XPERT FLOOD CONTROL INC

I am extremely pleased with them. They solved a very significant drainage issue that we had.

I believe I've received negligent service which resulted in sewage flood damage totaling over $3000. I hired Xpert to perform annual maintenance of my flood control system, which stops sewage water from entering my house. This maintenance was performed 2 days prior to a storm coming through on the night of April 17.
At the conclusion of the storm, I had inches of sewage water in my basement. The valve that was maintained had a rusty cover that had a hole in it. This hole allowed the sewage water to flow around the valve and into the house. I received a second opinion from and quot;The Scottish Plumberand quot; - an Angie's List member. In writing, he opined on the situation: and quot;Unit failed because lid had a 6and quot; x 2and quot; hole located on the side that receives positive pressure. Water from city was able to enter vault and begin to back up into the spillover tee eventually flooding basement. Pump was just recycling water and unable to remove it.and quot;
The fact that a hole was present 2 days after maintenance work indicates that there was severe negligent service provided. No warning of any aging or faulty parts was communicated. The expectation of proper maintenance is to identify and fix potential issues or faulty parts to avoid further damage - replacing parts where necessary. Further, the fix to this issue was simply replacing the cover of the valve box, which XPert was able to do after the fact within 24 hours of my contacting them of this flood result. It is clear to me that if Xpert had performed the maintenance work properly during the initial maintenance call, no sewage backup damage would have been incurred to my property. Therefore, I think it is very reasonable to expect Xpert to compensate the funds required to cover the cleaning and repairs. I have included a detailed chronology of events for further clarification. I also have pictures illustrating the issue.
Monday April 15th at ~10am, annual maintenance was performed by Xpert on the sewage backup valve. Upon completion, my wife briefly spoke with the employees and asked how everything looked. Xpert employees responded with and quot;everything looks great.and quot;
Thursday, April 18th at 3am - sewage water starting to back up from the drains, including overflow from the basement toilet. I went out to view the flood basin. The entire basin was filled with sewage water. The valve is an automatic device that should not allow sewage water into the basin from the street side. At the end of the storm, I had inches of sewage water covering all areas of my basement: storage room, crawlspace, bathroom, and living room area.
By 10:30am the water in the basin was low enough to see the reason for the inflow to the basin. On the cover of the valve box was a large hole. This allowed the water to enter the basin from the street side, essentially rendering the valve useless. This flooded the basin and therefore allowed the sewage water to enter the pipes on the house side of the valve.
I called Xpert to alert them of my flooded basement and my irritation that they left a faulty cap in place. I wanted to get someone from Xpert to immediately look at the situation and fix the hole. I voiced my immediate concern of getting the cap replaced and my greater concern of the cost of the damages incurred to my property.
Friday, April 19th - I got home at approximately 6:30pm from my day job. Neither my wife nor I had heard from Xpert. At approximately 8:30pm, I began to wonder if Xpert had already been at the house and just didn't inform us. I opened up the manhole and looked into the flood basin and a new cover and clips were installed.
We had to hire a water restoration company to provide cleanup services. They said with sewage backup floods, they must cut the walls which have moisture - which was everywhere in the living room area. They power-washed all floors and put in drying fans and dehumidifiers. The total cost of this was $3345.19. This does NOT include the wall repairs, which were cut out. We have not priced that work out yet. I think it is completely reasonable to expect reimbursement from Xpert for this cleanup, restoration, and repair.

Paul was great on the initial visit, and assessed the situation quickly. After a full inspection, the main source was a crack in the basement foundation, which could be easily solved by injection. We contacted Paul/Xpert to complete the project and we were told he would call within a few days when he was back in our area. 2.5 weeks went by with no call or follow up. I reached back out to Paul to follow up myself, and was told his phone wasn't working properly, but that he would follow up the next day once fixed. 48 hours later from that message, I am still waiting for a call. At this point, we have already gone through another round of flooding in the area, and I need to look elsewhere to get this serviced. Poor follow up and it didn't seem as though there was much interest in our business.

