HDK Trenching

At first glance the worked seemed to be top notch. The guys showed up on time, were polite and professional with their work, and worked quickly to get the job done. They started around 8:00 AM and were finished by 2:00 PM. Unfortunately, when it comes to earth-moving work, the proof of quality shows up weeks or months later. About 3 weeks after the work we had a weekend of heavy rain. A large sink hole opened up near the stop box (underneath the driveway) and next to the stairs (the contractor had tunneled under the concrete stairs to replace the sewer line). This was evidence to me that the dirt that was put back into these locations was not properly compacted, and from what I've heard since, this is evidence of poor quality earth-moving work. Fortunately, there was no harm done in those two areas, but in spreading out the "extra" dirt in the front yard, the contractor inadvertently plugged a drain tile discharge pipe that came out in the front yard. Thus, 3 weeks later when the rains came the water didn't have any place to go except through my foundation walls and into my basement. This was a major headache. The damage to the basement included the carpet, pad, and drywall along one wall, along with the hassle of moving the furniture into the garage to clean up the mess. I tore out the drywall along the offending wall and found evidence of previous flooding, so I took it upon myself to have a retrofitted sump system installed to make sure it wouldn't happen again, and I'm now refinishing the whole basement (though this would not have been completely necessary; it was a matter of personal choice). When I discovered the plugged drain tile I called the owner of the company to get his insurance information and file a claim. He didn't think he was responsible since I hadn't told him the pipe was there and he hadn't cut through it while doing the work. I filed the claim with his insurance company anyway, but after not hearing anything I called them back and found that the owner had canceled the claim without notifying me. I explained my end of the story to the agent and he agreed with the contractor that there was no negligence on the contractor's part. The insurance agent further communicated to me that the owner was worried about the claim specifically because of his deductible, meaning the claim would hurt the owner monetarily. I spend the better part of a whole weekend fixing the drain tile discharge pipe, and I'm still working on refinishing the basement. All in all I would estimate the total damage at around $1,000 due to the work I had to do on the drain tile and finishing of the one wall and the replacement of the carpet and pad.