Drainage and Erosion Solutions

We had been experience some flooding in our basement every time it rained. They came out quickly to provide an estimate for waterproofing, and were friendly and professional. It's been a very rainy spring/summer, so they were booking appointments about 4 weeks out. When our day came, the crew was incredibly efficient and professional, and the end result is great. They were even able to put our front garden back the way it was before (they had to dig up almost all of it in order to do the work). We highly recommend them.

The project, and my relationship as a customer with DES, went extremely well from the outset. The main DES contact on the project, Dave Arias, was highly responsive from the beginning, coming up with a variety of options and consistently returning calls within a brief time. The estimating, planning, and permitting portions of the work happened within a reasonable time. When it came time to do the work, DES brought a large and conscientious work force and all the needed equipment to the site. The old wall was removed in a single day's work, with the debris placed in two large construction dumpsters that were then hauled off. The new timber wall was constructed over two days, and in addition to appearing soundly constructed is quite attractive to look at. Following completion of the work, the DES crew graded and seeded the portion of the yard that had been impacted by the work. The price for the project, though far from minimal, was reasonable given the amount of materials and labor involved. (DES actually had the second-lowest bid for the project among the companies I contacted -- though the difference was not great -- but their responsiveness and understanding of the context of the project -- including an antagonistic neighbor -- made them the best choice.)

I wanted to hide downspout extensions at my new house and I called Drainage and Erosion (as well as two other companies) back in November 2014 to get an estimate. Ahria came back and explained the approach he would recommended in detail (I had asked for the most cost-effective and easy to implement solution). The other two companies (who were also highly rated and very professional) offered different approaches and in the end I chose D&E because they were the most cost-effective and I was pleased with the practical solution they suggested. The work was performed in one day. The crew was punctual and very hard working. They removed the top soil/lawn, then dug tranches to install PCV pipes to take the rain water away from the house. They then put the top soil/lawn back in place putting the lawn back to its original appearance. I was very impressed! That would be reason enough to recommend D&E, but here?s more! About 6 months after the job had been completed, I noticed one area (the elbow of a PVC pipe) where there must have been a leak as water was lingering in this particular spot, while the rest of the area was dry. I called D&E and they came back promptly and fix this at no extra cost to me (although, technical, this was beyond their guarantee). Based on my personal experience I highly recommend Drainage & Erosion and would certainly use them again in the future.

We have decided to hold off on a project of this size right now and are going to try a few inexpensive fixes to keep the water in our yard away from our foundation. However, I wanted to post a positive review because we had such a good experience with DES. Sal was professional, knowledgeable, and incredibly responsive. After receiving the estimate via e-mail, I e-mailed him with several questions on two occasions and he got back to me right away both times. If we decide to move forward with this type of work in the future, we will certainly reach out to Sal and DES.

Excellent. David Arias, Operations Manager, met with us several times to go over our option and come up with a Plan B when the initial plan proved too expensive. The patio (400 sq ft) looks amazing...we have reclaimed the back yard.

There were no problems. When they were don't, there was no evidence that they had been digging up the yard. They provided several pictures to show the work in progress.

We initially found DES on Angie's List and contracted with them on a major drainage and erosion jobat our house that involved installation of a french drain, construction of a retaining wall and significant landscaping. DES did a marvelous job and came within our budget and agreed timeline. The DES crew was on time, courteous and cleaned up at the end of each day of work. We were so pleased with the work and the result that we decided to ask DES to return to our house to work on another area. Once again the timeliness and professionalism of the DES crew and especially David Arias, the Fairfax Division Operations Manager with whom we had earlier worked, made our decision to proceed with DES again an easy one. We would highly recommend DES to anyone who has drainage or similar type of problems on their property. Thank you David and your team once again.

We hired Erosion & Drainage to stop water seeping into our basement and to relieve pressure against the foundation. We were charged 50% more than the quote, and our yard is STILL a swamp and there is more water in our basement than ever. The owner/consultant was unresponsive during the project and the solution they proposed to fix our problem was completely inappropriate. In addition to what we spent with them, we ended up having to spend another $1,700 to another company in the middle of the project for additional work because Erosion & Drainage misrepresented what they were able to do. The work crew was really nice, though.

