Perma-Seal Basement Systems

eb7:23There were many facets of project. In 2008, (clear day), I had a severe backup of sewage into my floor drains. In November, and December, 2012, there was again severe flooding of sewer. April 18,2013, 3:23 a.m. there was again, major flooding, also, I started to cough! What did this have to do with the flooding, you ask? I didn't know, so I went to see my doctor, that referred me to a lung doctor, that referred me to a Surgeon Thoraic, I had multiple ct scans, there two less than 7cm, that was discovered 2010. There was no coughing or breathing problems. The surgeon of course wanted to do a biopsy, I refused to do so, but agreed to have a complete PET Scan. The outcome was negative as far as the "C" word was concerned. So I joined Angies' by then, and began to search for a company to give me the answer to the problem that just keeps occurring. A large, huge, school was constructed right in front of my house, and in 2012, I went to the sanitation department in this town, and ask, did the builder connect the sewers to the existing sewers on the otherside of the street, the residential area, he stated,"yes, where else was he going to put it"! So in May, I called earlier, maybe the latter part of April, but didn't get an appointment for Permaseal, until May! Mr. Ferguson, the Consultant came out and walked me through the neccessary steps to correct the problem. The major step was to, in my own words, build a personal infrastructure for my property, dig a 7ft trench, place a pump, and cutoff valve to prevent overflow sewage from entering my home. In essence, build my own mahole, that can be cleaned, and kept up, the way the sewers are suppose to be maintained by the municipality! The work began in August, or I signed the contract in August, the work was finished 12-04-13! How is my breathing, I can sleep through the night, the cough is better, already, and I hopeful that I made the right decision regarding the doctor, and also, in choosing Mr. Ferguson, and Perma Seal! (Two small spots were found less than 7 mm)

Permaseal arrived on time on the designated date to perform the contracted services. All of the employees were very professional and knew their jobs very well. The work was performed in the allotted time frame and very little mess was left when you consider that a jackhammer was used, gravel for the drain was moved inside, and then fresh concrete was mixed and poured to cover the trench. I was very pleased with the work and have had no seepage since the work was done. It's great that the work has a lifetime warranty and is transferable to a new owner should I ever sell my home. Permaseal is a very well run organization and I would not hesitate to recommend them to anybody.

Punctual, diagnosed and fixed the issue. Made helpful suggestions. Not pushy.

Being at a low spot in my neighborhood, the heavy rains we get periodically through the year, and the amount of water I was seeing getting pumped out during those rains, I wanted some assurances of having a good sump/backup system for my basement (even though I was happy with my self-installed system, I felt like it was time to invest in something more professional looking). After getting a few quotes, I settled on these guys, simply because of the professionalism they showed during their initial visit. The price was a little high for my taste, but then, all bids were coming in around at a similar price. The guy that did the install was professional, clean, and courteous. Now, after a year of it working, I'm happy, it's been functioning well. I would recommend this company for sump-pump installs.

They were punctual and finished the project early. With the storms and rain we have had this fall their work was put to the test week after week. As I write this review I am in the basement as we wait for the storms and tornado warnings to end. Our basement is water tight and free of the musty odor.

Did a great job on basement back in September. They finished the work in a day and 1/2, which was amazing. The only issue was the foreman - I called to see when the job would be complete and he said they were finishing up that day. Previously, he had seemed irritated with me and my requests to work around my work schedule to come back and inspect and complete payment. I work 30 minutes away. Anyway, he said they were finished and wanted me to come. I said I was leaving work and on my way. When I arrived 30 minutes later, they were gone. I called and no answer. Long story short, I was very upset and demanded he come back immediately for the inspection and the payment. All was straightened out, but this still leaves a bad feeling. I had also ordered four new windows - 2 with and 2 without hoppers, glass block type. They came to install today, and only had two. The two with hoppers were not ordered and will take another 2-3 weeks.

