Drainage and Erosion Solutions

I was pleased with the thoroughness of the inspection, but wish they had given me some ideas of the basic things they could do rather than the huge job they wanted me to get. I have a contractor who does work for me occasionally, and he checked the outside area where the inspector said I had cracks which were letting water in. My contractor said that the slight cracks in the outside brick had no bearing on water getting into the house, and that the cracks did not go deep into the wall. So, I do not know who to believe. I guess I would have to have someone take a hose and force water into the cracks in order to see. But to have this company dig out the bushes and repair the cracks cost too much. Their suggestions, while excellent for an overall prevention, were not something I could afford to do .

We were satisfied with the promptness of our scheduling, the speed and ability of the workers, and our contracted-for work was done as agreed, supplies were furnished that we agreed to in the contract, and the work was done as was required in the contract. We now have water directed away from our house as needed. Better smell in the basement has been achieved.

Their representative contacted me to schedule the appointment, arrived on time and took his time looking around inside and outside my home. We talked considerably about prior issues and fixes we had applied, as well as additional potential preventive steps we might take. I found him to be knowledgeable, easy to speak to and patient with my not very sophisticated questions. I look forward to receiving the written analysis and proposal. I am likely to implement at least some of the possible solutions, and most likely with this company, due to their apparent knowledge of this subject and professionalism.

After some give and take by phone, a few days later (November 12) a proposal arrived. It seemed rather high - but we've never had similar work performed so, giving the proposal the benefit of the doubt, we wrote the owner of DES asking for clarification. We requested further explanation for how the pricing was calculated, and we asked for references, insurance information, information about DES's warranty, the project timeline, whether permits are required, coordination with Miss Utility, and other information that wasn't in the proposal but which are prudent to know before committing to spend $12,500 for a French drain and some miscellaneous repairs. The request for information was sent to DES on November 13, by FedEx. To date (12/21/12), approximately 5.5 weeks later, we have heard nothing from the DES. If DES did not want us a customers, that's fine. Just tell us. Ignoring customers is another matter.

That did stop the leaks at the front of the house but the unintentioned consequence was to create a leak at the corner and side of the basement. My problem with Drain & Erosion Solutions is they will not return my phone calls to talk about what more needs to be done. What they did is ok but I would have liked them to do the additional work since they would understand what has been done so far. I contacted another company to address the current problem.

The owner came to my house to assess the area of the basement that had moisture. He said the repair would involve removing a portion of the wood deck in order to access the problem area. Then clay would be installed and compacted so that the grade would lead away from the edge of the house. Plastic would then be placed over the clay before replacing the deck. The work would be completed in one day. He provided a written estimate which I accepted. The work crew arrived on time and completed the entire job in the one day estimated and at the estimated price. We've had no water leakage/problems since Drainage and Soil Solutions LLC completed the work.

We purchased a Big Deal from Drainage & Erosion Solutions to have them come inspect our basement, which had some minor water damage. Len Blakely contacted us almost immediately (within an hour or so, if memory serves) to set up the service. During the course of the phone call, we discovered that this company could not actually help us. They do underground work, and we have a walk-out basement. Without any prompting from us, Len suggested we contact Angie's List to request a refund. There was no haggling, no hassle, and no resistance. For this reason alone, I would recommend this company to others. I was afraid we'd lost the money simply because we hadn't done our due diligence at the beginning. Len was responsive, friendly and very helpful. Even though the Big Deal didn't work out, it was a great experience.

Last year's hurricane left water in my basement. I had another contracting company install interior french drains and hoped that would fix the water leak problem. After hurricane Sandy, water was still seeping through my basement wall corner. After having 3 other contractor companies tell me the water leak in my basement was nothing but preventive maintenance and I did not need to do anything but maybe put a water shield paint or vapor lock on the wall, Drainage and Erosion showed up for an estimate. They explained that my yard did not slope away from the house and had a low spot as well as the flower bed I had basically was forming a puddle after it rains. They also explained what they could do to help my erosion problem as well as water proof the basement outer walls. I agreed and had them conduct the work. When they dug around the problem area, they found a crack that ran along the brick area all the way down to the concrete foundation. Something we would have never found if I agreed to just do a water seal on the inside. We figured this may have been the issue because the crack is where the water was seeping from. They repaired the crack on the outside as well as a crack on the inside, water proofed the entire wall front outside, sloped my yard to move water away from my house, took both front drain pipes and buried them underground, replaced and mulched my flower bed and re-sodded the yard. It looks great!!! Now we can only hope that the water leak problem has been found and fixed.I guess we will have to wait until the next big rain fall to find out.

Excellent work! The estimation process was thourough and professional, as was the subsequent work performed. They are a tad on the pricey side, but the results were worth it. During the couse of the work they had to dig up several bushes, which they replaced at a farther distance from the wall so that water would not pool there--very helpful.