He was very thorough and had insights about the construction done on our home and the reasoning behind it. Of all the contractors that stopped by, he was by far the most valuable. We fought to use his services but were unable to negotiate it. Now that we own our home, we will certainly use them in the future.

After two no-shows (and no phone calls to explain said no-shows), office manager Angelica called me the day after the second incident to offer her and her firm's sincere apologies. She wanted to send out a crew the very next day, at no charge, to make amends, but as I had already scheduled similar services with another plumber, I declined her offer. Not only did she then offer to waive the annual maintenance charge on my flood control system next year, but also promised that Xpert would perform power rodding and clean out our catch basin in 2015 free of charge. Definitely above and beyond anything I expected, Xpert's generosity and obvious commitment to customer service is very much appreciated!

I called to make an appointment 2 weeks ago. The scheduler said she would be the one here herself (Angelica). She told me 12 pm on Sunday the 9th. I thought that would be fine because I had company coming at 2 pm. She never shows up and then calls at 1:40 to tell me she's on her way. I told her that wouldn't work because I had visitors coming at 2 pm and there wouldn't be time to go over everything with company in my house. So we rescheduled to the next day between 6:30 and 7:30 pm. We got home from work at, I am NOT kidding, 6:31 pm, and she had already come and gone, left a complicated set of brochures about doing a and quot;complete flood maintenance system,and quot; that easily looks to cost anywhere from $10,000-$20,000. When all we wanted was basement waterproofing done in an area where the carpet has been pulled up and we need the floor sanded, sealed, and painted. I told her all of this on the original phone call, but she blows off the appointment the first day, and then comes early the next day, to avoid us and only to market her expensive flood system that we don't need? I am so angry, disappointed, and unbelievably dumbfounded that companies choose to operate this way in this economy! UPDATE: The salesperson actually had the call to call me and argue with me about my review here. Suddenly, all the details of our conversations and meeting times were and quot;differentand quot; than what was originally decided. As if I made everything up. She also claims now that they never agreed to estimate for waterproofing and thought we needed a complete flood control system. Tired of the lies.

I had originally left a message asking for a quote for waterproofing a basement storage unit that had repeated flooding. Paul returned my call that same day, and since his office was so close to me, he stopped by that same day. Paul spent over an hour and a half thoroughly examining the foundation of the building, the storage unit that flooded, the back stairwell drain, downspouts, sewerage traps, and all the sump pumps in the condo building. He actually opened up all sump pump pits and tested to see exactly what source each pit pumped out. Paul was the first person who examined the sump pump pits. His thorough investigation led us to be able to create a list of possible causes for our flooding that we are working through and ruling out. Paul has been continually prompt in returning phone calls and helpful in walking us through our potential cause list and advising us as to how to best proceed in examining the next potential cause as we work to rule them out.

They showed up on time and did a thorough assessment of our system that they had installed 16 years ago and that the previous homeowners had not maintained. They showed us the parts that needed to be replaced and gave us an estimate up front before doing the repairs. They did a great job and we were so glad we had them come out before the big rains!!

To start with, this company was hard to contact and schedule an appointment with. They do not seem to work well under the stress of many people needing basement help following a flood. I overlooked their poor attitude on the phone given how I am sure it is difficult dealing with numerous phone calls and people being irritated at not having their calls returned.
When the person from the company came out, I was very disappointed. He was borderline rude. I got the distinct impression that my concerns and situation would not generate a bill large enough to be worth their time. He told me I probably have a crack somewhere and that there was nothing he could do to help me. I forget how long he told me I would have to wait to have someone come out, if they were to help me. He wouldn't give me his business card and did not provide any information on crack repair, advise on how to carefully try to find a crack or cracks without tearing down all my dry wall or anything. It was a complete waste of my time making an appointment with this company.

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Excellent job. Patrick and his employees are very professional and informative. They did a large volume of work in

a short amount of time and everything was top-notch. I highly recommend Xpert for any type of service they provide.

