Wu Construction

Estimator showed up promptly. Gave me a clear sketch of the work to be done and the price. Work crew showed up on time and performed the work promptly. After they left, I saw that the pipe appeared to stop a few feet short of the ditch, so I called the office. They had the pipe extended by 9 AM the next morning. It was clear that the Wu Construction goal is to please the customer. The only suggestion I would have for better service would be for the estimator to go over the exact materials to be used in the repair. The WU construction price was by far the lowest I received, but part of the price advantage came from using a lower quality drain pipe than I had expected. The drop was reflected in the price, so I went ahead with it, but I wish the estimator had been clear about the materials. Still a mostly positive experience and the above comment is offered solely as a constructive comment.

1. We made an appointment with Wu's estimator. Gave him a list of questions to be answered with estimate. Estimator gave price on the spot, but we insisted on having our questions answered to insure that we knew what to expect. 2. We received the answers to our original questions, but had additional questions based upon interviews with other contractors seeking the same work. 3. Wu answered those questions as well, which gave us a good idea about what to expect.

My problem started when I discovered what looked like a hole in the side of my house. It was about 4-6 inches below the level of the ground and behind a good-size camellia bush. It opened into what I'd been calling an "inaccessible crawl space" and it wasn't clear to me whether there was anything that was actually supporting that part of the house. Would it fall on me if I excavated further? Would it collapse no matter what? I was in a panic and after the first "concrete guy" didn't show up at all I broke down and joined Angie's List (something I really should have done two years ago when I bought my livable fixer). Wu got rave reviews so I called them. I talked to Thomas on Tuesday, I think; he had Dave out to see me by Wednesday afternoon. I can only echo what every other comment has had to say about Dave; he was fabulous. He worried me at first by not seeming to actually want to look at the hole. Instead he looked at the gutters, the downspouts, the sloping floors, the various cracks, and other issues in the house (see above "livable fixer"). He offered advice about adding some additional supports in the basement and some reassurances about the general integrity of the structure. Then he looked at the hole, had a look inside the inaccessible crawl space (which he'd also looked at from the basement), and talked to me about the house, explaining that it appeared that an old existing crawl space access had been covered up at some point in the past and how it could be restored/fixed. I asked him about saving the existing camellia and he said they could move it if I had a hole dug for it. He came inside, sat down, wrote out a detailed description of the job, starting with "remove flower bush--move to back yard," and drew not one, but three schematics of the layout of the house, the exact location of the hole, and the structure he proposed to address the problem. He went over all of it in detail, answering my pretty ignorant questions without making me feel like an idiot. I asked how much of the bid price pertained to things I thought might be optional (carefully moving the camellia, for example, and installing a new catch basin to deal with the water run-off from the patio) and he was able to break those parts of the job out for me. After he left I thought of something I hadn't thought to ask and I called his cell phone. I was shocked (and a little embarrassed) when he answered it at 7:30 in the evening but he answered my question satisfactorily so I called the next day to schedule an appointment. Three guys (sorry; I didn't get their names!) showed up right on time on Tuesday morning. They not only "removed flower bush" but helped get it properly placed in the waiting hole and helped bury the roots, advising on the compost to dirt ratio. They were like boy scouts: helpful, courteous, cheerful, clean . . . They dug out the area next to the house, took some measurements, carted the dirt, etc. away and returned with lumber. They discovered a small crack along the side wall of the crawl space, consulted with Dave via cell phone, and installed a support for that section (for an additional $200 on the original bid). They invited me to have a look at the crawl space (not scary at all!) from which they pulled out one very deceased rat (skeleton). The job, when it was done, was not as elegant as Dave's drawing but the result was certainly functional. I've given an "NA" for price not because I didn't get billed but because I don't know how the price compares with what others might charge; I felt like Dave was giving me a fair quote and I really didn't want to wait for another person who might or might not show up. It seemed like a reasonable amount for the work done.

They did a great job overall. The work was cost effective and of high quality.

Prompt, efficient, prepared and professional.

Overall the experience was pretty positive and we were very happy. They came on time and they charged exactly what they quoted. They did require some directions. We were planning to re-grade the yard for some landscaping work. So we had to sort of give them instructions on how deep it had to be. They finished when they said they would. I think that their price was reasonable.

