FinanceDude
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2006
- Messages
- 12,483
Figured I'd give an update, since I started the project and its still not done.........
So,things are going along great, and then we had some BIG storms (5 inches, 3 inches, and 6 inches of rain). I go downstairs to find water in two corners of my basement, which I never had before..yikes!!
I get a basement foundation guy to come over and assess, and he says I have a "busted wall". he shows me some cracks and says I need to brace the walls with steel braces, and it will cost $7000 or so......
Obviously, I am going to get a second opinion, so I call another guy. He looks at it and says the inside is "fine", and I have outside problems. he wants to dig away from all the walls of the house and fix the water problem that way. Of course, half the landscaping and all the nice shrubs and buses I planted would be destroyed. His cost was "only" $10,000. At this point I was pretty pissed about it.
I got a third guy to come in. He took a look at the basement and said I DID NOT have a busted wall or need excavation work. He wanted to put in a new drain tile system (my house is only 20 years old). The cost of doing that was $4700. He was sure that would fix the problem.......
I decided to educate myself about basements and water problems. I thought it was weird that I was getting a little water in the basement and I never had that issue before, even though we have a lot of clay in our subdivision. I finally tracked down a guy that was another "expert" in waterproofing. He was a real character, swearing every other word, had more tattoos than an NBA player, and more earrings than 3 women. "Cliff" took a quick look around the basement, and in the sump crock, and said the walls and drain tile were fine. I told him about what the other contractors said and he said: "What did you expect, they just want to make money, they don't care about you or your problem"!!
We went outside and looked around. I had a large spruce tree about 20 feet tall that was next to the house by the basement wall where the sump crock sits. Then Cliff pointed out a few other things. The sump pump outlet pipe was disconnected (I didn't know because it was hidden under the tree). Also, he asked if I had had any recent landscaping work done. The landscaping guys built up a berm away from the house, but it made the water flow back towards the house....
Also, the landscapers put a nice quality rubber edging around all the beds. Cliff called that "the moat", actually, the "F***ing moat".........
He said I needed to change the pitch of the grading, raise the window wells, extend the downspouts, remove the tree, cut a drainage swale through the berm, etc. I was thinking big $ again, but he gave me a quote of around $2000 for all of it. So now I was faced with 4 different solutions with 4 different contractors. I liked Cliff because he was blunt and direct, (aqnd the lowest solution price). He even told me to check his company out on the BBB, which I did....(no complaints in the past 5 years).
I called back "busted wall" guy, and he said that the grading guy was lying to me, and was defensive. I called back "excavator guy" and told him what I had found out. he basically said I would regret if I did the grading without excavating...... Then I called back "drain tile guy". I told him about the grading, and he said: "I knew that was one of your problems"......... Turns out he doesn't do grading........ I forgot to mention that NONE of these contractors was willing to budge on price.....there must not be a recession in their worlds.......
I decided Cliff was the mose honest, and had the work done. They did a great job, did not disturb the landscaping or wreck any trees or bushes. Of course, it hasn't rained so I can't prove it is 100% fixed. Cliff said he could do something called a "spud test", where they take a metal spud and pound it 7-8 feet into the ground near the problem areas and run water through it to see if the water is getting in.......not very expensive, about $100. I might do that, not sure yet. I am starting to work on the basement again, although all this stuff has delayed the project for several months......
Bottom line? BEFORE you call a contractor, learn a little yourself.........
So,things are going along great, and then we had some BIG storms (5 inches, 3 inches, and 6 inches of rain). I go downstairs to find water in two corners of my basement, which I never had before..yikes!!
I get a basement foundation guy to come over and assess, and he says I have a "busted wall". he shows me some cracks and says I need to brace the walls with steel braces, and it will cost $7000 or so......
Obviously, I am going to get a second opinion, so I call another guy. He looks at it and says the inside is "fine", and I have outside problems. he wants to dig away from all the walls of the house and fix the water problem that way. Of course, half the landscaping and all the nice shrubs and buses I planted would be destroyed. His cost was "only" $10,000. At this point I was pretty pissed about it.
I got a third guy to come in. He took a look at the basement and said I DID NOT have a busted wall or need excavation work. He wanted to put in a new drain tile system (my house is only 20 years old). The cost of doing that was $4700. He was sure that would fix the problem.......
I decided to educate myself about basements and water problems. I thought it was weird that I was getting a little water in the basement and I never had that issue before, even though we have a lot of clay in our subdivision. I finally tracked down a guy that was another "expert" in waterproofing. He was a real character, swearing every other word, had more tattoos than an NBA player, and more earrings than 3 women. "Cliff" took a quick look around the basement, and in the sump crock, and said the walls and drain tile were fine. I told him about what the other contractors said and he said: "What did you expect, they just want to make money, they don't care about you or your problem"!!
We went outside and looked around. I had a large spruce tree about 20 feet tall that was next to the house by the basement wall where the sump crock sits. Then Cliff pointed out a few other things. The sump pump outlet pipe was disconnected (I didn't know because it was hidden under the tree). Also, he asked if I had had any recent landscaping work done. The landscaping guys built up a berm away from the house, but it made the water flow back towards the house....
Also, the landscapers put a nice quality rubber edging around all the beds. Cliff called that "the moat", actually, the "F***ing moat".........He said I needed to change the pitch of the grading, raise the window wells, extend the downspouts, remove the tree, cut a drainage swale through the berm, etc. I was thinking big $ again, but he gave me a quote of around $2000 for all of it. So now I was faced with 4 different solutions with 4 different contractors. I liked Cliff because he was blunt and direct, (aqnd the lowest solution price). He even told me to check his company out on the BBB, which I did....(no complaints in the past 5 years).
I called back "busted wall" guy, and he said that the grading guy was lying to me, and was defensive. I called back "excavator guy" and told him what I had found out. he basically said I would regret if I did the grading without excavating......
Then I called back "drain tile guy". I told him about the grading, and he said: "I knew that was one of your problems"......... Turns out he doesn't do grading........ I forgot to mention that NONE of these contractors was willing to budge on price.....there must not be a recession in their worlds.......I decided Cliff was the mose honest, and had the work done. They did a great job, did not disturb the landscaping or wreck any trees or bushes. Of course, it hasn't rained so I can't prove it is 100% fixed. Cliff said he could do something called a "spud test", where they take a metal spud and pound it 7-8 feet into the ground near the problem areas and run water through it to see if the water is getting in.......not very expensive, about $100. I might do that, not sure yet. I am starting to work on the basement again, although all this stuff has delayed the project for several months......
Bottom line? BEFORE you call a contractor, learn a little yourself.........
the municipal engineer that water flows downhill! He grudgingly accepted my logic and finally took responsibility for flooding my street.
