Mid-Atlantic Waterproofing of VA

The date is approximate as I don't have the records in front of me. I personally had a good experience with Mid-Atlantic Waterproofing (MAW) in MD and recommended them to my elderly mother in VA, so this is the office that serviced her home. They were supposed to remit a referral fee to me for recommending them, and I have not yet received it, even though they acknowledged on several occasions over the years that it was owed to me. My mother had a problem with water backing up into her basement through the sump pump. MAW came in and gave her an estimate that was expensive, but as she had had several basement floods and the salespeople warned her that she needed a solution because another flood could adversely affect her cinderblock walls, she accepted it.. The workers dug holes through the cement floor and installed two additional sump pumps with a one year warranty each. They also installed what I now know to be a french drain. This allows for an unsightly gap between the bottom of the finished walls and the floor all the way around the basement. They left an unsightly purple glue smeared all over the white pipes they installed. They never returned to replace a non-working charger for one of the batteries for the new sump pump. They did not install a new cover over the old sump pump well after discarding the original cover. The installation was done in phases, the guy seemed to come back to the job when he felt like it. They did not respond to her calls about the service. When I called and complained about the service, they did nothing but constantly give me the runaround. They did not return calls. They claimed the installer no longer worked there, they always had excuses, but never a resolution. This all might have been fine and worth the money if it had worked. Since installation, she has had three basement floods. After the first one (less than two years after installation), they came back and said that the sump pump that they installed did not work and was out of warranty. However, they now had new pumps with a 7 yr instead of a 1 yr warranty that they began selling within 9 months of her installation. To me, that sounds like a latent defect issue. We had to buy another pump and have it installed. Unfortunately we bought it from them at a cost of $700! The next time it flooded, they came back again and said it was the other sump pump they had installed and it was out of the original one yr warranty. I believe she declined the installation of yet another pump from them. So, bottom-line: they used high-pressure sales tactics on an older woman, they never paid the referral fee they promised, they did a slow and unsightly installation, they did not respond to customer complaints, they did not adequately back the products they installed, they will never get another dime from me or anyone else I know because of their bad product and absolutely horrendous customer service. No person or business is right 100% of the time. However, the ones that are worth returning to are the ones that can admit to and fix mistakes that were made. This is not one of those companies. STAY AWAY FROM this branch of MID-ATLANTIC WATERPROOFING!!! UPDATE... Shortly after I posted this review, I received a call from Kim who was concerned about it and that I had never received the referral fee. She worked with me to get that issue resolved within a few weeks. This was the fastest, most courteous contact my mother or I have had with this company since the day my mother signed up for a failed system. I would like to thank Kim for contacting me and at least resolving that part of the issue.

The "sales" person was pleasant and informative until it got to my making a decision. At that point the estimate was reduced by $3,000 to approximately $15,500 if I were to sign on the dotted line right then and there. I did not. A few days later I had a call from the home office telling me that they might be able to work with me on a lower price and that I should contact them before making a final decision for my work to be done. I never contacted them again.

It was pouring down rain that day and they opened the windows and flooded by basement that day. I checked about them in the county and I was told that they are one of the best in the business. The inspector told me that what they did was the best way to do the job. They did not communicate well because only one guy spoke English. The sales person told me that they would leave tabs out from the source of leak so that I would not let the basement leak, but these guys did not seem to understand that. These guys went around and cut everything loose. They broke two of my windows and did not repair them. They kept the window open to get the dust out. After they finished up I cracked open where the tinder box was. I have lived in this house for seventeen years and never had water running into the basement. After they did the work the house suddenly flooded. The sump pump was always running out. The inspector said that they did not run the drain out as far as they should have. He told them to extend it, but the guy just nodded his head and did nothing about it. I got the water drained away. I never saw them again after that. I called them and I got the message saying their phone lines are buys. The earthquake came through and shook the entire house and the leaks stopped. It was irritating me because the concrete under the windows cracked and when it rained water ran into the house through it. That kept the humidity in the basement at 81% and before they came it was 41% and I had a dehumidifier. After they left the humidity never came under 70%. I spoke one other person after that and he told me that the humidity will be high because of the concrete flooring. He said that it might take six months for that to solve and asked me not to put any carpets there. I got a crack on the floor as well from the column across to the floor. They did the job in less than a day and showed up when they were supposed to although they should have not worked with the windows open when it was raining. They were prompt. I think their pricing was high. I talked to other people and I felt their prices were not real. I guess it should not have been more than $6000. Another company said that they would have done it outside for $40000 since they wanted to redo the water proofing from outside. I talked to another company and they dropped the problem at the inspector of the county and told that the problem for it to leaking is that they were not supposed to leave the section of the floor open. They should have left the hose detached from basement flooring. The guy who spoke English came only twice and the other just nodded their heads. I had an answer for anything only when the guy who spoke English came. They seemed to be professional because they did not spend most of their time on the cell phone.

