'58 Foundations & Waterproofing

I'm having leak problems in my basement. B-Dry showed up 30 minutes ahead of schedule and examined my problem. Repairs are carpentry in nature and outside their expertise but B-Dry made recommendations anyway. Definitely will recommend to others.

After all the spring rain this year we discovered that our basement workshop was wet. I checked on Angie's list for companies and had two companies come out to look at the work. B Dry said they could do the work from the outside, which means digging up the dirt around the house 8 feet deep to get to the foundation and then attach a membrane to the walls of the house and then put a protective sheet to prevent root from penetrating the walls and then put the parging back on the exposed part of the foundation. This work they warrantied for 1 year. They specialize in working from the inside, treating the walls and then putting a sump pump in. If you work from the inside, they guarantee a dry room for life. The second company recommended repairing the leak from the outside. He was very adamant in saying to repair from the outside. He didn't mind if we didn't go with him but wanted to tell us the outside would be the right repair. His bid was $1200 higher. My husband and I after talking to a lot of other people thought going from the outside, preventing the water from coming in rather than cleaning up after it penetrated our walls was the way to go and that's what we did. The men arrived early on the scheduled day which had to be the hottest day this summer and started work immediately. They were very professional, worked hard and stayed until they cleaned up all the dirt too. There was no question of stopping at 5 p.m. when the work wasn't completed.

I called the B-Dry office and spoke with the Service Manger, Frank Braxton. Since initially, I could not locate the source of the leak, he gave me detailed instructions on how to check my sump pump, which was helpful. I ended up replacing my sump pump since it was 17 years old. When the next big rain hit, I was able to easily locate the leaks in my basement wall (since one was like a small waterfall!) and called Frank back the next day (Monday). He scheduled me for a Thursday repair and said he would call me Wednesday to confirm a time. On Wednesday, he called and said a crew would be out between 9 and 11AM. The crew showed up at 10:58AM, which is within the estimated arrival range, but it meant that I had to take a full half-day off work. I showed them where the leaks were, and the site manager explained that he would plug the holes and seal/cover over the leaking areas with their vinyl sheathing that they used for the other areas of the wall. They completed the work within an hour and the site manager explained what they had done...holes were plugged and sheathing bolted to the wall. At first glance, it looked like a decent job. However, I inspected the caulking along the side of the sheathing and there were gaps. Also, they did not clean up any dust and debris on the floor and this included a rusty nail that was attached to a board they removed from the wall. When it rained the next day, I had no water on my floor and no leaks, so I was pleased with that. However, when I put my ear close to where the "waterfall" leak was, I could hear water gushing in behind the sheathing. Granted, it is all being diverted to the sump pump, but there's no way this leak was plugged (behind the sheathing) as the on-site manager said it was. I do not appreciate the dishonesty in this case, which is why they earn a "D" for Quality and Professionalism. My only concern is there was a lot of silt/mud coming in with the water, so there may be a future issue of silt building up behind the sheathing. The lifetime warranty would cover this, but if the leaks were properly plugged to begin with, I would not have to call them back.

They did an excellent job. They gave us a brochure and explain it to us completely. They have different ways of proofing it and in our case it was not just the basement we also have a sub-basement. There was lot of water summing into the sub pump constantly and it was seeping through the cinder block walls. So what they did was they put like a French drain on the inside of the basement because to dig down on the outside, they would have to dig down so far back that they could tear up our whole courtyard. They recommended a French drain to avoid all that damage. They jack hammered the concrete floor by the wall and put the French drain in there and put the cement back on top and so the water just goes into that drain and into the sub pump. They installed a new heavy duty sub pump that they guaranteed. We have had no problems since the work and without this system we would have a foot of water in our basement with the rain that we have had but it is dry as a bone. They had to get 2 different permits for the work as they had to get under the side walk and the sewage drain and we had to pay to get that done. We had 3 different companies to bid on it but theirs was the though and they explained it the best. It was a good price and they did a lot of work.

He showed up 1/2 hour late for the estimate and didn't call. He pointed to a reference in Angie's List and it was kind of a hard sales pitch. His estimate was the highest I received.

