Thompson's Basement Waterproofing

On 12/8/11 a three man crew arrived to execute to recommendations of the home examiner. The overall job involved jack hammering out the floor in our Family room, our crawl space and our attached garage. Before work began the area was sealed off to minimize dust pollution. They improved upon/replaced an existing drainage system and a sump pump. They explained thoroughly all that would be done and at different times during the work day came to bring us up to speed on where they were on the project. The crew worked diligently the entire day and cleaned up when the job was completed. We are very pleased at how our work was done. Although we haven't experienced the heavy rains to be absolutely certain that the job is a permanent fix we feel very certain that it is. If indeed we find out that it isn't we have every assurance from the company that they will be back to make any corrections. We've been told by some fiends that we may have overpaid for this work but we are satisfied. Additionally, this work guarantee/assurance is transferable if we ever sell our home.

The guys from Thompson's came bright and early and seemed to be professional. They started jack hammering the floors and thought that they had ran into a problem and needed air jacks to break through the concrete. Eventually they broke through the floor and the work started for 9hrs. They were very friendly and did there best to keep the area and the surrounding area clean from dust and debris. I truly would recommend this company( Thompson's Basement Waterproofing ) to other. Keep up the good work guys.

Two men arrived on October 17, 2011 to waterproof my basement. The salesman promised that the job would be completed in three days, as I was to go into the hospital on Oct. 20 for surgery. Immediately, I became aware that two men could not complete this large job in three days. I called the main office and was informed that there were not enough workers and that an attempt would be made to get more people there the following day. The following two days, the same two men arrived for work. Aparently, a larger crew came and were able to complete the work by the end of the day Thurs. Oct.20. As I was having surgery that day, my son had to come over after work to give them the final payment. He said the job was complete. I am certain the drains and pumps are working, though we have not had the volume of rain that seemed to cause the problem in the first place. They sawed portions of walls to accommodate the floor work. One would think that these could have been relaced. They left the basement floor and steps dirty and there are solidified cement pieces all over the perimeter of the floor. The surrounded most of my things (which were in the center of the room) with plastic wrap which did little to prevent a layer of dust throughout. The poured some of the liquid waste down part of my driveway and there is also some solidified cement on parts of the driveway. It is permanently discolored. It appears that in their haste to complete the work, they were sloppy in their clean-up efforts.