I was in the middle of a basement renovation project for our 100-year old house and decided at the last minute to include a basement waterproofing system into the overall work. I had heard numerous radio ads for Mid-Atlantic and called them and a salesman came to the house within a week or so. As is typical of these outfits, they insisted that both spouses be present when the salesman makes his pitch. Not sure why, but I suspect it is so one spouse won't use the excuse that they must confer with the other before making a decision on a high-dollar project. The salesman quoted a price of about $20,000 but said "if you sign today" it would be reduced to $15,000. Since I needed to get it done quickly to avoid holding up the rest of the work I signed. I didn't need to, but I also signed an agreement to pay one-third up front and delay payment of the balance for six months. The work began about 3 weeks later. Both the salesman and the Mid-Atlantic scheduler told me it would be a two-day job. It ended up being about 6 days of work spread out over a week and a half. The crew who actually did the work was a sub-contractor called Total Home Care LLC and for the most part they worked like demons. I had been concerned Mid-Atlantic was overcharging me, but when I saw how much dirt these guys had to move to make way for the waterproofing system and how much concrete had to get re-poured I began to think I was getting my money's worth. Mid-Atlantic had the same crew concurrently working another waterproofing job about two hours away which accounted for it taking much longer than billed. Three big complaints - the mess made was huge and filled the whole house from top to bottom with dust and gray concrete dust. Everything had to be cleaned. Also, the subcontractor had to re-route the main sewer line to get it out of the way of the waterproofing track that had to go in. He charged me extra for this and I paid him through his own company. However, the subcontractor placed a toilet connection in a basement half-bath in the wrong spot and my regular plumber had to come had in and dig part of it back up and reposition it. When he did so he discovered the connection was badly cracked underneath the concrete the subcontractor poured so it would have caused me big problems had it not been discovered. The third complaint concerns the six-month delayed payment for the balance. I filled out several forms related to that when the salesman was here and the scheduler later told me it was OKed. However, soon after the job was complete I started getting calls from Mid-Atlantic and their collector demanding the balance. The collector told me the delayed payment paperwork I signed with the salesman did not get me out of paying them the balance immediately. Not sure why. I told them as soon as I got a shipment of checks from my bank (I had run out) I would pay the balance. The guy was a real jerk. Final thoughts - Mid-Atalntic may know what they're doing, but I urge anyone else considering such a project to shop around. There have to be better outfits out there. Also, their track and wall panel waterproofing system is meant to work in a modern basement and is not well-suited to an old basement with irregular brick walls. Most of the panels they put up on my basment walls fell down a few days after they were put up. Finally, the delayed payment option must be a scam because I filled out a number of forms and provided a copy of my pay statement and their collector told me I still had to pay them after completion of the job. Be careful dealing with these guys.

Excellent!!! I met one of their reps at the Augusta County Fair and said that I was having problems with water in my basement. The rep told me that I could sign up for a free estimate and she asked me if I wanted to set up an appointment, and I did. An assessor(?) came out on Saturday. He was very punctual and very polite and professional - found out that he has a background in construction so he knew what to look for. After examining the basement from the inside and from the outside along with taking thorough measurements, we sat down to talk. He thoroughly explained the current condition of my basement in very easy to understand terms - no structural damage, but definite problems with cinder block erosion from water/acid in the cinder block walls, and water run-off from the yard toward the house. Then he proceeded to thoroughly explain and draw diagrams/pictures of their waterproofing process - very logical and easy to understand. Then finally he gave me the estimate. He was also able to give me a discount for being in a "stand-by" mode for the work rather than having a definite date to do the work - which I opted to do and signed the contract for the firm estimate. I had to move all of my belongings into the middle of the basement, but they would have done it for an extra charge. Their workers came within the next week. Started work at 8a.m. and stopped at 8:15p.m. on the first day. Started at 8a.m. and finished at 1p.m. on the second day. The workers were very polite and punctual. Only the foreman spoke good English. The other 3 workers spoke very little English. The workers covered all my personal items with plastic before starting work. When the work was finished they cleaned up everything. They answered all my questions and were very hard workers. This company guarantees their work for as long as I own this home and will transfer that guarantee to the next homeowner. My basement has been dry since then and we have had some heavy rains in the area due to hurricanes, so their work was definitely put to the test and it succeeded!!!