Dave described his company's proposed approach in detail to my satisfaction. Upon agreement for project dates I gave him a check for down payment. The work started on time, and was executed precisely as Dave had described, and his team and team leads worked with professionalism. The company owner supervised part of the work, and ensured that everything was proceeding as contracted. With a job like this, the final 'proof' will only show after we incur heavy rain for some time. But I am very satisfied with the my experience with Drainage & Erosion Control Solutions, and based on my experience, have no qualms about recommending the company and their work.

In addition, I had them install pop-up drains connected to each downspout to direct rainwater away from the house. They were very pleasant and professional, and I was very pleased with the results. After repairing the foundation, they filled the hole they had dug, smoothed out the dirt and even placed mulch over it. That area of the yard ended up looking better than it did before they tore it up!

He came over and evaluated our basement and yard, He then gave my wife a rundown of any potential issues he found. He then gave estimates for the work to be performed.

The company was very busy and let us know up front that the work could not be done until July. They called to let us know they would be coming and were here ready to work on that date.

We made an arrangement for him to come to my home. I stayed home from work that day and he didn’t show up. He called me later that day and I missed his call. I called him back but was unable to reach him. Because of his lack of responsiveness, I no longer want the work done by him.

Drainage and Erosion Solutions completed the drainage work at our house efficiently and professionally. They did a high-quality job on the drainage work which has stood up very well during recent storms, including Hurricane Sandy. We used to have significant water flow and standing water in our backyard prior to the work. The installed drainage has taken care of this and we have had no flooding.The work completed was also affordable and Drainage and Erosion Solutions was responsive to following up to ensure we were satisfied with the work. We highly recommend them for this type of work - installing exterior drainage.

My landscaper provided the phone number of the owner. I called him directly and left a message but received no response. When I called back (a week or two later) and left another message, he had someone else call me. This individual apologized for the delay in getting back to me. I proceeded to explain our situation and asked if he thought the company could help. While I do not remember all the specifics of the conversation, as it has been several months, I remember that he was extremely condescending and unprofessional - for example, he spoke to me as if I was an idiot, and insulted the other individuals who had been to my home and advised me regarding the problem (my landscaper and the home inspector). I told him I would get back to him if we wanted him to come out, but was so angry after this experience that I never called back. I am not opposed to giving the company another chance, but I would certainly refuse to deal with that individual.

It was wonderful! He was very thorough and actually told me about other issues in the backyard to alleviate the drainage issues.

anfew weThe first time they came they put in a french type of drain on on side of front of house. They redid some previous drainage work and dug to footers and put tar on the walls. The owner was very confident that it would solve my problem, which was was a damp wall and small leakage on floor of a basement. The owner said he guaranteed his work. About 3 weeks after the job was done the outside faucet at corner that had leakage problem was dripping and the inside wall got wet again. I called the owner and he advised that he was very perplexed and that he would have to dig to footers in the corner around from the leak in my garage and that would cost another $700 and that was at his cost, but really should have been much more. It took him approximately another 2 months to get his crew back and and did same procedure inside the garage. A few days later, I got a bill left on my door from the owner and he was charging me approximately $200-300 more than he had quoted to do the work. I called him back and said that is not what you quoted me, and so he very grudgingly said he would accept my payment for the amount that he had quoted. After about a few weeks to a month after this my basement was still leaking, and I called and avised him of this. I never heard from him. The bottom line he guaranteed his work, it did not solve my problem, and I had to pay another $4200. to have an inside french drain put in my basement. His quarantee means nothing and one cannot depend upon his work to solve your leaky basement problem. Since having a french drain put inside my house and even after Hurrican Sandy my basement is finally not leaking.

They came over to do the job, but they were not very thorough and gave me an astronomically high estimate for the work they said I needed done.

Everything looked great upon completion, and was properly finished. The window was properly inspected and registered with the county so we can build a legal bedroom into our basement when we finish it. It all looks like it was always there, and I appreciate the time spent by the window finisher sculpting a patch out of grout to cover up a chip in the stone veneer that happened when the window's hole was being cut. If I hadn't remembered where the chip was, I wouldn't have noticed it. The well and general vicinity of the window drain excellently during storms, and the well stays free of significant water accumulation. Beyond a significant delay that came from waiting for the county permit office, everything went quickly over about four days. If I need foundation or drainage work done in the future, I would hire this company again without hesitation.