We are new homeowners who bought a house with a sump pump that was not installed properly, thus resulting in water seeping up from foundation and into the basement walls of our fully finished basement each time it rained. BDry put in a french drain in the interior of the basement wall around the entire foundation and connected it to the sump pump - they replaced the existing sump pump with a large more powerful one that you can buy from a plumber. We got estimates from 3 companies and even had a home inspector come out and assess whether this needed to be done before shelling out the money to do it. We had the top 3 companies from Angie's List and were happiest with B-Dry as they were the ones who were adament we get a City Permit prior to work being started so that everything was done to code. Once the permit was secured, the job was scheduled with about a 1 to 2 week time frame and the job started on Day and was completed on Day 4 post Day 4 morning city inspection. The work was completed in October 2008 and we had a very wet December 08, January 08 and March 1 2009 Snow and we have a DRY basement so will not start to work on finishing our basement and getting our rec room, tv room, and guest bed and bathroom back for living.

They weren't the cheapest, but they seemed like they had the best product and they offered a lifetime guarantee. Also, they finished the job in one day, so I was happy with that.

We have a plaster wall (partially below ground) with florescense and a stained rug. John Webster looked at it and also looked at the outside. He found evidence of soil erosion, and pockets where water could accumulate. He recommended regrading the outside, and removing the damaged part of the wall to the floor and the damaged part of the rug to get a better idea of where the water was coming from. If the regrading did not wark, then he was recommending about $4000 worth of work inside the house. Another contracter offered to do the same job for about $8000.

After getting two estimates from other companies, a friend suggested I join Angie's List to check out the reputations of those companies. I was shocked to see they were both lower-rated, so I searched for higher-rated companies and found B-Dry. They were very professional, honest, and reasonably priced. Their solution was simpler, faster, and lower-cost than the other two. We're thrilled.

They were prompt, professional, more reasonable than my other estimates and clearly VERY good at what they do. We have had no problems since the repair and yes, there have been heavy rains since then.

B-Dry was very responsive to my initial call and scheduling, and also when I called back to change the date to a Saturday. They sent information in the mail and called me the day before to confirm the date and time. Then the representative did not show up. I called, and since they are not open on weekends, could only leave a message. To their credit, I got a call first thing in the morning on Monday with an apology. I could only do weekday evenings, which they don't normally do, but they made an exception for me for rescheduling since they messed up with the no show (they said it was because the rep didn't get our info via email, which is how they communicate with their reps in the field -- as an aside, I think this system needs some fail-safes). The estimate itself went well. The estimate was about $8200 ($7000 if we had the work done over the holidays), which was much higher than other estimates. The rep explained that we're paying for their special system, which includes a different kind of tubing under the concrete flooring, which would reduce the amount of clogging and be easier to clean out. It's a top of the line system, so you pay top of line bucks for it. There were also little add ons for the placement of the sump pump in the basement and the out hose in the yard. The rep was really honest about the fact that we may not need a basement system right now, since we don't have water leaking. I appreciated his honest assessment. He was also the first person to go outside and look at the grading outside of our house and tell us how that was helping to prevent water from getting in. B-Dry uses computer models and a lot of good a/v aides to help you understand exactly what you're getting, and they have transparent, itemized pricing estimates, so you know what you're buying (this was not the case with the other 2 companies we met with). While they were expensive, we'd consider using them, because we learned so much more about what we were buying from them than we did from any other company that did an estimate, and we like the materials they use. Also, this was the first company to tell me that we needed to have some electrical work done before we could add the sump pump, since the pump needs an outlet, and the best place for it given our layout is not near an existing outlet. This would have been a serious disappointment if we had gone with another company and found this out at the end.

They were very quick to respond, they were very professional, they had great equipment, and they seemed very knowledgeable. They did a good job.