Overall rating would be higher based only on the work done. The C rating reflects the difficulty we had in getting the work started. Several start dates were given, and no one showed or called. Once work began, it was done well and on schedule. Have had no problems with sewer back up since the work was done, but it has only been 6 months with few heavy rains.

We have had water issues in our basement every time it rained. Patrick came out and suggested we tear up the concrete so that it sloped away from our basement door and to a trench drain located at the bottom of the stairs where most of our water came from during a rain. We also installed a battery back-up sump pump to ensure that if the water did get backed up to our catch basin, the water would not go into the basement. We have since had several hard rains and it has worked wonderfully. Patrick and his on-site team lead by Miguel were professional, on time, and courteous. We even had a box built for the battery but after installing the box, we found the cords were too short. We called Patrick and he had Miguel come out to take a look. He replaced the cords for free. We even decided to reroute our downspout and Patrick gave us the name of a wonderful guy who did a great job for a fair price. We could not be happier with the job performed.

The thing that impressed me so much about this service was the professonalism that Enrique exhibited when servicing this job. He stated that he has been with xpert for 17 years; which is meaningful to me because I interpet this to mean that Patrick takes care of his employees. I mentioned to Enrique that I was worried about the check valve leaking back into my basement. He took the time to show me my worry was unnecessary and demonstrated how the construction of the valve makes leaking highly unlikely
I hired Xpert several years ago because Patrick did a good job presenting Xperts value. The price was competitive and they checked out on Angies list and the BBB. At the time, I was a bit skeptical of the lifetime guarantee of the valve. I figured a flood control company would never be in business long enough to make the warranty worth anything. 4 years later, I can now admit my skepticism was unfounded. It is apparant that this firm is run extremely well and their products are quality. I will definately use them for any flood control issues.
If you do end up hiring xpert, make sure to have them out annually to service the pump and valve. The piece of mind it provides is well worth the money spent.

Excellent job. The serviceman performed a thorough cleaning and inspection of the system. He gave me an estimate for replacing the existing sump pump, which was over 30 years old. The pump was replace several days later. The work was done in a clean, professional manner. The service man was prompt and pleasant to deal with.

The crew was really efficient and they were very careful with our shrubs when they did their work. They removed the dirt and left very little indication that this work took place. If you went by our home today you will see no indication of where all the digging took place.

Their foreman Miguel was really terrific. He explained everything that was to take place and he kept us informed as the work progressed. He and his crew were just terrific in the way they did the work.

The only issue that we had with this company was the wait time after we paid our deposit. And the fact that they did not give us a follow up call to say that they would be later than at first thought.
After they started the project they GOT IT DONE! The weather was bad out and we did not have to tell them to not track up the floor, they shielded the floor on their own. They were on time, professional, courteous and did a fantastic job cleaning us the site once they finished. The grass was put back in place and they left the yard as they found it. No complaint on that part of the project. They did great. The only thing that I'd say that Xpert Flooding need to do differently is, call your customers and let them know if there will be a delay. This way we will know that you have not forgotten about us and that you think enough of our business to keep us informed.
We have not had a flood since the installation therefore, I can't say if it works or not, however, If a flood occur I'll gladly let you know if it works.

Xpert installed my flood control system in 2009, and had performed yearly maintenance on it in 2010.

I usually get a post card stating when they will arrive to perform annual maintenance. Received one in early Summer of 2011 stating they would arrive in a couple of weeks. They did not. Received another in the Fall stating they would arrive in a couple of weeks.

They did. Left a bill in my mailbox for $85, stating they arrived and did the annual maintenance.

They also noted that my drain needed to be power rodded. I called to schedule power rodding.

A technician left me a voice mail the morning it was scheduled stating he was late and would arrive around 3:30 PM to do the work. I happened to be home that day and no one ever arrived.

They never tried to reschedule. I never got a bill either, so I don't know what to think.

We'll see how they work out in 2012...

UPDATE (12/10/2011):
Xpert called me to make things right and rescheduled the power rodding today (my earliest availability) at no cost. The two gentlemen just left after pulling out about a cubic square foot of roots.