Our salesperson, Greg Witters, was very knowledgeable and helpful in designing a comprehensive system that was tailored to resolving our particular issues. He is the opposite of a high-pressure salesperson and his initial visit to our home was at 8 PM after a full day of other visits. He was right on time and was easily able to answer all of our questions. He didn't insist that both my wife and I be present for the meeting (unlike another waterproofing company) and he did not attempt to scare us that a foundation disaster was imminent and we did not have to endure a marathon A-Z presentation about their company. he was able to quote us pricing and options during his initial visit, unlike other companies in this business. When we signed with Thompson to do the work, they required no money down and we did not pay anything until the system was installed. We had to wait for just about a month for work to get started once we agreed to the work, due to a large backlog of work. Three days before work was to begin, I noticed that the underground utility lines in our yard had not yet been marked, so I called Thompson's office to remind them of this. A service marked the utilities the following day. Work on our system began on the day promised, but the crew was just two people the first day. This is a messy, noisy process and the guys tried to keep dirt and mess from getting upstairs to some degree. The first day, the two men showed up on time and were able to jackhammer up the entire perimeter of the floor, but said they could go no further the first day and actually left early. The crew was on time the second day, and there was a total of three guys on site. These guys really hustled hauling the broken concrete out of the basement into their trucks to be hauled away. They installed the new perimeter drain pipes inside the house and connected up one of the sump pits that day, but didn't have everything they needed to hook up the second pit. The third day, the crew was on time to start the day, and there were five guys that day, because the two discharge pipes needed to be dug and installed in our front yard. Our salesperson, Greg, was back at the start of the day, mostly to work on determining if all the sump pumps would be connected to the discharge lines (which I wanted). There was some concern from Thompson's about doing this because they wanted the second pump in each pit (the 1/2 HP which would be activated only when the 1/3 HP pump couldn't keep up on its own) to run to daylight only, to head off any problems if the 4" pipe would become blocked with ice, etc. This pumping to daylight only would result in lots of water being pumped into our lawn and toward our two neighbors' houses. There was more back-and-forth about this than you would expect, but Thompson's eventually agreed to connect all the pumps and downspouts to the discharge lines without impacting the "no flood" warranty they offer on their work. Good deal! The crew completed the inside work (gravel around the perimeter drain pipes, concreting the floor perimeter and hooking up the second sump pit to the discharge line) in the morning and everyone moved to the outside work. A small excavator was brought in to dig the long main runs, while the shorter runs from the main line to the house were dug by hand by the crew, carefully working around utility lines. These shorter runs allowed for our downspouts to be connected to the discharge lines to carry away as much water as possible. The crew did try to minimize damage to the lawn and planting bed they had to dig through, but you can't use heavy equipment and not do some damage, but it was not all that bad. The crew did not have enough pipe to lay all the discharge lines with them and two workers had to run to the local Home Depot to purchase additional supplies, which left the remainder of the crew without anything to do. Once the excavator dug the main runs, the crew quickly tied in all the downspouts and discharge lines from both pumps in each pit. The main discharge pipes were taken to about five feet of the street where water would then exit. They didn't want to take the pipes all the way to the curb because that curb was high and would impede the flow of water into the street and the curb couldn't legally be cut for the water to flow into the storm drain system on the street. To prevent these sections of the lawn from becoming waterlogged from the regular day-after-day water being pumped by our system, the crew creating a small channel at the end of both discharge pipes, first putting down a layer of plastic to coax water toward the street and then laying down fairly large gravel pieces to dress things up where the water flowed out. There was a lot of dirt to throw back into the two ditches and the crew did this work by hand. Crew members had told me they were going to stay late to finish that day, because the weather was good and the October snowstorm that hit was being forecast for the following day. For some reason, the crew was then sent home without finishing and I was told there would be a crew sent back the next day to complete the work. As I said, a couple of the crew were surprised by this decision, because the work was so close to being done. On day 4, a two-man crew showed up on time, shortly before the snow began falling. They worked as best they could as the wet, heavy snow began to fall, but it became obvious that they couldn't finish because of all the mud. I was told that another crew would be sent back to finish when things had dried up. I did not pay the bill in full that day as was requested by the crew members at my home, holding back $500 for the clean-up work with the ditches that remained. The crew didn't return until Black Friday, when two workers returned and finished in less than two hours. Hindsight is always 20-20, but in this case, I really wish the large crew had stayed to finish on the third day. We would have avoided the month delay in completing the job. The basement has remained dry since the new system has been installed and the new Zoeller pumps are much quieter than the previous ones we've had in the house. We've had some heavy rains since the installation and we've haven't noticed this system working as hard as the previous layout (two sump pits sharing the workload is a much calmer, less stressful set-up). We're getting ready to begin fixing the bottom part of the studs, electrical lines and insulation that needed to be removed for the new drain system to be installed. We've also hired an electrician to install a automated natural gas back-up generator to run the sump pumps in the event of a power loss in the future, All in all, the project has been a success. I thought the price was a little higher than I wanted to pay, but it was challenging to get reputable basement waterproofing companies to even take a look after all the flooding in the area following Hurricane Irene and Lee. In talking with the crew, Thompson's now has a very long backlog (two months) of work scheduled. When they were doing our job, the crews were smaller than was planned because of problems getting enough workers. This is hard, difficult, physically-demanding work and I can see why people would walk away. I would recommend Thompson's to others, but make sure you take the time to get yourself educated on the basement waterproofing process to understand the way the systems are designed to work. Our salesman was very helpful in completing my education, but I spent a lot of time on the internet doing research to know how things fit together in a system and to identify everything I wanted done. I appreciated the crew members telling me that what we chose to do with our home was the exact right approach (two pits, four pumps, everything including downspouts into the discharge lines). I kept pushing for this, even while the crew was on-site performing the work, even when Thompson's repeatedly balked at doing what I wanted. I suspect the on-site crew was doing some lobbying with their office to build the system as I was requesting.

went smoothly. took 6 weeks for the cement overcoat to dry and set. was not advised of power requirements of the sump pump. tok several calls and have still not been advised. the system was tested during hurricane IRENE and passed with flying colors. heard the water pouring into the sump drum and heard the pump run every few minutes. no moisture or humidity present since the drying of the concrete.