I had a landscaping plan designed by a different company but their estimates were way too expensive. So I contacted David from Drainage & Erosion Solutions because I used them for a previous job (exterior foundation waterproofing) and had a very good experience (also submitted a review). I wanted the foundations of the landscaping plan completed in the back & side yard, which was soil preparation, grading, planting bed establishment & sod installation. Also there were a few areas around I wanted river rocks installed so the runoff from the gutters & areas of erosion could be addressed. I emailed David the list of materials from the original design and their estimate was a much better price. After I had some tree work completed, they were able to schedule the work very quickly after that. Besides several email exchanges, I met with David and the main landscaping POC, Mark, to go over the list of work. I was home for the first day of work and it's absolutely amazing how skilled the crew is at soil manipulation. Even given the rock hard clay soil. They worked quickly, carefully and very hard. By the end of the day the entire yard was smoothly graded, the topsoil was incorporated and the lumpy, hard, poor soil back yard was smooth, even and now ready to grow grass & whatever else we wanted in the planting beds. The progress each day was amazing because it took three days to complete the entire job. I was going to have a few ground cover plants installed, but Mark called me and said the selection of plants were poor (and nothing we wanted was available) so he suggested waiting until the Early Spring. So I heeded that advice and will be calling them back to purchase & install several ground cover plants around the yard. Overall I was very glad I called them because not only were they much cheaper than another (admittedly high) estimate, but I feel they worked hard, used good materials, expert techniques and did a very good job. I had another great experience with DES and hope to work with them in the future.

They did do some really good educating. What I really liked about them was their honesty and integrity. When he came out he looked at it and he was able to explain what was happening and how to fix the problem. He said they could do it but he was real honest in telling me that it would be very expensive. He told me what type of services to locate and who could fix the problem. He even drew me a diagram of how it should look. It was worth the money I paid for the estimate because I know who to call now and could save money in the future. He seemed to be really knowledgeable. I appreciated his information he gave me and his honesty. It was a good experience.

The work went very well from start to finish. I had no complaints. I did have to pay the extra $300. because they were not able to blow out the pipe in the back, but had to dig it up and put in a new one, but it was completely necessary.. We had a flood in the basement that brought all this to out attention.

The estimator showed up as scheduled. He didn't put booties on but I didn't ask him to, so the upstairs carpeting got a little dirty. He presented a few scenarios that would stop the flooding. I chose one and was charged half of the cost. He pointed out that my humidifer wasn't working. Believe it or not, I didn't even know I had one. He unplugged it and removed the filter. I would have preferred to keep it but he put it into his truck for disposal. I did not have a printer, so he used carbon paper on his contract and drawing of the work needed When the crew came over it seemed they were only working in one area (source of water seepage). I mentioned the extra work of all around the rest of the house. The crew manager showed me that he had the drawing on his phone, and it was very faint so he didn't know what it was. I showed him the paper copy and explained it. It begain raining towards the end of their work so they did the resot of the work extrememly quickly and left. I had 2 huge pieces of stone I asked them to move, they moved one of them.

I contacted Drainage and Erosion Solutions via email, asking for an estimate for some work prior to installing a fence in our backyard. Within a day or so, David Arias contacted me and was able to come out shortly thereafter. We walked around the property together, discussed a few options, and then he spent some time outside taking pictures and measurements. After about 30 minutes, he knocked on the front door and provided a written estimate. He then showed my wife and myself some pictures of previous jobs, basically identifying potential options that we might want to consider. Although his estimate seemed very price competitive, we were waiting for another estimate to come in, so we thanked him and told him we'd get back to him. In the intervening period, David took the initiative to email me with a reference for a fence company as I had mentioned in passing that we were still searching for a fencing company within our budget. After receiving other estimates which were 20-30 percent higher than this one, we contacted David on a Friday to let him know that we were ready to proceed. I asked about deposit payment, etc, but he advised that as mine was a small job, I could just pay after the work was complete. At first he was not able to give us a definite start date, but after some back and forth ultimately contacted me a week later, saying that his crew would be there on Monday. The day of the job, David showed up just before 8 am with eight workers (two crews). Not all of them were there the entire day, but there was always someone present who was clearly in charge and was able to communicate with me to tell me what was going on, what steps were completed and which remained, etc. David left after explaining the job to the crews (with me present), but returned in the early afternoon to check on his workers. With the exception of one phone call that I made to him to double check on how he was going to dispose of the leftover soil, there were no issues with the work. The workers worked consistently, were careful in how they dug, and I eventually left them in the afternoon to finish the job without my constant hovering. My wife returned home around 530 pm to find them just finishing up; they knocked on the door to tell her they were done. Later that evening I walked the property and noticed that in addition to the contracted work, the work crew had added mulch to some of my front flower beds -- which I appreciated. So did my neighbors -- they saw me outside and immediately commented on how nice of a job the workers had done. As agreed beforehand, David returned the following day so that we could walk through all of the work and ensure it was done to my satisfaction. David's boss, Mark Lane, was also present at the final walkthrough and it seemed like he often checks up on the projects to make sure the customers are satisfied. We again walked around the property before I handed them a check. All in all, this was a very smooth job. David had good ideas, they were price competitive (in fact, the cheapest of the bids I got), and their work was of high quality. I plan to hire them again for the front yard.