It's a bit late to provide this, but Angie's List keeps asking, so here goes. My issue was water seepage into my lowest level of a multi-story townhouse, but not actual flooding. (The back wall is underground.) The provider offered a special deal which I signed up for. I believe Angie's List was just starting to offer these deals at the time. The provider apparently was overwhelmed by the response and it was difficult to get an appointment scheduled between the demand on them and my work schedule. I recall having to call the provider to protest. The provider's representative came to my house when it was dark out - not a great time to be inspecting the back of the house in Reston where we abhor outdoor lighting! The recommendation was I should consider an indoor solution - sump pump system installation, which service the provider did not offer. That is what I ultimately did, using company that I believe the provider 's rep recommended. As far as I can tell, the waterproofing system has resolved the seepage issue, but it was about a $5000 job. At the time I was juggling many responsibilities and did not have time to get multiple estimates.

We shared with David that we are especially concerned with making sure what he was proposing would fix our primary concern ? which was the sump pump pit and the significant sediment getting into the pit itself preventing the pump from functioning properly, especially given that we have already spent thousands of dollars replacing/repairing the sump pump in less than 2 months time. We repeatedly said to David that we really wanted to be sure this solution would be a long term solution and prevent the sediment from getting into the sump pump pit, especially if we are spending this much money on the work proposed. David assured us that this should redirect a significant amount of water and pressure flowing into the pump and also carry the water away from the house instead of flowing right back under our outside stairwell and back into the pump. David also assured us that he would check the pump functionality after the services were complete to assure our satisfaction and ensured us we would have peace of mind and be able to leave our house without worrying about a flood. David also stated Drainage & Erosion Solutions provides a warranty on the services provided. As such, we entered into the contract with Drainage & Erosion Solutions and David Arias and his crew performed the work on April 21-22. The quality of the work from an ascetic perspective was satisfactory. The crew was respectful and acknowledged our feedback on ascetics and placement of the dry rock bed. We were surprised with $1000 additional cost outside the original scope of work to lay sod in the areas dug up for the French drains which was not mentioned. We were disappointed that this was not included in the original quote given that we would expect Drainage & Erosion Solutions should have anticipated this cost as they knew they would need to tear up the yard to install the French drains. This additional cost was only brought to our attention as additional scope after our yard was torn apart as the work was being performed (at which point we had little option to price out the sod or purchase it ourselves). However, if that was the extent of our satisfaction, we likely would have given Drainage & Erosion Solutions a positive review. Unfortunately that is not the case. After spending $5,450 for their services, we were still having issues with sediment getting into the sump pump. We promptly reached back out to David to come back and take another look at the sump pump given our concerns with sediment getting into the pump after closely monitoring rainfall within the following month. David deferred a few times stating they were so busy with new customers he did not have time to come back out, but after repeated attempts to get his attention to address our concerns, on June 4, 2014 David came back to our property to review after setting up a time that I took off work for and then showing up earlier in the day when I was not at home and left his business card to call him. However instead of standing behind his word acknowledging our primary concern was the sediment in the sump pump pit, he pushed back on us that was outside the scope of work and we should hire a mason to assist with our issue. We reiterated to him that was the sole reason we engaged Drainage & Erosion Solutions to solve the issue with the sump pit. When discussing the issue further with David (and cc?ing the owner Mark Lane), we did not appreciate information being misconstrued in emails and in conversation that are not reflective of reality. We understand that David works on several projects simultaneously and a lot of the information may be tough to keep straight. However, my wife and I only dealt with 2 contractors that we got quotes from and this was a significant expense for us so we kept meticulous detail of the representations made to us by David on behalf of Drainage & Erosion Solutions. At one point in the email correspondence David mentioned that he previously mentioned there was no guarantee to fix the problem unless the entire stairwell was taken down and rebuilt before the project started (which was never mentioned or we would have hired a mason instead of Drainage & Erosion Solutions). He also indicated a mason should be contacted to fix our issue as there could be a spring under our house. This was the first we heard