My advise is to tell any mold inspection company up front, "I want a mold inspection only". That you will not under any circumstance hire them to remediate anything they find. Don't give anyone a reason to find mold so that they can charge to remove it.

The service seemed to be fine. We have probably decided not to use their service. We had a follow up question, which they got back to us on promptly, and then they sent out a contract. The contract had a diagram and layout of where the sump pumps were going to be. One of the locations for one of the sump pumps was not going to work because of the configuration of the outside of the house so I called twice to try to get them to call me back to discuss the location and I never heard back from them. It was a little bit disappointing because we thought we were heading in the right direction. I called twice and I wasn't going to make a pest of myself. It was a $10,000 job so it wasn't a small job. Initially they were responsive but they dropped the ball later. They did come on the date they had scheduled and they were punctual. We thought they were very good. Our only complaint was that we were not able to seal the deal in the end and we never got an answer about a legitimate question.

After hurricane Irene caused some seepage in our finished basement, we called two companies for estimates to perform the required repair work. Both estimates were around the same price, but Thompson's included the revoval and disposal of the damaged drywall and trim, while the other company's did not. Thompson's was also the more professional and thorough presentation, and their representatives engaged in none of the high-pressure or questionable sales tactics you hear about so often in the waterproofing industry. Their workers were also very courteous, neat and performed the work quickly and well. We are quite satisfied with the entire experience.

Their estimate was double what everyone else had. When I told them I had a bid for $5500, they miraculously said that they could beat that by $200.

The workmen arrived promptly at their scheduled start time. The took the time to lay plastic down over all areas where they would be working and carrying out contrete from the basement. They were courteous and efficient. They reattached everything to the walls properly and were done in about a half day of work. They cleaned up the entire mess of crumbled contrete that they had jack hammered out of the floor. So, as of about 8 months of completion and one of the wettest summers on record we have not had a drop of water in the basement since. Do not hesitate to use Thompsons as they have been doing this for a long time and have honed their techniques over the years to drastically reduce their recalls and develop the best methods for waterproofing.

The onsite crew was excellent supervised by Scott, they were very professional and on time everyday. They did a great job!

They called back super quickly but were unable to make an appointment with me until November 29th - 30 days in the future. I did not make an appointment.

They are very professional. The guy tried to give us a hard sell; but he is a salesman, so I respect that and it is his job. He wasn't extremely pushing. He seemed to be informative and he seemed to know what he was doing, that is why we went with them.

Based on the "A" rating from Angie's List, we chose to get a quote from Thompson's for waterproofing our unfinished basement, which consisted of a french drain around the inside perimeter of our basement and a sump pump installation. Another competing quote was from WM Henderson and was 2K more, but they wanted to move our water heater and oil tank. Thompson's guaranteed a dry basement for the life of the home and was 2K cheaper, so we went with them. On the start date (approx one month after contract signed), the crew showed up at 10:30 AM, which I thought was a late start for a job that could potentially be done in one day, but then must be stretched to a second day that my wife would have to take off work. After the crew arrived, we were unimpressed with their shorts and T shirts. This may be a small point, but looking like a team and having some semblance of a uniform instead of just a bunch of guys doing a job together. At the start of their job, they realized their jack hammer wasn't working and left to pick up another jack hammer at another site, only to return 3 hours later. We knew the job would not be completed that day. The next day the crew showed up no earlier than 9:30 and finished the job at approximately 6pm. They said they'd probably be finished by 2-3 pm, but this was not a big deal. A few days later I carefully inspected the cement work that covered the french drain in the basement perimeter. There was good integrity of the cement work in terms of it being level and with good contact with the walls. However, the job was otherwise sloppy with cement pieces littering the inside perimeter of the work. Additionally, the clean up job was hasty in that there was an excessive amount of dirt remaining on the floor, the steps to our basement, and the landing at the door. The poor clean up was almost expected for this unorganized, disheveled, late group of guys. To top it off, after we recieved our $4850 invoice, we were sure surprised because we had told the man who gave us the quote (Dean) about a $350 coupon we found in the super saver coupons. Dean verbalized understanding of this coupon after he had already given the $4850 quote, implying that we'd pay $4500. I did sign the contract, but failed to notice that the fine print at the bottom said that includes all coupons. Yes this was my fault, but as a matter of professionalism, let alone a sense of good business practice, they could have honored our verbal agreeement. Not impressed, but I don't doubt at this point that we will have a dry basement.

