Keller Waterproofing & Foundation Specialists

Horrible experience! They took my 28K and fixed NOTHING and on top of it, the owner was a real jerk the entire time.. especially to woman. Terrible! Avoid at all costs.

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For more than a year we struggled with a waterproofing issue in our garage that was built into an embankment without proper drainage.  We had several other well-known companies provide quotes based on site visits and most estimates were far too much to consider.  After all, it was simply a garage.  And then along came Keller.  Interestingly enough, I think they were featured in a comparison made during one of their competitors sales presentations.  Perhaps we would never have known about them had that not been the case. 
Keller?s pitch was to the point, without a lot of fluff, and with a guarantee.  Their price was reasonable and they did not try for the ?same day close?, so we felt good going with them.
They showed up as scheduled.  They hand dug the trenches.  They microscopically tunneled around our irrigation lines, low voltage lines, and other underground obstructions.  After most of the excavation was done, they told us that there was a significant problem with a certain area but that it would all be covered by their initial quote. We were totally happy about that.
When all was said and done, they exceeded our expectations.  They have a very nice, hard-working, and self-sufficient crew who didn?t need the boss around to tell them what to do.  They even transplanted a few of our azaleas from the garage area to the front of our house where my wife preferred to have them.
They were wonderful to work with and did not charge a penny more than our original estimate.  Jim Keller, the owner, just said ?We?re going to do it right?.  And they did.  We noticed a small leak during a huge rainstorm shortly after the work was performed.  They came back within a couple of days and took care of it.
One final note:  before we contracted with them, we called many of their references.  These folks were so verbose about how great Keller was that it gave us a tremendous level of comfort.  One even said they needed a totally different type of work to be performed.  I think it was a new driveway.  They called several references who had used Keller for waterproofing issues such as ours and heard such great things that they didn?t think twice about going ahead with their project with Keller.  And they were totally happy with the outcome.
 

Our problem
With all the recent heavy rain, we were getting some water (something a few towels could pick up) in our basement with increasing frequency.  Additionally, we were getting moisture on walls in our basement where there had not been moisture before.  Water had not been identified as an issue in the home inspection we had conducted when we purchased the house a bit more than 2 years ago.

One section of the basement has a Trotter interior system (galvanized channel system with plastic cardboard like sheeting) which was failing as evidenced by the water passing over and rusting the galvanized channel, installed by the previous owners.
  
We are in the process of renovating parts of our home and feel getting the basement dry is a good first step.

Proposal
Jim Keller came to our house, listened to our thoughts, and reviewed our basement.  He prepared a proposal before he left ( May 2013).
  
We had most of the other waterproofers give us proposals also.  For example, we had used B-Dry (interior system) in our rubble-stone basement in Druid Hills and had been very happy with their work.  As former Civil Engineering design engineers (and P.E.'s) we could not get comfortable with interior system recommendations of all the other contractors for  the concrete block at this house. We believe the water should be intercepted before entering the concrete block- not use the concrete block as a convenience for sub-surface water.

Jim not only recommended the external system solution, his pricing for the external system was just a bit above the internal system estimates of the other contractors.  The other contractors were not even willing to take the time to estimate the external system, typically saying "that will be more than 2 times more than the interior system".

One point of clarity on scope of services Jim Keller made clear to us... he is not a landscaper.  You will need to make separate plans for landscaping after Keller finishes, as the process requires removal of all the dirt for a distance away from the house.

Once we settled on Keller as our preferred contractor, we checked references, which is a bit difficult to do these days as few people answer their phone.  Jim was great in getting other names to us in our area and we also received a glowing recommendation from a happy customer with a very complex commercial project Keller had successfully completed for him.

Execution
Jim and his crew were great to work with.  Once we gave him an initial deposit and said go, they started when they said and finished in about 3 weeks- on schedule.

We were most happy with the responsiveness to our thoughts, concerns and issues.  For example, during construction and before the system was in place, an unexpected rainshower popped up in the evening and we ended up with some water in the basement.  We called Jim who sent a fellow in to clean- until we said it was good.  Juan spent the entire day at our beck-and-call cleaning- it was cleanest the basement has ever been!

They are experienced.  We were constantly remarking at the Keller crew's experience and tricks-of-the-trade.  For example, they placed support under the entering utilities to ensure structural support during backfill.  Other experience-based areas we observed and impressed us included the "lock-in" foundation wall they poured around the porch (which only had a partial foundation) and the great detail of matching the pattern in our brick walkway (a section of which had to be removed during excavation to get to the foundation).

Project Wrap-up
Jim scheduled a final review and walk-around a few weeks after project completion.  This gave us time to notice the little things like cleaning up a few rocks which popped up after it rained. 

Our basement continues to dry out.  We have not had a bit of water, much less moisture, in our basement since Keller finished their work.

We recommend Keller Waterproofing for the external residential basement waterproofing without qualification.  Because we had such a good experience, we plan on using them on parts of our renovation project currently in detailed design stage (designer and architect).