Seal-Tite Basement Waterproofing Co

Should be called "Steal-tite". Company came out to give estimate in MAY 2019. Said they couldn't do the job until December, but we weren't having any leaks by June, so we went ahead and signed contract, sent in $800 deposit. Well, we ended up buying another house and decided not to have the work done. This was about October. Tried to call Seal-tite several times, always get the "answering service" and they never call back. Finally found the card of the engineer who quoted our estimate, Curt Giantonio. He said too bad so sad for our deposit, and that we had no recourse to get the money back. I realize the contract said the deposit was non-refundable. But the company could have been courteous, understood the situation, and refund my deposit even though legally they don't have to. Instead they've chosen to keep my money for zero services rendered. I could understand them keeping a portion to cover the travel costs of the engineer who came on site to give the estimate, but there's no way that is anywhere near $800. Greedy company that obviously doesn't care about people.

The crew arrived on the date/time promised. They were polite, professional, and worked non-stop (except for 2 short breaks and lunch). Because of my landscaping, the crew determined the best way to get to the bottom of the foundation was to dig a hole—24” x 8’. It was truly impressive—perfectly squared off. They sealed the wall, replaced the dirt, and replaced decorative stone. They then installed a 50’ French drain—trenching, refilling the trench, and removing excess debris. The crew worked as a team, did a top-notch job, and left the job sites better than they found them. It took them 4 days—and they never wavered from an extraordinary work ethic. That was last week. This week? We’ve had torrential downpours and flooding—but my basement and garage are dry. I’d hire them again in a heartbeat.

Perfect -- extremely professional, so very clean and tidy work, took less time than we originally thought it would. 10-year warranty on the repair.

It went really well.  They did everything just the way they said they would.  They came on time, worked very hard, cleaned up after themselves very well.  Everything was done neatly.  They even hosed down the driveway when they finished since it had sand, stones and a bit of mess from the concrete mixing, etc.  Some of the guys smoked outside in our yard when they took breaks but, they didn't even leave one cigarette butt.  They were very respectful and hard working.  They finished the job on time--actually a day earlier than we thought.

It was fairly good.

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The process of them putting in a sump-pump system in my basement getting water seepage went pretty well. It took them a long time to get to me because, from what I understand, they stay pretty busy. I was initially told my job wouldn't get done until February 29, 2016 but they then had an opening on December 23, 2015 and they came in and jack-hammered around the perimeter of my basement, where the water was coming in, and installed the piping, sump-pump and reservoir. Initially I was told it would be a one day job but as it happened, they had to come back later to finish up. The first day they did do everything except bury the outlet pipe outside and then re-cementing over where they had dug up my basement to install the piping. For about a week I did have a gravel filled trench in my basement but at least I didn't spend Christmas shop-vacuuming up water like I had been doing. They came back on December 30, 2015 for about half a day and finished up the job.



I thought the people at Seal-Tite were very nice to deal with.  Initially their estimate was over $3,000.00 but they gave me a little discount for having to reschedule my initial assessment and quote in November and they also honored their Angie's list coupon.



The important thing, the water has stopped flowing into my basement which ruined my carpet which I had removed by another contractor. I now have the task of picking out new carpeting, getting the new cement sealed, etc., which will be handled by someone else.



So far, everything they did seems to be working ok.



If you do hire them, be sure to give them a deposit so you can be put on their short list in case they have a cancellation. It saved me two months of waiting time for them to get to me on their schedule.



I did give them a "B" on their Responsiveness since they did take a while to get to me but it seems a lot of people these days are having water problems in their basements and crawlspaces so I can't "diss" them too much on that one. They did show up to do the job on time on both days which with contractors these days, from my experience, is a miracle.

This company was a pleasure to work with. The estimator came out twice because after several repair businesses visits,  I had additional questions. I felt like the estimator listened to my concerns and was honest about the best way to fix our foundation leaks.
  Workmen arrived at the date and time scheduled. I was leery about their arrival time since the company is not in Northern Virginia. They worked hard throughout the day in the cold of December and completed the task as planned. One crack was repaired inside because of electrical concerns but this had been explained to me earlier. Last week ( Oct. 2015) during our 7 to 10 inches of rain four days I found  no leaks in our foundation. :)

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They did not get any business from us but their inspector was honest. great business!

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I realize it has been a few years since this work was done, but after having a recent home inspection, it opened a wound that never healed. First, when we bought the house the garage had water showing up near the back wall inside the garage. We also had them add a French drain as a preventative measure to keep much of the rainwater from heading toward the garage. 