of a mason being a better fit for the project after spending $5,450 on what we thought would fix the problem. Unfortunately, as another month passed trying to get David and Drainage & Erosion Solutions to acknowledge our concerns, our BASEMENT FLOODED in August 2014 the evening before we were schedule to leave on vacation. We incurred substantial cost and time addressing the flooded basement, removing and replacing the flooring as well as damaged furniture that would have been prevented had our concerns been properly acknowledged and addressed by Drainage & Erosion Solutions. We immediately called Drainage & Erosion Solutions and asked to speak with Mark Lane, the owner, given that our repeated attempts to get David?s attention failed. Mark redirected all our calls to his receptionist and upon persistent attempts to contact him; we were able to demand he come to our property to revisit our concerns. Mark came to our property on Aug 14th and we shared our concerns around the sump pump pit and sediment. Mark acknowledged to us that David should have recognized the damage to the sump pit itself and included rebuilding the pit in the original scope of work performed. Mark stated he has dealt with external sump pumps a number of times over his 20+ year career and if he had come to initially evaluate the scope of work himself he would have recommended that. We were extremely disappointed to hear this coming from the owner, especially because this was the first thing we showed David on his initial visit and we very much emphasized that being the source of our concern (so much so that you can see the asterisks added to the invoice to ?check the sump pump & clean out? and ?check under stairwell for erosional cavities & fill if needed?). Mark acknowledged it was evident in looking into the sump pump pit that the walls were caving due to the pressure and there was obvious evidence of sediment getting into the pump pit due to the compromised integrity of the pit. Mark boasted about how great business was given the significant rainfall/weather the area was experiencing. We were a bit put off by these statements as it seemed their business was doing so well they didn?t really care much about customer satisfaction and/or the quality of work that was being performed. Mark stated that despite being terribly busy with a backlog of customers, he would quickly provide us a quote within the next two days to address our concerns and give us discounted pricing (at cost) given that our problem was not properly addressed initially along with an apology for the fact that our basement got flooded despite our proactive attempt to correct the issue. We had to follow up with Mark several times (Aug 17th, 20th, 22nd, and 26th) just to track down Mark for the fee estimate. Finally we received the fee quote on Aug 26th (12 days later). It appeared no discount at cost was provided for Drainage & Erosion Solutions lack of correcting the problem the first time. Drainage & Erosion Solutions? quote was much higher than another quote. We obviously decided to go with another contractor to perform to work on the sump pump pit and rebuild the base/drain of the stairwell given our distrust and dissatisfaction with Drainage & Erosion Solutions. The new contractor promptly and properly corrected the issue and we have not experienced this problem since it was repaired. We highly recommend a different service provider if you want someone to stand behind their work and not put you through all the hassle/cost we incurred. Update: It's disheartening to see additional false remarks made by the company. We were never told to contact the prior company who installed the sump pit as David told us what he proposed would solve our problem - this warning David speaks of was never provided and no separate cost was mentioned as his scope was intended to fix our problem. David also calls the key reason for contracting them an "unrelated problem" which is actually the only problem we had!! Obviously they have a lot more things going on in their head vs what actually was communicated and agreed upon. It's also hurts to hear that their resolution is to have us pay an additional fee to address the key reason/issue for what we contracted them to fix in the first place. It appears that if the owner who has more experience than David originally came out, we would have never gone through all the efforts which didn't help our problem one bit and would have saved us a lot of money. The company does great with landscaping but unfortunately when solving the key issues they drop the ball and insult their customers with false realities.

We've had moisture issues in the basement of our 1950 house. No flooding, just moisture in the cinder block - paint would not adhere after a few years. Grant and his crew spent nearly 3 days doing the work. They dug down 6-7 feet and 4 feet out from the house. Then they applied two layers of waterproofing. The crews also rerouted and repiped the downspout tubes carrying water away from the house. They also extended a 20-year transferrable warranty. Outstanding work. Superb customer service. I highly recommend this firm. Joe Junod

Everything went very well! The project manager, David, was awesome! Easy to work with and very responsive to all our requests. The crew they sent to do the work was efficient and worked extremely hard. Drainage & Erosion Solutions will be the only company I use for any drainage issues in the future.

