Basement Waterproofing/Foundation Repair/Sump Pump Install
I am leaving the original Review.
But...
Once Nusite sent out one of their bosses to evaluate my property and what was done by their one crew. Things changed.
So once he got a lay of the land, they got a new crew out here (George and crew, amazing!)
These guys are taking their time and getting the job done right. They are on day 8 so far. And there's still a fair bit of work to go. They had to dig out under the old work, which is hard. and pour concrete, they have to do all this by hand now. I have no fear that my basement will leak with George and crew out here. He's requested me to check out their work several times. Now they are getting ready to backfill the area they have been working on and moving to a new area. So much hard work! But Nusite came through when they found out the job was subpar the first time. What more can you really ask for than a company that actually backs up their work?
Had George been the original guy they sent out here, it would have been a 10 star rating I'm sure.
***Original Review
So I got quotes, and I liked these guys.
Many people said that from what they could see, it seemed like the foundation was in decent repair.
And the salemans for Nusite said that they have only once not be able to find a line for the weeping system.
(our house is OLD, never had a weeping system, so no line).
(Apparently we don't have footings either . . . )
The promise was to dig down to the footing, install weeping tile, aquabloc and dimple board and all things like that.
all around the house, then either go under our floating backroom, or if the concrete went all the way then they would do it as well (but not expected).
We my wife and I hired them.
I spent most of the 4 days outside with these guys (huge amount of money for us), so I could see what was going on, and I even helped out with grabbing things, and running extention cables, simple things like that)
I used to do contracting, so I have a solid understanding of what they were doing, just no experience with it.
So they showed up with a good size crew on Monday.
Didn't take long and they started digging (and it was hot).
They only worked for about 1/2 the day. (I was over heating just standing outside with them).
They kept the front and side yards clean (well covered in dirt . . . but clean from bottles and stuff). I did tell the site supervisor I had dogs and the backyard needed to be safe for them, every day after they left, I had to clean up their stuff they just left around the yard.
Day 2 (Tuesday).
large crew showed up, they told me during this that the foundation is
one of the worst they have ever seen. they were going to pour a new flat concrete pad on the front of the foundation to give it strength and give them a smooth working area. (huge cost increase but they couldn't do it with the condition of the foundation (it was hidden underground before they started, so no way they could have known)
Since there was no weeping system, they said they would need to put in the sump pump. It never dawned on me that it would need to be inside and through my floor, it really should have, So I wasn't happy about that, but there was nothing anyone could do, the house needed a sump pump.
When this was quickly mentioned, it was never mentioned they would need to get in to the basement, and break the floor (I should have known better, but I didn't think of it). (more on that later)
They had to pop some fence boards and fence sections off, they put them all back (on the last day) They broke boards, they used a shovel to pry the boards off (some where screwed). I asked this day why the excavation was only 40", i was told that on day 2 of a 6 day job (which they did in 4 btw) was not the time to measure, that the weeping system would be at the footer.
So Wednesday (day 3), they show up to build frames.
They did this quite a bit faster then they expected, so we had a lot of time to wait for the concrete truck. They did not brush the old foundation, they didn't pressure wash it, so there is lots of dirt between the old foundation and the new pour. And the "repair" job goes down 40" of the approx 60" it should be at the side of the property . . .
The concrete made a bit of mess against the house in a few spots, I'm hoping it'll wear off over time (took a wire brush too it, still won't come off)
Even the concrete truck driver asked them where the vibration rod was (with out this there will be air pockets, and the concrete will not flow all the way in to the deeper holes)
So day 4, So they pull out the forms (the wood that holds the concrete in place) patched up any not even spaces, give it a bit to dry and start putting the aqua-bloc (smells like gasoline and looks like tar), and they do all their layers. When the supervisor notices me taking pictures of a few spots that aren't fully covered, he makes them put on more. Then dirt and taping the dirt so it's tight packed.
So they never dug out the rest of the depth, so I have a trench around my house (not even all the way around as I was told it HAD to be), from 40-57 inches below my window well.
Trying to talk to the site supervisor, and his boss (over the phone). They never dug it out, so the bottom of the walls never got fixed. . . .