We contacted PermaSeal for a quote on flood control system for sewer line in June after sewage backed up through the basement floor drain and flooded our finished basement for a 2nd time in 2 months. We were impressed with their knowledge and the price was competitive, so we signed the contract and paid the deposit for the work to be done in October. We realized this was a long time to wait, but their commitment to customer service and quality of work swayed us, so we put up with it. Unfortunately, as soon as they had our money and contract, the customer service abruptly ended. Our consultant never responds to our emails and voicemails unless several days have passed and several attempts have been made, and even then he rarely answer our questions. We've had scheduling issues from the very beginning: when they first came out in August to film the sewer line in order to determine the exact location for the work, we were told by office staff that the appointment would be done in either the AM or PM, which was ideal for arranging our personal work schedules. However, the actual appointment time we were given was 11-2, which could not be changed and necessitated me taking a whole day off for a 45 minute appointment. Then, when the actual installation was done in October, we confirmed that the indoor electrical work would be done on a specific day, but they could not provide us with a timeframe, so I again took the whole day off. The electrician did not show up til 5:10 pm, looked around a bit (while reeking of smoke and bringing these cancerous fumes inside our house), and concluded that he would need to come back another day because the work would take a few hours. After several calls and emails to multiple people at PermaSeal, we were miraculously able to get on the schedule 1st thing in the morning 2 days later, but even so, this required me to take an additional 1/2 day of work off in addition to the whole day I wasted waiting for the electrician to show. Currently we're dealing with another scheduling issue: the installation required the removal of two concrete sections of our front walkway, and when we were told this back in August, we elected to have PermaSeal replace them as part of the work rather than find a 3rd party to come in and pour 2 sections of sidewalk, which would be nearly impossible for such a small job. The foreman for the crew in October said that the ground/backfill would need about a month to settle post-excavation before new concrete could be laid - ok, that made sense. Of course, neither our consultant nor anyone else on staff was proactive about scheduling this work, and when a month had passed, we called to inquire when the sidewalk would be replaced and we found out that it had not been scheduled. The earliest date available is December 21: more than 5 weeks away, in the middle of cold winter when quality concrete work really cannot be done in below-freezing temps, and just to add to the frustration, we have out-of-state family members arriving that day for the holidays. Simply unacceptable! PermaSeal's a) lack of accountability, especially with regards to scheduling, and b) complete lack of response or care from their consultants have left us extremely dissatisfied. We just want this work to be 100% completed and have the frustration behind us! Several of our neighbors have had flood control systems installed over the past few months by other companies, and not only was the work 100% completed in a much shorter timeframe, but they were all completely satisfied with the entire customer experience, which is a lot more than we can say about our experience with PermaSeal. If given the chance to do it again, we would avoid PermaSeal at all costs. For the record, we have no problems to report from the actual work done so far, although we'll see what happens in the spring when the heavy thaws and rains return. The workers that came to do the sewer line scoping in August and the actual excavation and installation in October were all very polite and professional, with the exception of the aforementioned smoky electrician.

I shopped around for the price and they were an A. My experience with them was like night and day. I used them once before years ago because I had 7 cracks. I would definitely use them again.

They did not clean up well after themselves outside. Specifically, the dirt that was excavated. When I brought that to their attention they said it will settle over time and if it doesn’t go down they will come back out and removed some more of the dirt. They have a very good reputation and I felt they were knowledgeable. We had some bad floods in our area and it took a long time for them to get to us but so far I have been satisfied with the work.

Received a quote early July - work done per schedule late October Had six workers digging inside and outside. Plumber appeared early. Electrician called and appeared late afternoon. Project went as planned except that our electrical panel was already on overload and we lost our invisible fence as they cut the wire by mistake. Now we finish the basement and wait for a downpour

At 2:35, I called them and asked where the plumber was to give me an estimate on a battery-backed sump pump and a sensor for the ejector. The first person put me on hold and had to listen to their musak about how they always want to exceed customer expectations and they train their people all the time. The next person I spoke with told me she would find out and have the plumber call me. I told them he better be here by three or they would lose my business since I had taken a PTO day and had to sit around the house all day waiting. I got a call from him at 2:55 and he told me he was on the south side and he could be here in an hour. I asked him why didn't I get a call in the morning saying that so I didn't have to waste my day waiting. He didn't say anything even when I asked him "you don't have anything to say about that?" I said thank you, your services are not needed. There are plenty of companies out there that will bend over backwards to service customers. This is not one of them.

Because of heavy spring rains and severe flooding all over the area, it took a couple of months for them to get here, but the estimator actually gave me good news in that our basement needed less work than we anticipated. He gave me a price and a work date. The guys showed up on Saturday morning a little ahead of schedule (called to make sure it was okay to arrive early). The work was completed in about three and a half hours. They were very careful to wear booties over their shoes while in the house to avoid tracking mud and they left the basement cleaner than when they arrived.

So far all has gone fine but won't know 'til we get a very heavy rain to know if it was 100% successful.

Couldn't come out for estimate for over 1.5 months. Eventually cancelled estimate.

Bad from day one. No communication! They took bad measurements and had to make multiple trips! Bad install crew! Took along time to get someone to call back!