I was experiencing major water pooling and mud throughout my backyard (for the first time in 15 years) and a sinkhole had developed. I contacted Drainage & Erosion via online request and was contacted within a day to set up an evaluation appointment. The service was professional from diagnosis and estimate by Ahria Sorbi to the 13 member crew that executed the job. The crew is hardworking and knowledgeable and completed the job in just two days. The entire process, from estimate to completion, was only two weeks. When i made changes to the original estimate (enlarging the walkway to a patio and sinking downspouts) Ahria made the changes right away and let me know the additional charges (which were reasonable). Just hours after completion we experienced a heavy rainfall (several hours) and the next morning my backyard showed no puddling or mud. I was so impressed that when Ahria came for a final walk-through I asked for an estimate for my front yard, which he gave me before leaving. I would highly recommend this company.

This company and crew is very impressive. Here's a little background info. Our property required a lot of help due to rainwater and a broken clay pipe (50 years old). The house sits on the side of a hill. When it rains, the water comes straight to the length of the whole house. The previous owner had installed a "point" drain system which was useless. They also installed a sprinkler system surrounding the whole property which works nicely for the planting beds. When David and Grant came out to the house for an initial consultation, I was very concerned about the disruption of current drains, the sprinkler system, and the shrubs. First, while walking around the property, they were able to talk me through their process and reassure me that it could be done. I never felt rushed, and they were patient with all my questions. Second, Grant gave me an itemized price list for my property, so I could see where the money would be going. I wasn't sure if I could afford it all at the same time. The scope of work was major, but he was able to break it down into stages. Through more emailing with Grant, another visit to the property, and other Angie List contractors coming out, I choose Drainage and Erosion to do the whole scope of work. Their winter pricing and customers service sealed the deal. Here's a list of the work done: Excavating along the length of the house and creating two 30' French drains which flow into 6" pipes extending all the way to the curb (under sidewalk) on both sides of house (95'), Extending and connecting 3 downspouts on right hand side of house into a 6" pipe, Adding 3 drain cleanouts, Capping the 50 year old clay pipe that broke, Installing new sub pump piping and connecting into drainage pipes, Waterproofing wall/slab of foundation on Sunroom and two basement walls, Sealing cracks in walls, Installing 3 new window wells, Restoring grade for drainage, Removing all debris including shrubs not wanted, Transplanting two trees, The promise that our sprinkler system will be working in spring when it's turned on or they'll come out and fix it. The actual job took only two days as contracted. Grant came out the morning work began to answer questions and make introductions. The crew of 11 men were hard working (9am-7pm) and also answered my questions. All of this work was done by hand digging which allowed them to carefully move my sprinkler system and maneuver around the other piping. When they were done, they seamed the grass back beautifully. You couldn't tell what had been done unless you looked very closely. Also the drainage holes in the cemented curb look as though they have been there forever. We have 4 holes on the right and 3 on the left. I highly recommend this company.

They did this work in freezing temperatures with high winds. They worked all day for 2 days straight and they left the place immaculately clean. I?ve never seen anybody work so hard in such terrible conditions and they were so pleasant the whole time! I will definitely have them back again to do more work because they were superb.

I thought they were very practical and gave good advice. They did not try to up-sell me. I would recommend them to a friend because I thought that they were fair because many times everybody else tried to up-sell me and I didn't need it.

Our appointment was for 9:30 but when Dave did not show by 9:45 we called to confirm. He apologized and said he had looked at the wrong calendar and would come out in about 1/2 hour. That was not a problem for us as we intended to be working at the job site all day, and we figured anyone can make that mistake. However, when he did arrive, the three of us were shocked at how rude he was. We have never experienced this type of situation before with contractors. When he came out, he stated flatly that the one window would cost about $7,000 for installing in a previous window opening. When we started asking detailed questions about the job he got very defensive. He said, that once he tells people the price, they are usually no longer interested. He said he could not answer our questions because he was not the one that actually comes out to do the work. In the end, he did give us the name of the foreman so that we could ask questions, but he was so rude that we would not want to deal with this company. I suspect that we just got him on a bad day, but that was no reason to take it out on us.

