Ace Basement Waterproofing
About us
Family owned & operated. 7 employees. No subcontractors. $100 discount for Angie's List members. Additional contact name - Vito Colonna. Additional fax - (440) 582-2599 Additional phone - (440) 237-3373..
Business highlights
Services we offer
Basement waterproofing, sewer line excavation & flood proofing., structural repair and replacement of foundation cement driveways and walkways
Amenities
Emergency Services
Yes
| Number of Stars | Image of Distribution | Number of Ratings |
|---|---|---|
| 55% | ||
| 5% | ||
| 5% | ||
| 0% | ||
| 35% |
He also gave some advice for what we could do to determine the moisture issue in our crawlspace. We knew we had an issue, but couldn't see it because the walls were covered in old insulation.
While we were waiting for the weather to cooperate and Julian to wrap up other jobs to schedule the work on our house, we took the insulation down in the crawlspace and found some places of the crawlspace walls that were definitely seeping. We also had our gutters cleaned and found they were completely clogged in the back of the house! We know we definitely need basement repairs-- we just want to make sure we're doing the right things and not doing anything unnecessary.
Julian has been very patient and helpful as we figure this out. He's very understanding and always answers all of my questions thoroughly. He never seems pushy or annoyed... which is something I have experienced with other people.
Once work is done on our house, I will be sure to update this review or write another!
Also, I should add, Ace waterproofed my neighbors house over a year ago and they were VERY happy with the results.
Better Business Bureau, Inc.2800 Euclid Avenue, 4th FloorCleveland, Ohio 44115-2408
Re: Complaint #: 9066491
Dear Betty Creter:
On August 20, 2011, I contacted Ace Basement Waterproofing, Julian Colonna, (Vice President) to give me an estimate to waterproof one back wall, one side basement wall and the garage wall. The estimate was $6,000.00 and that was within my budget, so I signed the contract with the understanding that I would no longer have water in the basement or garage. My sole purpose was in preparation to sell the home.
Upon reading Julian?s response, this was not the sequence of events.
At no time was I ever showed the open areas or was it mentioned that the rest of the basement should be waterproofed. I do not understand his statement when there was only one side wall, one back wall, and a garage wall. The other walls were not exposed and were not leaking, so there was no consideration to complete this unnecessary work. The back wall was dug to the bottom of the foundation, sealed, and backed filled with stone. That wall is no longer leaking at this time. They started digging at a visible crack on the side wall. He showed me at the time of the estimate and stated, ?There?s your problem.? I did not tell him to only do to the front corner of garage and back left corner of the house and nothing else. It was Julian who advised me that he would need additional $2,850.00 as stated on the contract to dig to the front corner of garage and back left corner. I understood that was part of the $6,000.00 estimate. However, I did agree to pay this amount, as I trusted he was doing the job I hired him to do as an expert. At no other time did he mention that other work needed to be done. It did not make sense to hire a company and refuse to let them do the work.
Preparing for the inspection with the City of Strongsville, they discovered there was a problem with the water not flowing through the drain tile. They stated the problem and I agreed to pay an additional $1,800.00 for them to cut the cement in the front of the garage door to install drain tile. I am not disputing that charge. However, the area in which they cut the cement out, water now lays in front of the garage. The City of Strongsville inspected the drains and approved. To my knowledge, everything was filled in and the job was complete.
Three days after the completion of the job, we had water in the basement and in the garage in the same originating spots. I telephoned Julian and advised him I had water in the basement and the garage. Julian then ran a camera into the down spout. He stated it was now the down spouts that was causing the problem. He also stated he would need additional money to do this work. I explained, ?I already have paid you $10,650.00, you have not alleviated the water, and now you want more money. When will it stop?? After a long discussion, he did agree to replace, repair or do what was needed to eliminate the problem. I still had a balance of $2,850.00 from the contract. That was the only time I was aware that there was a problem and at no other time did I refuse to pay him additional money. Upon the completion of that job, he was paid the balance of $2,850.00.
On December 5, 2011, I discovered water in the basement and garage in the same originating spots. After many messages with no response, I telephoned Vito Colonna (President of Ace Basement Waterproofing). I explained the situation and he stated not to worry and they will take care of it. Julian was on vacation and I was told he would call me when he got back. December 14, 2011, Vito and Julian came to the house and measured the basement wall from the inside to the outside and discovered another crack in the side wall below the surface. The conversation was between Vito and Julian as to why he did not dig the complete wall to the bottom of the foundation. Also at that time, they conversed that it was now a bigger problem because they already back filled the area, which is thirteen feet deep. It was at this point they discussed weather issues. The weather in December made it a dangerous time of year to do this type of work. There was no conversation about money; only that they would take care of it. I tried to be understanding and agreed if we needed to wait until spring it would be okay because we would be going to Florida. When they left the house, I was under the impression it was all agreed upon that they would take care of it in May. At no time was money mentioned. I agreed to call when I arrived home in May. Vito reiterated they were going to take care of it.
