stuff). Originally, we had Grant come over to give us a proposal on a sump pump system for our basement (as we wanted an estimate for home expense budgeting purposes). He was very honest with us and said that our basement probably didn't need a sump pump after his assessment. We were also looking for window-well/regrading of soil near basement, which he provided right on the spot (this was back in January). Called Grant back in early March and got the project scheduled for March 24. Miss Utility came out a week before (at Drainage LLC's direction) to ensure that no utility lines would be impacted by the work performed. As promised, Grant and his team came out and performed all work as agreed to. Lots of regrading work, digging out old nasty bushes, hauling stone, etc. His team even put down grass seed/hay for me (at no cost). I would highly recommend Drainage Solutions, LLC.

We had a few delays due to a little snow (26" here) but once we could see the ground again, Drainage & Erosion Solutions descended upon our yard with around 8-10 guys to dig down to the footer by hand. I was amazed that they completed all the digging, had a hole cut for the egress window, and installed the window the first day. The second day they filled in a bunch of cracks, applied several different layers of waterproofing material and filled the trench back in, tamping it down every few feet. I'm pretty confident there isn't going to be any settling as they packed it all in very tight. The third day, they hauled out the extra dirt and restored our side yard to look the same as when they started, including re-spreading mulch that they had removed from the area to perform the work. This job required that our outdoor HVAC unit be disconnected and temporarily moved. They had a an outside contractor do this work, airnovations, llc, and those guys were very professional too. It was going to be in the 20's overnight and they made sure we'd still have heat by using the auxiliary heater while the unit was disconnected. All the guys were really nice. Most, if not all the crew spoke English so there was never any communications issues. David Arias was the operations manager and he was in touch either in person or by phone several times a day to keep me updated on the work and coordinating with the HVAC guys. This was one of the smoothest experiences we've had when getting major work done to our home.

Davis Arias bossed the job. He and his people exhibited professionalism and courtesy throughout the project. Work proceeded at fill speed whenever the weather allowed.

The company responded quickly to our request for an estimate and the employee who came to provide the estimate walked through several options for re mediating the problem and gave us an estimate on the spot. Our only difficulty was that we could not get in touch with that person again when we wanted to schedule the work. It turned out he had left the company shortly after preparing our estimate. When we called the company, they sent someone else over to look over what he had proposed and we settled on doing only part of the work initially proposed, which has been sufficient to solve the problem. Once work was scheduled, things went well, the workers showed up on time and did a good job. We asked for an adjustment to the wall they built around the door and they quickly made it.

Did an excellent job. Easy to deal with. Crew worked hard and did a high quality job.

The crew arrived as expected and completed the job by mid-day. They seeded and spread straw. Until we have a soaking rain, I won't be able to judge its effectiveness.

David Arias is the operations manager and was responsive by phone and email and had a crew out within days. They located and fixed the problem. Excellent customer service, a very reasonable price (I got a few quotes), and they lived up to their Angie's List reputation. Customer service makes a difference - keep up the good work.

Very professional team. Had extensive experience working on drainage projects. Did a great job at a reasonable price. I would use them again.

Update (11/18/15). After my review, one of the owners, Mark Lane, came to check on my concerns and arranged to take care of the issues noted below. On the date scheduled for the job (October 23) no one showed and I was not contacted. The job was rescheduled for the next week (October 30) and the crew did come, addressed the concerns, and did a great job. I would like to preface this review by saying that I had this company execute a job in March 2015 (job one) and was so pleased that I wrote an "A" review (perhaps too soon). Based on that positive experience, I contracted for a second job (the first was $14,400 and the second was $2,225). I would also like to say that the reason I am writing a second review is that customer service is practically nonexistent with this company. While the first job did solve my drainage problem, it caused a problem for my neighbor. From the first day Ahria Sorbi came to estimate the job I told him I did not want my drainage solution to cause a problem for my neighbor. Not only did he assure me that this would not be the case, he spoke to my neighbor and said that it would not impact his yard at all. Well, it most certainly DID impact my neighbor, who now has a stream through his backyard from my yard when it rains. I have been trying to resolve this problem since May (when the second job started). My first email (I had spoken to Ahria previously by phone regarding the problem) was July 17. I did not hear back from Ahria (this is typical of my experience) and finally was able to contact him by phone on July 31. He assured me that he was in the area quite frequently and asked me to supply him with my neighbor?s contact information and he would contact them and do what was necessary so they didn't have a problem. I did so on July 31 and after checking with my neighbor found that he had not been in contact (we also had hardly any rain during this period). I emailed Ahria again on August 28 (four weeks later) and as of today (September 5) have not had any response. I will add that job two was poorly executed as far as the sod. The day of installation (May 8) of the sod it was apparent that the quality of the material was sub-par and I made Ahria aware of this. Here is an excerpt of my email on May 12 to Ahria regarding the sod: "As I haven?t heard from you I want to make you aware that I am not at all pleased with the quality of the sod that was used for roughly half of the front lawn. During installation it looked dried out and the rolls were not tightly rolled, as compared to the second batch, which was not offloaded from the truck until I had spoken to your foreman twice about the obvious poor quality of the pieces they were using. The rolls were actually falling apart in your crew members? hands as they lifted them from the street to the wheelbarrow/lawn. As I said, I spoke with your foreman twice about the quality and he agreed that many of the rolls were ?no good? and he assured me they were not using those rolls. And yet, I saw that they had to cut the usable sections from the rolls, and were using a much more ?patchwork? style than they had for the backyard job. Finally, the second load was used and as a result the half of my ?new? lawn closest to my house has the quality look I expected from your company." They did come on May 13 and replaced a few pieces of sod, with the biggest being 12 x 12 inches and the smallest measuring about 9x3 inches (my lawn looked ridiculously patch worked). I emailed Ahria the next day, but did not hear back, so, I sent another email on June 2 (excerpt): "Since I didn?t hear back from you regarding my May 14 email (below) I wanted to contact you again before the 30 day term expires from the sod placement on May 8 so we can take care of the problem. There are still about six to eight squares/pieces/edges of sod that are dead. The rest of the lawn is fine, but these were bad pieces when they were laid (see my email from May 12) and were not replaced on May 13, which is why I sent you the email on May 14 (unanswered). I?ve added some more recent pictures." On June 6, I emailed the three names on the proposal form because I had not heard anything from Ahria (his phone mailbox was also full) and the 30 days deadline was quickly approaching. Ahria then contacted me and had a crew member come by and replace sod that was still dead. I thought that was the end of it, but the sod on my front yard is a disgrace. The half that was installed that was sub-par to begin with has reverted to weeds and the half of the lawn that was from the second (quality) load of sod is grass and looks fine. Neighbors have even commented on how bad the lawn looks (half grass/half weeds), because they saw the work going on and Drainage and Erosion Solutions put a sign on my lawn claiming ownership. I have resigned myself to the fact that I will have to pay another provider to replace the sod on my front yard, but hope that this review will prompt Drainage & Erosion Solutions to contact me and honor what it promised when it began the work that by fixing my back yard drainage problem it would not cause a problem for my neighbor.