Very professional team. On time and thorough. Outstanding communication with David Arias, Operations Manager. Highly responsive to customer concerns and questions. Came well-recommended.

D&ES is my landscape and drainage company from now on. My yard was quickly eroding from rainfall dragging mud from my back yard down to my front. We sought quotes from several Angie's List providers. David from D&ES seemed to have the best handle on what was happening in my back yard, including the fact that water pressure was building up on the back of my house from the soaked ground. We agreed to build a swale across the back (top) of my back yard, install a drain, and tie that drain into an existing drain near the house. So, all the water flowing down from my neighbors' houses now gets piped into the street. On the day of the work, the eight-man D&ES crew descended on the house like an Indy 500 pit crew, hand-digging all the trenches, laying beautiful river stone, grading several parts of the lawn to manage water flow, and carefully replacing the mossy ground they had dug up to lay the pipe. The sun got the best of them, however, and they couldn't finish the sod/mulch job. But they were there at dawn on Saturday to finish the job quickly. I waited a few months to comment on their job because I wanted to evaluate the results after a few rains. The difference is incredible. No more mud strewn across my patio after rain. No swaths of mud and wet areas in my front after rains either. Best of all, no water building up on the back of my house, which I'm sure would have led to far worse problems. If you don't have a huge budget to do the job (we didn't) check these guys out. They will work with you to get the size and scope of a project that will meet your needs. If I ever decide to do an entire redesign of my back yard, I will be calling D&ES again. .

We had major drainage issues that lead to mold in the basement. The company that handled our mold problem suggested using Drainage and Erosion for the outside. The cost may seem high but for the quality and enormity of the project, it was a deal. Evan Anolik from D&E was the rep in charge of the project. He was enthusiastic, informative and experienced - great to deal with. They dug around the entire house and waterproofed the foundation. Part of this was taking apart a full deck and putting it back better than it was before. They installed a french drain system with pop-ups throughout the yard. They dug through and put a large drain pipe under the driveway and then patched the asphalt perfectly. After the project, many heavy rainstorms have come through and there hasn't been a single issue - such a relief. Bottom line- the came in on budget, stuck to their timeline and delivered quality work that solved all our drainage problems. Thank you D&E!

We hired DES to seal the foundation on one part of our home, but then they realized we needed a sump pump due to an active water current right next to our foundation. Grant, the PM on the job, came back and explained everything, helped walk my husband through all the issues over the phone since he couldn't be on site, and explained the updated charges. Overall they did a very good job; they trampled an azalea during their work, and the cap is sitting too high, but as soon as they come back to fix these issues (which they've already agreed to), I'll change the Overall Rating to an A. Thanks DES!

Frank and useful conversation. See above.

A contractor botched a basement leak repair. Not only did they fail to repair the original leak, they made the situation worse by failing to tapped down the soil they removed from the foundation. This caused the soil to collapse on its own, thus breaking the main water line, and causing a negative soil slope toward the house. After trying to get Absolute Build to make the work right for 4 months, I called DES. The gave me a quote on Friday, started work on Monday, and finished the work the following Tuesday. They had professionals doing the work who clearly know what they were doing. There has been no water in the basement since the work was done. This a highly professional group of people who I would definitely call again in the face of a similar situation. I would like to add a smiley face to the review, but I don't know how to do it!

We've experienced several very heavy rains since the creek bed was installed, and the water is now kept away from the house. No more worries about the foundation!. Although the work was done to manage a water erosion problem, a surprise added benefit is that the dry creek bed is a beautiful feature in the yard. Each stone was carefully placed by hand so that it looks completely natural. The crew was very professional and obviously took pride in their work. Upon finishing, they cleaned up so well that you could not tell that any work had been done. After seeing our finished yard, several of our neighbors said that they would contact Operations Manager David Arias about their water problems. We highly recommend this company.

Trent, who managed our project was great to work with and extremely responsive when we had any questions. The crews showed up on time and completed the work quickly. The only problem we had was that the team forgot to do one very important part of the project which entailed resolving an issue with a gutter that was emptying water directly by the side of the house. The company arranged for a small crew to come out and complete the work a week later.