It was understandable to have a delay in scheduling due to the major flooding in April. It was a major sticker shock when the first guy came and investigated why we had water in the crawl space. The guy who started the process, Bob, has always been nice. However, we have found the office to be slow to respond. For example, when we asked for a receipt for our down payment. Also, there is still water coming in because the crew that did the repair did not follow the instructions to seal any cracks that were found. Bob came back to find out why water was still getting into the crawl space. There were six cracks not repaired by the crew, plus the seal around our outside crawl space opening is letting water in. Also, when the crew was finishing up on their first visit, they neglected to point out how they drilled a hole too high through our siding from the crawl space, then tried to fix it. Now anyone walking down the street can see the screw up. Bob said that he would call the office to make getting our situation corrected a top priority. It has been more than 24 hours and we have received no call to schedule this "priority." Once again, we will have to initiate contact with the office and see if they see the same urgency we feel that is needed to fix this problem. Bob doesn't deserve an F, but the rest of PermaSeal team does.

This is the second time we've used Permaseal and have been very happy with the work they did. They came to install a wall seal because we were seeing water come in on the wall in the basement. After they installed the wall seal, we were still getting water in the basement in that area and we were still seeing the water come in on the wall. We called Permaseal to let them know it didn't seem like the wall seal was working. We had to schedule another appointment for a tech to come out and evaluate the situation. I was so afraid they were going to try and tell us that we had another issue and we'd have to spend more money to get it fixed. Instead, they identified a tiny crack in the wall which they repaired for no charge since the wall seal is covered under warranty. They fixed the crack the following week. My only complaint is how they schedule their jobs. You schedule a date that they will come out. You basically have to plan for them to come any time between 8-5PM. The day before the job, you get a call with a 4 hour window. So you basically can't make any plans for that date until you get the phone call the day before. Wish there was a better way to schedule but at least they show up within the 4 hour window.

Answered Angie's List message in 1 day.

It isn't done yet. The crew that has worked on in has been very professional and has done a decent job. Our issue with Permaseal lies with their inability to successfully deal with permits and scheduling appointments with inspectors to come and check their work. The job was supposed to be done in August but the permit department miscommunicated with the village and an appointment with the inspector couldn't be scheduled so they pushed our installation back six weeks. The installation began but when the inspector came out there were some things he wanted Permaseal to change, which they did. They couldn't finish the job that day despite telling us it was a one day job. It isn't, its at least two days. Another appointment was scheduled with the inspector to come out the following week so the job could be finished. But again there are communication issues between Permaseal and the Village so there is no inspection time for the scheduled date. Now they want to push it back another three weeks. We found that to be unacceptable. I contacted the Village myself and with two phone calls had the inspection set up for the scheduled date. A task I explained to Permaseal I would attempt to get done so they could still come out. When I called them to tell them I had the inspection, the refused to come out and complete their job, they had already sent our crew to a new home. I'm sure that the product will be fine although we won't know that until the next major set of storms. Permaseal has been without question the absolute worst company we have ever worked with. I get the feeling they have so overbooked themselves that the permit and scheduling department can't keep up and they consequently make mistakes. These errors have now left an eight foot hole in our front lawn with several tons of dirt killing our lawn while we wait for them to come and finish. They have done nothing to make our experience with them positive. And we are completely trapped by their incompetence and we have to continue to use them on a yearly basis to check the equipment in order to maintain our warranty. After speaking with our Village inspector, they are trying to contact Permaseal because they don't feel it is safe to leave a giant hole in a person's front yard for nearly a month. I'm disappointed, frustrated, and angry with the lack of effort by this company to successfully complete the work in a timely fashion. They expect us to pay them in full even though they have yet to live up to their end of the deal

Everything went good! I thought their service was fine. They only complaint I have is that they need to have a separate line for emergency calls. The price of the work was higher but the quality of the work is great and the installers were very professional. They're an established company and I know they'll be around for a while! I'd highly recommend their services.

They were okay. Not my favorite. They were professional. But I don't like how if you call a company, a "sales" rep comes out. And just works with the sale. I want someone in there who knows what they are talking about, and does the work themselves. Not just visit the property, and then try to up sell us on what kind of work needs to be done.

Had to wait almost 6 weeks just to get an estimate. Understandable because of unusually heavy Chicago rains. Quoted fee was significantly less than another large provider in the area. Were told crew would arrive between 1 - 5pm. Also told job would take 2+ hours. I called mid-afternoon to check on crew arrival time. Assured it would be soon. Crew actually arrived at 4:30 on a Friday and took 3.5 hours to finish so, they left my house at 8pm Friday night. Crew was working hard the whole time, did a good job but, are obviously over-scheduled. We should have been given the opportunity to reschedule instead of being incredibly inconvenienced on a Friday night after a long week.

I called in and the woman on the line was not warm at all, and I felt she was impatient and unresponsive.

Perma Seal is kind of backed up from the april 2013 storms that came through. Everything about them is professional. We would have used them if we could have afforded it.

It was great! They came in & were done in about 4 hours. They cleaned up after themselves too & since then not a drop of water coming in. I love it, should've done this a long time ago.