On May 9, 2012, I contacted Julian and he stated he would check with Vito to schedule a date and call me back. I never received a call back, so on May 16, 2012, I called and left a message on his voice mail to please give me a call. On May 18, 2012, he called and stated he would come on May 21, 2012. I was under the impression he was coming to do the job, but I cancelled because the City of Strongsville was replacing the sanitary drains
and they had their equipment in the yard. He suggested that I give him a call when they were complete.
On June 1, 2012, I assumed they would be arriving to dig to the bottom of the foundation as Vito discussed with Julian in December. Since the weather made the job less dangerous, as the company stated in December, I believed they would be completing the necessary work. To my surprise, Julian came to the house only to discuss other options and money. The job was not completed and no other issues were resolved. I told him I paid him enough money and the job had not been done properly. That instance was the only time I refused to give him more money. Before leaving on June 1st, Julian?s last statement mentioned Vito had the final say because he is the president of the company. I expressed that Vito had already made the decision in December to take care of it. I asked what had changed from December until May that this was a topic for discussion. He had no answer; only that he would present the information to Vito and he would call me on June 4, 2012 to resolve the issues. After waiting until five o?clock on June 4th for Vito to call me as Julian mentioned, I called him. Yet again, nothing was resolved. I asked Vito to come to the house so we could discuss the problem in person, rather than over the phone. He refused and stated, ?You just want the job for nothing, but nobody works for nothing.? I explained to him I already paid $10,650.00 for a job that was not done according to contract. I want what I contracted and paid for.
According to my contract, all three walls were to be dug to the bottom of foundation. If they had done so, all the cracks on the left wall would have been found and could have been sealed at that time. He states his process is to excavate to the bottom of the foundation, remove clay, replace the pipes, seal the wall from the outside and back fill the entire hole with stone. This was not done on the left wall or the garage wall, so they continue to leak. The work that was performed was not completed according to the contract. If the work had been done according to contract, I would not have water in the basement or garage in the same originating spots. I do not have water anywhere else in basement or garage.
I am unable to move forward with the situation until the job is complete. I can not do any
landscaping, replace the basement carpet, clean my windows, or repair the cable line that was cut. I never expected them to landscape my yard. The area is still a mess, as well as my neighbors. It will stay that way until this situation is resolved. I tried to do everything I could to make the job easier for them. They had no respect for my property or my neighbors.
In the past 49 years, I have dealt with many contractors. I have never encountered a contractor who does not stand behind their work. It is unfortunate Ace Water Proofing does not want to stan
"When I originally went out to the above house, the homeowner showed me her finished basement and said that she was getting water in it in two different spots in the basement. She also showed me a spot in the garage where she had water coming in. she told me they were looking to sell the house and that she wanted to keep her costs down, so I told her that we could dig in these three areas to find out what was going on. So we contracted to dig the three areas for $6,000. Her foundation is very deep and very difficult to get to. The price and the scope of work were agreed upon before any work started. The homeowner signed a contract describing the work and stating the cost of the work. Once these areas were opened, I showed the homeowner what was down there. In the back area there were no drain tiles at all. Previously the homeowner had put an addition on the house and the previous contractor who built the addition failed to install drain tiles in that area. On the sides where there were drain tile it was packed full of mud and not flowing. If water does not flow away from the foundation it will cause a problem, no matter what is done to the foundation. Also, her down spouts were poor quality pipe and were bowed and retaining water. Down spouts must flow, they take all of the water from the roof, which is a tremendous amount of water when it rains. At this point I told the homeowner, Joyce Cruise, that the rest of the basement from where we started on the back, around the left side to the front connection should be waterproofed in order to do a proper job. Again, water must drain down and not sit against the foundation, and water must flow away from the foundation in order to prevent the water from coming in. She refused. She said she wanted to keep her costs down and told me to only do up to the front corner of the garage and up to the back left corner of the house for an additional $2,850 and nothing else on the left side of the house. I can only suggest what needs to be done, I cannot make a homeowner do more work even when it is needed. I warned her that her basement is very deep, and that once we backfill with stone it will be very difficult to dig these other areas that need to be done because the stone will slide back into the hole. Once again, against my advice and the advice of my foreman, she refused to do the entire side and told me that she did not want to spend the money on a house she wants to sell. I had no choice but to comply with her wishes. We ran a camera in the downspouts at the front of the garage where we stopped digging. The water was not flowing. We ran a sewer jet in the line and it would not go through. I located the spot where it was stopping and told the homeowner that the water is not flowing out and she needs to cut the cement and replace the pipe from that point out. We agreed to do this extra work for an additional $1,800. All of the work that we performed at her house was first agreed upon in writing, was performed, and was inspected by the city of Strongsville before we backfilled. All of the work performed was done right. Our process is to excavate to the bottom of the foundation, remove all the clay, replace the pipes, seal the wall from the outside, and backfill the entire hole with stone. Some dirt is placed on top of the stone so grass or small plants can grow. Again, all of our work was done properly and inspected by the city, but we can only work in the areas the homeowner agrees to pay us for. We performed all of our obligations of this contract and were paid for it. The homeowner was repeatedly advised that additional work should be done at her house. Her current problems are in areas that we were not contracted to work. We can only dig where we are contracted to. Sincerely, Julian Colonna Ace Basement Waterproofing"
Poorly. See above.