I would not let them do any work for me because I didn't trust them. Instead of them addressing the water issue, they wanted to sell me some kind of system for regulating the air quality of my basement. It was a $ 6,000 system. I didn t have a problem with them discussing that with me but let s talk about the issue at hand first. They said that I had an air quality problem, and I said no I have a water problem. So later they want to give me an estimate for the water. I called them for that but that s not what they wanted to talk about. They wanted to sell me this $6000 air quality system. I believe they had to guys that were sent out. One was the technician to deal with the water problem I think the other guy was a high paid salesman that comes out to sell their air quality system that they had. I wouldn t recommend them and I intend to call them to tell them to take me off their mailing list because I m receiving mail from them now and I don t want it. The salesman said they were proud that their prices were higher and what that means, I don t know. They were supposed to be there one day and then at the last minute after I left work early to sit there and wait for the guy he calls me and tells me he s not going to be able to make it because he s stuck at someone else s place. They didn t call me back to reschedule, I had to call them back to reschedule. He claimed that there were a lot of complaints for the other company with the Better Business Bureau but I found more complaints on them.

B-Dry was very honest. They recommended that we consult a landscaping company since our problem was exterior and said that our interior was in very good shape considering we had flooding. I appreciated that they did not try to sell me anything I did not need.

I didn't think they kept it as clean as they could've by putting up some barrier from the basement to the upstairs. The work was very neatly done. They were good at cleaning up at the end of every day.

John Webster came by to look at our home's basement, which had experienced water leakage. He was punctual, professional, thorough, and very honest. Rather than wanting to charge us for work that was not necessary, he gave us good advice regarding landscaping practices that would avoid the need to do major work inside. Honesty and punctuality go a long way for us and we were very impressed!

It went very well. They were a little slow in getting back with an appointment, but it was also a very busy time with spring rain. Since then, they have come out to look at the house, and everything has gone well. They start work tomorrow.

It was an overall good experience. The people that came out and did the work were great that were fast and courteous and polite. I would use them again in the future if I needed.

The initial contact was with a B-Dry sales representative who, unlike another company's representative, didn't try to sell me an expensive solution to a non-existent problem. When I called to accept the proposal, I mentioned the Angie's List discount coupon and was immediately given the 10% discount. On the day of the service, the work crew had difficulty finding our home and arrived two hours late. When I made it clear that I wanted the job completed in one day as promised nonetheless, the company supervisor agreed to have the team work into the evening if necessary to complete the job. The job was complicated by the fact that our "soil" is made up of red clay and shale. In order to assure that the commitment to complete the job in one day was made, both the supervisor and the sales representative joined the work team in the late afternoon. The team continued working until nearly 10:00 pm to meet the commitment. The work was completed satisfactorily and I was impressed with the attention given to cleaning up the work site upon completion of the job.

We haven't had enough rain to judge how well the waterproofing worked yet, but they were prompt and they came in right on budget.

I was impressed by the conscientious and customer-oriented response and the willingness to forgo a sale of services that were not really needed.

They moved the washer, dryer, and freezer to center of the room. They jacked the house up and lined the basement with plastic. They put in new sump-pump and new drains. They disconnected the toilet but when they went to connect it, for some reason they couldn't. They removed door and then could not get it back on. They did not clean up their mess. I would not use them again.

I chose B-Dry because it has one of the highest ratings on Angie's List. Jason Ruffner came out to give an estimate for fixing a water leak in our basement. He discovered it was simply a hole in a pipe. I had another company come out the day before he did and they gave me an estimate for over $3,000 for work obviously not needed. Jason was very professional and called to let me know he would be 10 minutes late because the previous appt. ran late.

After we tried so many other ways to solve our water problems we are so happy to have called B-Dry and have it fixed once and for all. The work was performed on schedule and we have not had a drop of water in our basement since! The salesman and the installation team were fabulous. I would recommend B-Dry to anyone with water issues. Don't try to fix these kinds of problems any other way!

Two teams each with three men, first team broke up and removed existing drain with jackhammers, second team installed new drain. Waited until significant rainfall to submit this report, the basement no longer leaks. Generally, pleased with work, although job supervisor did not speak very good English, and there appeared not to be good communication between him and the company employee who spec'd the job initially.