Customer Service could not locate the record of service performed on my home 7 yrs ago by previous owner, thus potentially negating their warranty. They have yet to return phone calls to schedule replacement of sump pump they installed. I am in the middle of selling my home and purchaser's inspector advised me the installation was sub-standard and the sump pump was inoperable. I had a plumber doing other work in the house and replaced the mid-atlantic installed pump. He also advised me (independently) the previous installation was sub-standard and was not up to code. Cannot recommend their service at all.

When I called for a free estimate, they required that both me and my wife be there. That's a bad sign and at that point I should have just hang up the phone. The person came and my wife decided to not stick around. The representative that came was not even an employee and was a contractor and had to call them to confirm it was ok that my wife was not there or he would not get paid. I was told that they could not do the estimate because my wife was not there. They came back and the other contractor spent a good 2 hours going around the basement and waving his "tools" and checking every part of it. The only issue I had was with the window well but he tried the scare tachtics and outright lied to me about some rust on one of the wall access panel. The valve there leaks a little and he tried to make me believe that there was structural issues and the water was leaking in the wall when the rust on the panel was obviously only showing on one side of the panel and you could tell the valve was leaking and the wall itself was dry. In the end they tried to sell me their "waterproofing" french drain for over $20K. All I wanted was to fix the windows issue!!!. I finally fixed it myself for maybe $100 by getting the roof drainage away from the window and sealing the whell with some concrete path. He was a crock!, a liar and will try to scare you so you spend a lot of money in shady work that is not needed. The guy also had this story that he was dealing with comercial buildings only but then during the presentation was able to show me pictures of a destoyed basement that he said he just picked up in the morning. I think at this point that none of what is said was true.I hope that this company goes out of business for their deceptive pratices and their scare tactics. I have learned my lesson and will never get an estimate from a company that requires both soupses present.

The thing that I was really dissatisfied with them was it took them an hour and a half to evaluate and process. The guy who came out was nice. They asked me what price point I was looking at and so I told them to just give me an estimate. After they gave me the initial estimate which was way higher than what I was even expecting. They told me that if I signed the quote the same day they could knock twenty percent of the price. I ended up not contracting with them because of the sales job. They wanted my wife to be there when they came and also wanted us to make a decision on the spot.

Their estimate was ghastly higher than the others. They were the highest as far as the value was concerned. I'm not sure if people were getting what they were going to pay for. The rep was different. It was a very uncomfortable situation. Sometimes he was professional and other times he was completely not. His supervisor actually accompanied him, which was a red flag to us. I didn't really know if he knew if he was new or if he was having problems. It was just a red flag all the way around. The boss's sat and looked at his e-mails or Blackberry all the time, which was just not professional. They were on time and came within our timeline. He did do a follow up call so they were responsive.

Be prepared for the hard sell, they will only do the work if "both owners are present" that includes the estimate. I'm guessing that they feel that they can put the hard sell on one of the owners to get the other to agree. So I called them two weeks ago and scheduled an appointment. They came on time but my wife was not home. They would not even look at the house. They gave me some story that because of a law suit they would only look at the house if both me and my wife were home. She was running late and he was getting ready to leave when she arrived. They pulled up some carpet and cut the drywall to find a plumbing problem. Woohoo!!

This is a multi state corporation that uses hard sell pitches to very expensive waterproofing solutions for basements and crawl spaces using time share type tactics.

The original guy who gave me the quote was not the person who came to do the work. The 2nd guy said I would need 3x the amount of work done, so I didn't have them go forward.