We have placed at least 6 phone calls to the company; none have been returned.
Ace Basement Waterpoofing did a fantastic job. They were the only one out of 7 companies we called for estimates that
would hand dig the job . We had a lot of obstacles in the way such as trees ,pipes ,underground wires, air conditioner and swimming pool equipment.We also had a 2 to 4 foot overhang on the back of the house. We dealt with Julian and Vito Colonna . Both were very business like and professional.The crew boss Pete was great . He tackled the job with 6 other crew and stayed every day till it was finished . They were a great bunch of guys. I definitely would recomend them for waterproofing . The job went real smooth and my basement doesn't have that musty smell anymore. I wish I would have called them first instead of last . It could have saved me alot ot time .Furthermore, they damaged my lawn by driving their equipment on it, damaged the siding on my house, broke my well, and failed to clean up all of their debris. I decided to pay them for the system that they installed (even though my basement is still not waterproofed). We signed a contract amendment stating that they would repair all of these damages within 10 days, and I would hold back $2000 until they did so. It is now nearly three months later and after numerous phone calls to ACE, they have not made any of the repairs and have stopped communicating altogether. Even though I paid them $8000, they have not removed the mechanics lien from my house, and I am forced to take legal action to have it removed!
I would never hire this company again!!!!
"On 7/18/2011 Ace Basement Waterproofing entered into a contractual agreement with Larry Fulton, explaining in detail the scope of the work and the cost. The customer must have talked to numerous contractors because he knew exactly what he wanted done to his house. He told me that he had been under contract with another contractor and that he could not get that contractor out to do his work so he had called us. When Julian from Ace Basement Waterproofing was first at his house, at least a year ago, Julian Suggested and gave a price to do the front, right, and back walls of the house. On the back wall there is an existing interior water controlling system in place. The homeowner said that he was happy with that system and did not want to dig the back wall. We performed and honored the scope of the work which was inspected and approved by the building department. The contract was to dig the front and right walls only. He does not have a problem with these walls. His problem was water entering from an interior catch basin. He also appears to have a problem with his main connecting leading out. Both areas we had not been contracted to do. both walls we waterproofed were 100% dry and have no problem. We dug to the bottom of the foundation, removed the clay, replaced the pipes, sealed the wall from the outside and backfilled with stone to ensure drainage. We can only guarantee the areas we have done. We informed him that he still has an existing problem with the back wall. We even, at no charge to him, ran a sewer camera to show him that his pipes along his back wall are blocked. As stated in our contract water must flow freely from the connection in order for the system to work. In his case his connection went out his back wall. Since this is not flowing he will continue to have a problem no matter what is done to the walls. This problem needs to be corrected. There is nothing wrong with the work we did. We cannot unilaterally work in areas we have not been contacted to work. Any additional work outside the scope of the original contract must be signed by the homeowner and contractor before we can start the work, and will be an additional cost as stated in our contract. We have completed the scope of the work including cutting and replacing the concrete on the front entrance. At the homeowners request we were contracted to install a sump pump on the outside, which we did. After the pump and crock were installed the homeowner told us that he did not want it anymore, and even after us advising him against removing it, he insisted and made us remove the pump, which was additional work for us. The homeowner was very clear what he wanted done, even against our advice. The homeowner also had a problem with his gutters overflowing. The house was built with gutters, downspouts, and drain tiles for a reason. If the entire system is not working right there will be a problem. We were forced to place a lien against the house. The homeowner refused to pay us at all. After several conversations we agreed to settle for a reduced amount. Usually when we go out to a house the homeowner asks us what we feel needs to be done. In this case the homeowner told us exactly what he wanted done. He did say what his problem was and ask what we thought would fix it. He told us what to do and we did it. The city of pepper pike has not blocked us from doing any work. We have done several jobs in that same city since this job. Sincerely, Ace Basement Waterproofing"
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