Dave Maple came to inspect the foundations to our duplex, my husband noticed some wood beams in our basement duplex unit that move. He took a look at our foundation and honestly told my husband that there are no services needed. He suggested a few easy things for us to fix the foundation ourselves. My husband tried to tip him and he refused until my husband insisted he atleast take a little something for his time. Dave was very professional.

We got an estimate to install a crawl space drain system under a house we were selling. The buyer elected to take a price reduction in lieu of the repairs, so we didn't follow through with the replacement. Wu Construction was very prompt and professional in giving us a cost and a detailed report on exactly what they needed to install and how it would function. They were also willing to perform the work quickly to accommodate our closing date. We would definitely have used them if we had to complete the work ourselves.

After being at wit's end dealing with an overflowing drain that keeps flooding my basement during big rain storms, I searched Angie's List to find a reputable company to install a sump pump. I was excited to find Wu Construction and a call was made to see about them coming to check out the situation at my house. It was agreed that someone would come to my house two days from then, on Wednesday at 4 pm. When it was 4:20 and there was still no sign of Wu, we called to find out where they were. They said they had "gotten really busy" and would be over. They did come by and we talked about the problem and discussed my desire to have it dealt with immediately. We talked about the time frame, etc. The gentlemen was informative and seemed to know what he was talking about. We agreed he would email a bid. He said I'd have it "by tomorrow morning". The next day came with no bid. Then Friday came and went; still no bid. By Monday I was quite frustrated. My dad called the company and spoke to the man who had visited my house and he said he was "just about to send it and it would arrive right away." I received no bid. Apparently this company is too busy to get back to people with bids. This is too bad, as it isn't possible to hire someone for this kind of work without a bid and by not getting back to me, they lost a customer. I hope the quality of their work is better than their customer service, but I guess I'll never know!

The guy who showed up for our estimate appt was 45 minutes early. He did not introduce himself or say who he was with, I figured it out because of his clip-board. We did three estimates with different companies and his came back the lowest. He explained exactly what he was going to do to fix the drainage, which was drill our basement foundation and install a sump pump. We didn't want to do that as we have a yard with a steep slope and wanted to excavate on the exterior and take advantage of gravity doing the work but he didn't seem to want to go outside to see the yard and didn't explain why the sump pump was better. We couldn't tell if he was the same person that would be managing the job if we hired him. He made a remarked that the owner was always rushing him with his appointments. Ultimately, we decided to go with another company.

They were excellent in every way. I decided to hire them because they had good recommendation on Angie?s List and they were close-by. They were very professional. They did the job in a timely way even though it was snowing and there were problems relating to the weather. They did an excellent job. The price was reasonable. I would absolutely use them again the future.

Their where prompt with their quote. They were responsive to the first phone call to come out and schedule. Their schedule was very flexible. People were light and nice. They cleaned up after themselves as well. The only issue I had with them is the name of the company is Wu Construction. Their English wasn't all that good. Their worker was mostly hispanic. We had couple of communication issue. He was more than co-operative once we got pass that, I made it very clear what I wanted and they did that. They even had to come back out to redo something because they didn't work right at the first time. I will use them in future.

