Phils Excavating

Recently completed a full new septic system installation for a 5 bedroom house. Phil's team was wonderful from the planning to the completion. Their propsal was the best price covering the most complete job including permits and tree removal as well as the core septic system. When it came time for actual construction, they were on-site promptly, worked to a professional plan and completed the job in just under 3 days. I am very pleased with both the process and the results.

I was having two distinct problems. The gutters on the two corners of my home were somehow backing up to the extent that instead of going into the ground by way of the downspouts, they were literally creating fountains off the corners of the home onto the ground below and destroying my landscaping and hardscaping due to the force. As well, the same flooding of the hardscaped walkway was causing flooding of my front planting bed and washing down and away most of my front lawn all the way to my neighbors. I had a small pipe installed alongside the bed to try and accommodate the water coming off the roof but it was incapable of handling the sheer volume. John proposed a buried cistern in my front lawn with new pipes connecting to the existing one as well as a fourth downspout that went to the back yard. His thought was all that water was unable to seep into the ground where the pipe currently ended so a cistern was needed. We agreed to $3000 which was also to include loam and seed. As it was finished in late November, we did not have substantial rains for me to verify this. When I had my thaw in Spring, there was some walkway flooding but I attributed this to the walkway's pitch and less to the drainage system. However, two calls and one text to John reminding him to remove the hay he had left and to come loam and seed were unreturned. I eventually hired a landscaper to address it. When the thunderstorms started in May, the problem occurred again. As the storms got worse, the problems worsened. The fountains off the corners of the house washed away the landscaping again, washed away the joint compound of my walkway and flooded my side yard. As well, the same spot in the yard where the pipe had previously ended was again percolating water which was running down the side hill. I sent photos and texts. John finally responded after multiple messages that claimed he was busy on multiple jobs that he would send someone to excavate the pipe and see if it was blocked. I got a simple text that said they had done so and the pipe was clear. The problem has continued until this day and I demanded a meeting to discuss exactly what was done. When we met, his claim was his job was merely to install the cistern and the pipes which connected to the existing pipe, not actually see if it solved the problem or concern himself with the existing pipes. I asked how he could have tested the system if he wasn't concerned with the existing work and how could he say the problem was "fixed". His response was that what he installed was working but that he wasn't responsible for the rest and that I should have my gutters and downspouts cleaned!!!! I pointed out I had done this just prior to his work. I also asked him if his pipe was in fact connected to the existing drainage pipe AND the small black pipe installed by the landscaper to address the run-off, why was water still percolating out off the ground EXACTLY where he had made his connections. His comment was that the black perforated pipe installed by the landscaper "was s**t" and was probably leaking. So I asked why he would attach his system to something that was "s**t" instead of contacting me and asking about options such as leaving it alone and addressing it separately. I had my handyman run three hoses up to the three gutters that run to this system and turn all of them on simultaneously. The same downspouts immediately backed up and started overflowing. When another company was questioned, their response was that attaching these three downspouts (one of which is oversized so it's more like 4) to this one pipe connected to cistern is basically a bottleneck and cannot handle the water coming off the entire roof of my house. I now need to have the entire area re-excavated and evaluated. John does not stand behind his work and doesn't care if the problem is actually rectified, nor does he even complete the work as promised.