The immediate fix by Seal-Tite was to cut the concrete around the inner garage wall and force any water toward the sump pump. That sounded like a great idea at the time. BUT....It only added a Band-Aid to the problem and never addressed the cause of the problem. Being "waterproofing experts" I would have thought the company would have identified the cause of the problem. The cause was the concrete above the garage. When it rained, any water that could make it was forced in-bound toward the outside wall and ended up inside the garage on the floor.

A friend that came out to look at the work mentioned above, said, all we needed to do was cause any rain water to go out-bound away from the wall. Because Seal-Tite broke off a large piece of concrete in our backyard when they drove the truck containing the gravel for the French drain, we decided to add asphalt to the area near the garage wall.  Lo and behold it worked. So why are we upset?  For one, the problem was not what to do with the water in the garage. The problem was re-directing the water above. When we had asphalt added to our backyard, we had them make the ground higher near the garage wall. In fact, when the home inspector recently looked at the things Seal-Tite did to our garage he commented that the sum pump was dry and appeared it had never ran once. He was right. It is a brand new unit with zero mileage. In fact, since we had the asphalt laid, we had unplugged the sump pump and coiled the new cord above the sump pump plastic lid. For "waterproofing experts" we feel they sold us something that never addressed the cause of the water problem. They made extra money on us. If he was a true "waterproofing expert" he would have observed the cause of the water problem from the beginning.

Secondly, when they installed the French drain next to the retaining wall (we had never heard of a French drain until Seal-Tite mentioned it) they hand dug it using only a shovel. They only hand dug out approximately 2-3 feet and then laid the plastic tube inside the hole. It appears it was put in for surface drainage?  Today, when we pull weeds, we have been able to touch and see the mesh that covers the pipe and therefore, have to be careful not to tear it.. We were later told by a contractor the French drain should have been placed deeper.  We also read that it should have had a "cleanout" on the highest point since the pipe was approximately 110 feet in length (length according to contract) and could clear any possible, future clogs. But, in fairness to Seal-Tite, we don't know how deep it should have been dug. We thought it was put in to prevent hydrostatic pressure and after looking at different websites, appears to have been put in too shallow.  Nevertheless, the main point I wanted to complain about was the charges for the work and the charge for the sum pump that was NOT needed to fix the garage problem.

IIn case Seal-Tite read this, I found the following information very useful.  ""

Installation of a French drain system can add considerable cost to a drainage correction project and careful consideration of the scope of the project is required for the most cost-effective result. Understanding that groundwater movement is controlled by gravity, the installation of a ?cutoff? French drain on the uphill side of a building may be adequate to provide the needed protection. Soils and building materials soak up groundwater like a sponge. The French drain must be deep enough so that the soaking and wicking action is disrupted and overcome by the force of gravity drawing the moisture down and away from the structure.

The proper depth of a French drain system depends upon the application. When protecting a below-grade living space, the ?invert? (bottom) of the perforated pipe must always be kept well below the level of the finish floor. For purposes of protecting a crawl space or treating expansive soils, the depth of the French drain may become more a matter of judgment. For the best result, an experienced expert should be consulted.

Another important constraint on the depth of a French drain is the proximity and depth of foundations. An over-deep trench will undermine the supporting soil of an adjacent concrete footing and could cause settlement of the building or structure. To overcome this problem, the French drain could be installed in sections so that only a short length of the footing would be undermined at any one time. If another accommodation cannot be made, the adjacent footing may need to be extended by ?underpinning?.....   

Also; "Cleanouts should always be installed for French drain as well as for surface drain systems. Install cleanouts at the high point of the system. Cleanouts should also be installed below any sharp changes in the elevation of the perforated pipe. The cleanouts should connect into the pipe with a ?sweep? fitting so that a snake or water jet can be run down the pipe to clear any clogs. Mark each cleanout as to whether it is for a tightline or a perforated pipe. You don?t want a future contractor installing new surface area drains and connecting them to your French drain system."

*Update to Provider response.* 

Please note I started the review advising that the company did do this work years ago. Secondly, please also note; nowhere did the company address the issues/complaints in their response. That should get your attention because the substance of the complaint was not addressed. They have my file and has my phone number. If this was a big deal to the company you would think they would do a follow-up and see what they could do. I could sell them the brand new sump pump the sold me? The point being, is it ever too late to right a wrong?