We have had a problem with a small water leak in one corner of the finished space of our basement. It's enough water to soak carpet over the course of weeks, but not a real flood. Based on some good Angie's List reviews, we contacted Wu construction. Within a few days, their point guy showed up. We gave that description and showed Dave Maples, the initial estiamtor/contact for Wu Construction, the problem spot. He sketched a proposal to dig an internal french drain across the house to the far side, then put in a sump pump and plumbing to put the water out to a new drain field downslope from the house. The job was quoted at about $2100. The guys showed up on time and got to work on at about 9am in the morning. They pulled their truck up to one of our fence gates, then laid down plastic to protect the carpet against dirty footprints... Unfortunately, they didn't think to tell us that jackhammering releases HUGE clouds of concrete dust. By the time we checked on them, the clouds of dust were billowing out of our basement. If we'd known, we'd have gotten cloths and linens and covered up our TV, our couches, our chairs, our stored stuff in the crawlspace, etc. So, that was disappointing. As part of the job, they did some minor demo, which involved using a cutter to remove the bottom 12 inches of drywall. In the process they cracked a drywall seam. Their quote specifically did NOT cover repairing the demolition work. Let this be a warning. They do NOT do drywall patching/repair after they cut holes in your walls...you'll be on the hook to do that for yourself later. After talking to their office guy, Andy, it sounds like they've tried but their guys are concrete and dirt guys...not drywall guys, so the results are not good if they try. Anyways, back to the work crew... They were hardworking and efficient, wasting little time. They did show some attention to detail...during the demolition, they noticed that one of the places they might cut appeared to be supporting a vertical load on a beam, so they carefully did not cut that section and even avoided cutting the foundation with the jackhammer right around that spot. I really can't complain about the work the crew did on site. By the time the day was over, they'd installed a new GFCI drop, a sump pump, poured all the concrete, installed the plumbing from the pump up to the concrete slab, and begun the process of laying the drain pipe on the outside of the house. They came back out promptly the next morning and finished the job. Upon inspection, I was curious about the outlet line from the pump to the foundation wall...there were no supports to take the load off the foundation wall and backflow valve...and the guys apparently just banged together some pipe to fit around some of our boxes in the crawlspace. I brought this to the attention of Wu's office and they were out within about a week to install some band clamps to help hold the pipe and secure it. So far, so good...now here's where I have problems. The work was done in mid/late September. We got our first real rain fall in late October...and suddenly found, when our interior contractor who was refinishing that wall for us, called us down and showed us he had soggy wet carpet at a point just beyond the end of the drain tile/trench that Wu installed. I called them up around the first of November and sent them a video and several pictures of the problem. After about a week, they hadn't answered so we placed a call...they got Dave M. out to us again. He looked over the problem and it seemed to take several explanations for him to get that they'd MISSED the problem (or part of the problem) when they did the work originally. I think we developed this problem because we never got complete, explicit agreement on how far along the exterior wall to extend the drain tile/trench. At that time I was able to bring another concern to his attention. 99.9% of the new concrete poured by the crew had cured a nice bright grey within a week of the end of the job...however, right along the edge of the concrete back in the finished space, it's always been varying shapes/shades of darker gray. This to me is a sign that the concrete is either not sealed or the tile/trench is not draining well enough to let the concrete get truly dry. Dave wrote up another job proposal/sketch and said they'd come back out to address the uncured concrete and, at the same time, they could possibly help us with the wet spot. This is where my story ends. It's been over a week and they've not responded to us... Dave seemed to think that extending the end of the trench to finish solving the problem would have to be a new job and cost us even more money. I find this troubling as they've not solved the problem even though we paid them to do so. I called Dave up (day before thanksgiving) after not hearing anything for a few days and he said he'd resend the proposal to Andy. Andy has not communicated with us as of this writing. I am uncertain how my assessment of Wu will end up...they could come through and leave us highly sastisfied with the solution...but communication, clarity, and some annoying details (concrete dust, lack of plumbing supports, not bothering to move our stuff and just routing the plumbing around it, demo'ing our drywall and then leaving it to us to find a way to fix it) are keeping me from being truly happy with their work. I will revisit and update when I have more to share. This information is current as of 11/26/2010. Update: Approximately a week and a half after this review, Wu's folks appeared on our doorstep. They came in and repeated the cut/jackhammer/etc. process from the rest of the new drain tile. They put up some more plastic and covers to keep the dust off our TV and couches. The guys didn't say anything to us or give us any paperwork, they just came in, banged it out, and moved on. A week or so later we got a bill for a couple of hundred bucks. If you look at the effort and the time and everything, it was a discounted rate compared to their original work. It was borderline insulting that nobody quoted us, contacted us, responded to us, etc. I'm happy that it's dry now, but I'm not sure I'd be content to call them back for more work ever again. One thing that's become a little bit of a concern. The drainage field they installed has subsided a few inches and become a really noticeable low spot in the front yard. I cannot stress enough: They do good, fast physical work. They charge less than others for the work they do. Make sure you have an absolutely clear quote and sketch by the time the estimator leaves so that you can be certain they'll do exactly what you want. Do not expect them to respond to complaints or concerns with much communication.