We would not recommend them. It was a very hard sell. There is a big whole in the wall in our basement because we can't patch it up again. This is the third time we've had someone out after to try and fix it. We need to wait and until we get a really good rainstorm to see if it's still leaking or not. They did all the work, we closed up the wall and months later we realized the wall was soft from water on the inside. We had to rip it all open again. We had them come out and they tried to just caulk over it. They don't get paid for the subsequent coming out and waterproofing. They do give a life time guarantee as long as you own the home. They did honor it and they have come out after. All they did was try to put water proof caulking over the cracks and it just leaks through. They've done that a couple of times. It's still being resolved and they didn't do a good job the first time around.

The gentleman was very nice but I felt pressured to sign a contract. They came within a week to install a sump pump. They did not take their trash; they were putting the concrete waste in my trash cans. I did talk with the office about this and they took care of it. They sent another worker back to hook up the washer and dryer. The guy did not hook up the washer right and it flooded my basement again. The water was still coming in through a small area in the basement; they continued to send the same gentleman to clean up and fix the problem. I called another company. They did a great job on the cement job in the basement. They were very good at taking care of the problems I did have; they were very responsive.

My wife and I bought an older home in McLean with an unfinished basement that had efflorescence coming through the Dry-Locked cinder blocks. We asked Mid-Atlantic to come out and give us an estimate of what it would take to mitigate this. The salesman came and immediately said that we the existing interior perimeter French drain in our basement was clogged up and non-functioning, and that we need to pay them to dig up the old drain and install a new one. The salesman quoted a ridiculous initial price of $21,000 or so, and then gave the hard sell by saying, "oh, because you're from Angie's List and referred by Long & Foster, I'll knock $3000 off, and we just had a cancellation so if you commit to the work this weekend I'll knock another $2000 off!" Even after all these discounts, the cost would have been over $15,000, which was still by far the most expensive of all our quotes. But aside from the slimy pressure sale tactics (which other customers report), the main thing that we found appalling about this company (and most other basement waterproofing companies) is that their solution is always to sell you a brand new system, regardless of whether you really need it or not. The president of MER/Morrison came over to our house and refused to take any money from us because he said that there was no evidence of a water leakage problem and that efflorescence on cinder blocks can happen regardless how good the drain is. For $100 he sent a couple guys over to our house and dug up a small section of our existing drain and showed us how to do a water test to see if it's working, and it was. Bottom line is that the Mid-Atlantic guy was more interested in making a sale, as opposed to assessing whether we really needed a new system or not. I strongly encourage people to stay away from this company and their hard-sell tactics. All of their competitors laugh when I told them about my experiences because the have a reputation for the "commit today and get a $2000 discount" sales tactics.

I was told a sump pump could be installed within a week, and certainly within three weeks, when I was scheduled to go to settlement. It was installed almost two months after I signed the contract. What was the holdup? Mid-Atlantic delayed applying for a permit, lied about it, then submitted an incomplete application. After more than two weeks, Mid-Atlantic told me (I called daily) that it often takes three weeks for Alexandria to approve a permit. I found this outrageous and contacted my city councilman. He contacted the head of code enforcement, who contacted me directly to inform me that, in fact, no permit for my property had been even been sought. What followed was a lot of unpleasant finger-pointing, with me on the phone taking time away from my job for several hours a day to basically bird-dog the city code enforcement office since the company didn t really seem to be paying any attention to the permit process. Mid-Atlantic said it had filed a permit application. The city said it hadn t. Then Mid-Atlantic ADMITTED it hadn t filed the application, because it was incomplete without a plat of the property. Why would a company that has been doing this for years submit a permit request with no plat? I faxed the plat to Mid-Atlantic and waited. Days later, Mid-Atlantic finally told me, after I had called again, that the faxed plat wasn t adequate and they needed an original. I drove home during the workday to get an original plat to supply Mid-Atlantic. Days later, after I kept calling and emailing both the city and Mid-Atlantic daily, the city said they couldn t approve the permit because the plat didn t indicate where the sump pump would go and where it would drain. Mid-Atlantic submitted an application for a city permit for a sump pump without showing where it would go? Unbelievable. The city had to fax the plat back to Mid-Atlantic, because they didn t make or keep a copy. Mid-Atlantic said it didn t get the fax, and apparently gave up after that. I called the city to ask them to fax it again. They did. Finally, after more than a month, the city had a complete permit REQUEST. It took only a few days to process it. The city had one objection they didn t like where the sump pump would drain. Mid-Atlantic threw up its hands. I took photos to show exactly where the line would drain, faxed them to the city, and they approved the permit the next day. When at last the installers came to put in the sump pump, they put it in on the OPPOSITE side of the basement that Dan had said it would go. The installers explained it wouldn t meet city code if we put it where Dan had said. I had already paid an electrician to put in an outlet where Dan said the sump pump would go, so that was money down the drain. Not to mention I have no idea whether the circuit that handles where the sump pump actually was installed could handle the load.