Thirdly, the so-called "free" work they claimed in their response was another issue I did not put into the initial report at the time because I thought I had made my point. But, since they brought it up, let me address it. When they drove their vehicle into our backyard area it was filled with gravel for the French drain. The weight of their truck cracked a large, LARGE corner of concrete off of the concrete slab. After he completed the work we asked the owner to come back out to the job site to see what he would do.  Since this was their fault, we asked him to cut out a portion of the slab to make it look better which he agreed to. (As we all know, nothing is free and even then he appeared reluctant)  He made it sound as if he did us a favor by fixing what the company broke. As I said in the review, this has been an issue in the back of our minds that needed to be addressed. When our contractor/realtor friend asked about the work in the garage his mouth dropped. As I said in the initial review the sump pump has NEVER ran. It sits in the hole they dug, in our garage, with the electric cord unplugged and the plug is coiled up on top of it.

Very quickly. We discovered we had a problem on Thursday morning when carpet was being replaced in the basement. By noon we had two estimates and went with Seal-Tight due to better pricing and their reputation. By Friday noon the job was completed which worked out great as we are in the process of selling the house. After we had the original quote, they were told we were members of Angie's list and immediately adjusted their quote to incle the discount.

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When one of our foundation walls cracked we contacted a structural engineer and several contractors to give estimates on the repair job. The representative from Seal-Tite was very professional and at no time did we feel as if he was trying to sell us more than what was necessary to correctly do the job. We felt that other companies were trying to sell us their "proprietary" designs that would result in the same benefit but cost more... The crew that came out to do the work showed up on time, kept the site well organized and clean, and was very professional in their behavior. We have had no problems with the work or the space since the repair was made.

  We are in the Northern Virginia area and this business is based out of the Roanoke area. This was not a concern as the Northern Virginia area is serviced by Seal-Tite. . Mark, the estimator arrived on time and explained how we did not need a system proposed by another company which cost much more than what Seal-Tite offered. Mark explained the process and left us with a price to discuss. I felt like Mark listened to what type of repair I was requesting and did not try to add services that we did not need or weren't interested in.  After having two other companies visit we asked Mark to come back and give us an estimate if the cracks were repaired from the outside. Originally we had discussed repairing them from the inside since the dry wall had already been removed and the cracks were assessable from the inside. Mark readily agreed to return and a second estimate was given. I felt like repairing them from the outside was what we wanted since the water comes in from the outside.

   Seal-Tite called to schedule our appointment and called Miss Utility since digging was taking place on the outside of our home at the location of each crack. Three workers arrived on time and started hand digging the sites down to the footers as outlined on the contract. Cracks in our concrete foundation were sealed with hydraulic cement and covered with a swell-tite membrane. This was covered with another material and the dirt was returned. The men worked quickly and allowed me to ask questions as they worked. One crack was repaired on the inside basement wall due to wiring outside the crack. This was discussed when Mark was giving an estimate and there was no confusion with the warranty difference or process.  Items inside the basement were covered with plastic to contain any dust as the crack was sanded and plastic was placed on the floor to catch the mud from the rainy day.

    Seal -Tite provided the exact service that I was looking for when searching for waterproofing services. I did not want a drain added or a total foundation waterproofing project .I will certainly call on them again if the need arises.

   Thank you, Mark, Mike, C.J.,Derek and Stacy for making this repair an easy process!

D

For the most part all went well. The original plan was to install all wall anchors, but they ran into rock around the majority of the foundation. Were very straight forward with notifying me about the problem, was presented with my options and felt as if I was not getting any kind of run-around or bull. The cost was adjusted downward (as the carbon fiber strips are less expensive to install), even though they had dug the holes for most of the anchors. Installation of the strip and the anchors seem to be very well done.
After several rains, the holes for the anchors had sunk down quite a bit. I called the company and they sent someone out to top off the holes. Could have used a bit of grass seed as well, but I'll not knit pick that too much.
The issue I did have was that when they installed the carbon fiber strips, they was an incredible amount of dust from grinding the slots in the walls. I have a large amount of "stuff" in my basement, including a tv, other electronics, excersize equipment, pots, plates, bookshelves, etc... all of which was covered with a healthy coating of dust. When I called to let them know, they told me they were not responsible for cleanup. This would be OK with me had they prevented a good potion of the dust from getting all over everything, but for what I paid for the work, I did not expect to spend days cleaning everything up. I wouldn't mind if we were talking about vaccuming a floor or something, but there was dust in every nook and cranny of an entire basement full of stuff.
All in all, the work was done well and the price was fairly good compared to others I had received. If a bit more care would have been paid attention to the cleanup, or protection of my items, it would have been a very good experience.

Fine.  Questions about why humidity remained in crawl space after work was completed seemed to totally throw them off guard. I think they are accustomed to water issues and not humidity.  

See above.

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They were professional, they did the job on time, and within the budget. They were very professional.

I didn't have any problems. The person that they send out to the house gave me good information and they promptly came out when they were supposed to come and did the job in the time frame that they said they would do the job. I would use them again.