He was very knowledgeable, flexible, and honest. We decided to not do the project.

We needed to replace our sump pump and have the runoff hose and basin relocated. Andy from WU Construction came out right after I called, reviewed our situation and came up with a great plan to relocate the hose. After sending me a good bid shortly thereafter, we set up an appointment for that same week. The crew came out exactly on time, completed the job within 2.5 hours, and gave us some great sump pump tips! A great job. Complete satisfaction. Thank you Wu Construction!

The work was scheduled quickly and the workers came on time. The workers did not understand English very well and we had to tell them over and over again that they needed to dig the drywell several feet away from the greenbelt trail in back -- they started to dig much too close to the trail, which is not our property. Finally got it straightened out through phone contacts with Andy Wu at the office and they ended up digging in an acceptable location. The price seemed very reasonable, especially with the 10% Angie's discount, and as a bonus, they securely fastened a couple of downspouts that had sprung loose. If as promised there's no runoff to the greenbelt trail when it rains hard, I will be very satisfied.

I found them on Angies list and Dave came out and gave me a estimate, I had an immediate repore with him. I was pleased with the estimate it was really reasonable I felt. Based on all the good comments on Angies list and the estimate I hired them. One of them spoke great english so I did not have too much trouble communicating. Originally they put the catch basin in the lawn just a few inches from the garden, not sure why so I called and asked them to move it to the garden, they came out the next day and took care of it. Everone was professional and I assume they did a great job, I have no desire to check out the crawl space. I am sad though I did not get a 10% discount for finding them on angies list for the exterior drain :( But great job and would hire them again.

It went great, I am happy with the work. The workers were punctual and got the job done in a day. They didn't really speak English, but it didn't seem to matter - they just came in and got the job done. The people on the phone spoke English just fine.

They were fast, they came out and gave me a free estimate very quickly. However, I didn't choose them. The guy that came by explained everything to me very well, he used diagrams and everything. What he wanted to do was just a little more than what I wanted to do in terms of cost and redoing everything. He had an initial idea that wouldn't be very expensive and if that wouldn't work then he had a suggestion that would be more costly.

Went very fine. They hadn't extended one trench quite far enough, but came promptly back and finished it.

Andy Wu came out to do an initial assessment, and give me a bid. I had already had 3 other companies take a look and give me their bids and assessments. Andy was full of good feedback, and ultimately left with the advice that I should first investigate my outer drainage system along the side of my home before committing to a few grand in construction costs. I took his advice and did find that the previous owner had improperly installed the side French drain system. I rebuilt that system along the side of the house for under $20 myself, and while it did not totally stop the water it did reduce the effects by about 50%. Keep in mind that I was quoted $7K ( by another large plumbing company NOT Wu Construction ) for that same project I did myself for $20 and 5 hours of my time and labor. In the end I did need Andy and his crew to come it and install a sump system. But their ability to work with me and come up with ideas that were both cost effective, and minimized the amount of demo work to be done on the finished bathroom was helpful and reassuring. The crew showed up on the day of the job on time. They were pleasant to work with, and they did a really great job meeting the requirements of the work. It?s been a little over a month now, and so far so good for keeping the water out!

There was no reply. Did they not want the job, or did they lose the email?

Great! They worked fast, cleaned up after a very muddy job, and my crawlspace has been dry for the last month (I keep checking.) They warranty their drainage work for 25 years and the sump pump for one year. Very happy with the job they did.

The job was performed on date agreed to, finished and cleaned up in less than 3 hours. Excellent service. I would recommend this Company to anyone that has a drainage problem.

I didn?t get the work done by them. Their approach was different than anyone else that I got an estimate from; he usually works with people trying to sell their house so he wanted to get things taken care of so the house could be sold. The ?right? solution is very expensive and Wu?s solution was to put a sump pump under the garage which is significantly less expensive. Other contractors have told me that this solution would be like putting a band aid on the problem rather than making the problem go away. I am still considering having that done by him so I don?t mean to say it is a bad solution. He says he guarantees the work for ten years so there isn?t anything I can fault him on. He was very responsive and he drove around for awhile because he was on time but the previous contractor was still there so I think that was pretty professional.