This was the first time we have used their services. We were very pleased. We had some major rain and our basement was flooded. They got to it a lot quicker than they thought because their was a lot of this going on at that time. We chose them because our insurance company recommended them. They followed up after to make sure we were pleased with the work.

Overall, I think the end result went well and that the drain and sump pump should work if we have flooding of that magnitude again. I found out much later that the price was very high compared to what Mid-Atlantic sometimes charges. We had this done following really heavy rains in June of '06 and at that time there was a great demand for this type of service in our area so that may have been why the price was inflated. After Mid-Atlantic drilled through the concrete, we had minute particles of concrete, dust etc floating in the air, coming through the air ducts and leaving a layer of dust on everything in the basement. I hadn't anticipated this issue or that Mid-Atlantic wouldn't have had a way to remove the debris particles. I called them several times to ask for referrals for someone to remove the dust but I never received any response.

Overall, their business practice is to quote a ridiculous price, then offer to call the dispatcher to check for cancellations (they claim to only do this once per customer). Low and behold, there's a cancellation, and if you sign immediately, they'll reduce your cost substantially. In my case, from $12k to $9k. Luckily for me, I don't fall for fake pressure-tactics & knew that the correct price for the work -- quoted by 3 other companies, was around $5,000. Any company that resorts to pressure tactics to close a deal is fraudulent & should be avoided. This is their normal process... make sure you don't fall for the trap. PS -- Funny thing; their call center called back 2 weeks later. Would you believe (?!) they had another cancellation, and offered to further reduce the price by another $1000 and remove the 2nd sump pump. I guess they have trouble keeping their crews busy (and apparently, that 2nd pump wasn't required after all.) Be very, very careful dealing with this company.

A disaster. One year later and the work has not been completed. The sales pitch is, if not fraudulent, reprehensible at best. Sales guy was an ex drummer from Cirque De Soleil who knew nothing about hydrostatic pressure and discounted exterior grading and exterior foundation waterproofing. Pitch is to call dispatcher to schedule install and, lo and behold, they have a cancellation and if you take the slot they will discount the work by a couple of grand. They use subcontractors that barely speak English and do not do the work agreed to. Agreements such as reaffixing electrical outlets to the wall (they simply wanted to drive nails through the waterproofing (defeats the purpose), did not remove electrical panel (water is now seeping behind panel), simply parged in windows and waste pipes so they cannot be worked on or replaced without tearing out the wall waterproofing. It also has cracked and it leaks. Too much to go into in 1,000 characters. Run don't walk away from them.

They always come and do something, but they never fix the problem. I constantly have to call them back. They are pretty responsive. The guy is a salesman, so he recommends me stuff that we don't need. I wouldn't recommend them.

I am very happy with the level of customer service I get when dealing with Mid Atlantic Waterproofing. The estimate was very quick. The employees are very detailed orientated and answered all my questions that I had.

They did an excellent job. The men were very courteous and neat, and the process was clearly explained. They did their best to protect our furniture and valuables from dust and damage and swept behind themselves as they left.

We did have huge rain a year after they finished which caused some water intrusion, but I think it was a fluke. They came over and checked the system out. Since that, and before, it has been flawless. I recommend them!

In order to install this system, part of the basement cement floor has to be dug up along two interior walls. The company does not do any follow-up repair work but only installs their system. The salesman, in order to clinch the sale I guess, minimized the amount of work that would be needed to repair our basement after installation. Not only did we pay $6847 for the work performed by Mid-Atlantic, but we will also have to pay around $2000 to repair the damage done to the drywall by installation of this system. He also gave us the impression that we could have the sump pump installed in an unobtrusive part of the basement. This was contradicted by the foreman of the job, who determined that the pump would only work in a location in the middle of the carpeted family room area. I'm sure all of this is in the fine print, but I would have appreciated more honesty about the job. The actual work performed was adequate, although it is a messy, dusty process.