This company did NOT honor its warranty with us. Update: AFTER I filed a complaint with the BBB, I was contacted by David Arias. (I had previously contacted him and, Mark Lane, the owner, when Ahria Sorbi was unresponsive, but did not heard from David until I filed the complaint). I provided BBB with emails, texts and other documentation to show that the company was unresponsive and that I had done everything I could to get them to come out to my property. When David contacted me after I filed the complaint with BBB, he was polite at first, but after finding out that I had hired another contractor to fix the basement leaks, he became hostile and hung up on me. In his response to this review, he implies that because the previous owner contracted with his company for the work and not us, that their 20-year warrant does not apply to us, the new owners. The work his company did was pursuant to the sale of the house and was completed a FEW days before we purchased the property (we purchased the property on April 15). His company emailed a complete report of the work done, along with a TRANSFERABLE warranty. His company knew perfectly well that they were performing the work for the new owners and a transferable warranty is just that -- transferable. In the Angie's List review posted on Sept. 5 by another customer, David admits that Mr. Sorbi is no longer with the company and was let go because he neglected his customers. Instead of taking responsibility for Mr. Sorbi neglecting his customers, this company is alternatively claiming that because we didn't originally contract with them that they are not liable for the leak and then claiming that I prevented them from coming out to fix the problem so that I could pay another contractor thousands of dollars to fix my basement leak. I think the tone of David's response says it all. This company does not stand behind its work or its warranties. The review: Note: As a courtesy, I emailed this review to Mark, the owner, on August 12; over a week before posting it on Angie?s List. No one from the company responded. Around April 4, 2015, as part of the contract on the sale of our house, the previous owner had Drainage & Erosion Solutions come out and waterproof the basement and grade the dirt around our foundation. Soil & Drainage supplied us with a 20-year warranty on basement waterproofing. Two and a half months later, water leaked into our basement and mold started growing on our drywall. On Monday, June 29 I spoke with Ahria Sorbi, the man who had overseen the original work, and reported everything I had seen regarding the leak, including that the soil around the basement did not appear to be positively graded even though the company said it had done that in April. Mr. Sorbi said he would stop by on Wednesday or Thursday to take a look and asked if I could email him the report of work done. That day I emailed Mr. Sorbi the report along with pictures he had taken of the sealed basement. On Wednesday, when I did not hear from him I sent Mr. Sorbi an email asking what time he would be out so I could be home to show him the leak. He emailed back and said he would need to reschedule and asked if the following Tuesday would work. I said it would and waited to hear back from him regarding the time. I did not hear back from him so I emailed him the day before he was to come out and asked what time he would be coming to the house. I also left him a voicemail. I never heard back from him. The following week, on July 8, I left a voicemail and emailed David Arias, asking if he could intervene and come out and take a look at our property. I never heard from him. I then called the company and asked to deal with someone else since Mr. Sorbi was not keeping appointments or communicating. I spoke with Dawn who was lovely and was also sympathetic. She said she would have Mark, the owner of the company, come to my house on July 15. On July 15, to my surprise, Mr. Sorbi showed up instead of Mark. Mr. Sorbi looked at the water damage and mold in my basement and the foundation area and said they would need to repair it but he would need to get the okay from Mark first. He said he would have it done in the next 2-3 weeks and he also promised to stay in touch this time. On July 20th, I texted Mr. Sorbi on a related matter and Mr. Sorbi texted back that Mark was aware of the situation and as soon as he had a job start date he would let me know and that it ?should be within 2 weeks.? Almost two weeks later I had heard nothing from Mr. Sorbi or the company. On July 31, I emailed him letting him know that my basement had leaked again a few days before after a thunderstorm and asked what day he would be out. I never heard from Mr. Sorbi or the company again. As of this writing, it has been about 8 weeks since I first reported the leak to Mr. Sorbi, but there has been no repair, no effort to set up a date for the repair and no communication from the company as to why nothing has been scheduled or explanation for the delay. The only conclusion I can draw at this point is the company does not honor its warranties. Because of the leak, I had to have a contractor come out and rip out my bathroom and I will have to hire another contractor to fix the leak in my basement that this company will not address. I will also be submitting a complaint to the BBB.