After filing my Angie's List report, I spoke with the owner for about a half an hour and we discussed this case in detail and the quality of my flood control system in general. I told him the system has performed admirably and kept my basement dry since it was installed, even after the last couple of very wet years.

I added power rodding to my annual maintenance plan, because a neighbor's tree seems to really like my sewer water. I am confident this will eliminate scheduling and communication issues in future years.

I bumped up the grades from my original report to what I think is fair, averaging out the early communication problems with the later extremely good communications.

The only problem with XPERT was getting them to meet date and time to start the work. We were able to agree upon a date whcih was a little longer from contract signing to actual start then we had wanted but within reason. We gareed upon a date in which I could be home in the morning when the crew arrived and my wife would be there the rest of the day. The first day was a nightmare in which no one showed up and we were never notified about a delay. This unfortunately happened on several occasions in which a date was agreed upon and EXPERT either failed to show or were late. However once they stated the job and we could deal directly with their foreman things ran perfectly. The workmanship was excellent and within a week after the install was completed we remained dry while several of our neighbors flooded. They removed the grass in such a manner that they were able to replace it once the basin was installed that it was hardly noticable that there was a basin cover in my front yard. As the job took several days they even watered the grass daily so it wouldn't die.

I would highly recommend XPERT for their craftsmanship, cost and product. However if you were to use them I would build in some type of protection for delays. Also if you plan on paying by credi card they up the cost to cover the credit card finance charge, you may want to resolve this ahead of time, if your paying by cash or check it doesn't matter.

I am on a yearly contract with this company. They were polite, businesslike and were very good workers. Almost all the houses in our neighborhood are having flood control systems put in. I will use them again in the future.

OK. This experience has two components to it. 1. They initially said they were installing the system at the end of October 2010. Two weeks went by and nothing. I called and they said they were coming in one week. Nothing. Called again, excuses/explanations, re-schedule and again nothing. This process lasted until December 18th, 2010. They are not reliable at all in terms of scheduling the job and honoring their word. This is why I gave them Ds in my rating for the three last categories. 2. In opposition, the crew was very professional and the head crew explained everything to us during the process and was very happy to answer any questions that we had when they finished. This is why I gave them an A for quality. I will call them again since the system needs to be serviced once a year. The Xpert Flood system seems very good. I would recommend the system if you're willing to put up with item 1.

Everyone was professional - Patrick - owner, Miguel and Sean - Manager and Foreman, Angelica - in office. What separates this company from the others I researched is they hand dig instead of truck dig. This allowed my fence and yard to remain intact. The hole was 10 feet deep for the valve system and another 3 feet deep for the ejector pump. They use double valves, not all companies do. The pump is connected to my curcuit breaker box. They house the flood control system in a hand built cement igloo. Grass is put back. The yard is intact. It needs to be checked/serviced once a year. They were all very easy to work with. I was put on a waiting list for a number of months - the wait was worth it. I feel I have an excellent product.

I called three times. The first time I left a voice message. After waiting a few days, I called a second time and spoke with someone who said Patrick would return my call. I called a third time a few days later and spoke with someone who reiterated Patrick would return my call. I understand people are busy, but a courtesy call would suffice.

They did a great job, I especially appreciated the drain pipe work which they did inexpensively and very carefully. Miguel even called me downstairs to take pictures before they repoured the concrete. We had to wait two months for the backflow preventer, but they did deliver right around when they said they would. They do seem like a company whose success has outpaced their manpower, both in the field and in the office. It was hard to pin them down as we got closer to the estimated start date; we had other projects waiting on theirs to complete and were on hold for a while because we couldn't get an answer as to when they were starting. Once they did, though, everything was extremely professional and the work was great.

We were concerned about an area in our front yard that was showing signs of sinking. The area was adjacent to a below ground flood control system that had been installed 12 years ago. Xpert ran a camera through the sewer line both out to the street in front as well as under our house to the rear catch basin. We were satisfied to learn there were no breaks in the sewer walls that would indicate leakage. The team was prompt, thorough and polite. They answered our questions satisfactorily and offered other general information.