DUANE RITTER EXCAVATING

On the Wednesday night, we discovered water flooding into our basement - not enough to drown a rat but enough to make a mess and ruin anything on the floor. We had the City come out to turn off the water, and we diagnosed it as a leak just outside the basement wall, about six feet underneath the front yard. When a pipe bursts, the water floods into the earth around it, but when no more can be absorbed, it finds the fastest route out which, in our case, was through the basement wall and into our basement. We called a few places on Wednesday night and Thursday morning and received no call backs. Credit to Highview Plumbing in Minnetonka whom we were able to reach, because they were too booked up but had the integrity to refer us to their competitors, Duane Ritter Excavation (aka CDR Excavating) of Rockford. I called at around 2pm and Duane arrived by 4:30pm after a day of digging out a swimming pool in the area. He diagnosed the problem quickly, gave me three options based on what he thought he would likely find after digging down, and pros and cons of each - a straight dig and replace being the cheapest, and a remote control bore being the most expensive. He gave me a rough quote on the spot, but promised to call me back Thursday night to verify. He did that, as promised, and his formal quote matched his estimate. What's more, his crew was available Friday morning to do the work. Friday morning he and his "crew" (son, Curt - as in CDR Curt Duane Ritter) and his daughter-in-law showed up promptly, having obtained the necessary permit from the city. They carefully brought the digger up the yard, trying to minimize the damage to the grass (although I had told them I was not too worried), then dug a 6x6x6 foot hole just outside the house to get down to the pipe work coming in from the water main. Within an hour they had replaced that with new pipe and fittings either side, and used foam to fill up any extra space around the hole. They arranged and waited for the city inspector to verify the work, went and got styrofoam boards for insulation and placed them down above the pipe to reduce the future chances of damage from freezing. Then they replaced the dirt and cleaned up after themselves. This is a family outfit, with son Curt taking over from dad Duane. Very friendly, courteous and got the job done very well, and now I have water. I was expecting a much higher bill once I realized what the damage was, so I was very pleasantly surprised at being quoted $1300 (including permit) and even more so at the fact that the actual invoiced cost was the same as the quote - that doesn't always happen with home projects. So, we have water, and we're all happy. Nice job done by this crew, and would use them again without hesitation.

Duane gave me an on-site estimate and then followed up several times with phone calls. His crew was amazing! They were professional, friendly and even swept our street each night before leaving. They were able to salvage much of my perennials too.