They quoted me $2600 or $2800. They were fine. I am still working on other companies right now; so I can’t tell about the price. I would get another quote from them.

The inspector was punctual but I did not feel very knowledgeable. He had his script and would not deviate. Did not hire.

We did not need work done, but he came out and gave us some recommendations for future issues.

Very punctual, polite, professional. I asked LOTS of questions. He fielded all of them without any problem -- willing to spend all of the time needed. Seemed to include all possible Angie'sList-associated discounts I will consider Thompson Waterproofing for contractor of choice at a later date. May use him as price point. Considering a smaller local company.

They explained that we didn't need basement waterproofing. We needed some work on our joists instead.

Very well, arrived on time. Professional, kind and efficient.

I liked this company very much. I found them very satisficatory. The only issue that was not addressed was some cement that was left on the driveway after they left.

We hired this company to put in two sump pumps and remove mold. We were told that they would have crews in our area so we would get a discount since they would not be making a special trip to our area. I question whether this was true. When my husband called the saleman to see if our target date for the start of the work was the same as we were told 3 weeks before -- he was not sure but suggested to call the main office. But he said he thought a full crew would be at our house. I must say -- I thought we would get some kind of reminder call -- but we did not. On the day of service a full crew did not arrive. Two guys came to start the demo -- without a trailer to take any material away. The guys did the best they could but did not make much progress. When asked if I could expect a crew the next day-- the young man said he thought so but could not tell me 100%. So I called the office and asked for a manager named 'Jeff' -- just to find out if indeed a crew would be at our house since my husband was taking a day off. Jeff never returned my call but a service person on the phone did say that the system had our appointment. So we hoped for the best. The next day my husband waited -and called but again -- Jeff did not have the time to answer the questions of a customer. The crew did arrive -- again not a full crew. But once again the guys that did arrive worked as hard as they could. It was obvious that this company had over booked and could not send a full crew from day on to do the job right. When my husband tried to call to talk to the manager to find out about scheduling-- we did not get a return call. This was despite his calling twice and being told by a receptionist each time that Jeff would call as soon as he was done another call. Obviously, spending almost 10K does not buy any customer service.Because they only sent partial crews on the first two days -- the job was not complete -- so that meant that a crew would have to come on Saturday and my husband and I had to rearrange our schedule. Again -- one would think that a manager would call us to explain this situation--but NO! On the third day we finally got a full crew. But they had to work from 9:30am -10pm to complete the job. We give compliments to the crew and the work they did; but the managment is not the best and their responsiveness is horrible. The sump pumps look good but we are not sure about the mold removal. After a full week, there has been no change to the mold. Update - After this was posted, Thompson did contact us to try to address our concerns. They did say that they would take our comments in consideration. Thompson did return to our house to preform treatments to remove the mold. We did appreciate the fact the company did call us to discuss our complaint. We changed the Overall and Responsiveness Gradeto "C" based on the contact after the job.

At first, it was fine but then it flooded more and more. One time repair but continued flooding. Lack of response.

Since this work was done, we have experienced very unusual storms wtih lots of water being dumped in this area in short periods of time. My basement has been dry.

slated to arrive between 4 and 6pm, they were here at 4:01 when i arrived from work. they checked entire basement, pointing out previous repairs, checked the foundation and sump pump as well as outside drainage pipes. after 30 to 40 minutes brett gave me his opinion that i did not currently require waterproofing-a first in my experience. to have someone come out and spend a good amount of time thoroughly checking the necessity for service and then declining to provide it thru lack of need is remarkable and much appreciated. both brett and eva were professional, helpful, knowledgeable and a pleasure go work with throughout the experience. would certainly call upon them for service in the future.