The entire basement smells like the tar they put on the walls. (according to the manufature of AQUA-BLOK new concrete must have 14 days to cure before you apply this stuff)
There was a window open, so we thought maybe just it was a lingering smell from the window. Apparently this is quite common, but hard to find information on. Bought some VOC monitors, levels were approaching unsafe, bought 2 air cleaners, furnace filters with active carbon. Kept the numbers in the yellow zone (long term exposure is bad in this range, so I felt safe enough with these numbers)
Now, they worked in hot freaking weather, happy guys, friendly guys.
I truly liked the workers, and even the site supervisor. We all even shared a meal!
I questioned them about why the weeping system wasn't connected to the sump pump, they told me it was (I thought maybe I missed it), they destroyed my floor, put dirt all over my walls, did a horrible job repouring the concrete, and the pit isn't level so 1 side sticks out of the floor more then the other . . . .
So I left a negative review on here, and the site supervisor came back out, and told me he was going to bring his wife and kids to my home because he was going to get fired. He screwed up a 33,000 dollar job, and came to my house and made me feel VERY uncomfortable, so I took all the negatives out of the review.
While telling some friends and family, they told me I should sue them for how bad of a job they did.
I sent them an email instead, I don't want to sue,
My email to them, which contains everything they did wrong, and I have not heard back from the salesman / office since before I left the review. They have CUT and RAN me.
It has been 2 weeks since the job was "finished".
Let us take a look at all the things done wrong.
A) You said the weeping tile system would be a complete circle around the house, they would go under or around the floating slab, They did not, infact they didn't even do either side of the stairwell, they stopped at the brick and didn't keep going.
B) Foundation repair, since they didn't dig out the entire depth, the entire foundation wasn't repaired . . .
C) they didn't brush or pressure wash the stone, so too much dirt was on the rocks before the pour of the concrete wall.
D) they didn't bring a vibration rod, so the concrete didn't flow in to all the deep holes and still had lots of air bubbles.
E) sump pump installation was a disaster, the banged-up walls, the pit wasn't level, the concrete work is bad.
F) weeping system was installed at depths from 40-57 inches below the bottom of the window wells, the INSIDE floor height is 54 inches the floor thickness was 6-8 inches. What height should the weeping system be below the window well then? (which you promised me during the installation this wouldn't be an issue right?)
My math roughly speaking, 54" to the floor, +6" floor thickness, +6 inches for the weeping system. They couldn't find the footing, but they were only 57 inches deep at the max depth that I watched and/or measured. if my research is correct, they wouldn't see the footing at that depth (that would be at about the 60inches?).
G) according to aqua-blok All surfaces must be sound, dry, and free from grease, dirt or other contaminants and must be reasonably smooth. Allow a minimum of fourteen days curing time on all new concrete. Prior to application, the deck should be blown with compressed air, vacuumed or thoroughly swept with a soft bristle broom. Curing compounds must be removed prior to application of membrane. Joints, cracks, and wall junctions require preparation. Refer to Guide Specification.
My concrete didn't even have 24 hours to cure.
H) also according to Henry Company (aqua-blok manufacturer) it wasn't given enough time to cure before the back fill and that's why my house has a horrible stench and toxic VOC's in it.
To try and combat the VOC's I've purchased 2 activated carbon air cleaners, activated carbon furnace filters, inline activated carbon filter for an exhaust fan, 2 air quality metres. a window fan, I have a large air mover that I have added a carbon filter to, blowing air outside, an exhaust fan blowing air outside, and a window fan blowing air outside. I have been able to keep the TVOC's (Total VOC's) in the yellow zone (long term exposure is not good at these levels, but under the red zone where short term exposure is bad), and it seems like when the heat (or maybe the sun) outside isn't too bad I can keep it in the green zone with all this mechanical ventilation I needed to add.
I) Since there was a 4-5 inch wall poured, there is A LOT of extra dirt on my property now.
J) About 1/4 of the dirt was packed down with that machine, you told me flat out that the dimple board WILL rip if not tapped down. When I asked Carl about this, said it was done. When he came to my house, he told me his guys told him they did it, but he still didn't fix it.
K) When an HONEST (and I even kept it on the nicer side of honest) review of the work done, I had the site supervisor for the job show up at my house, and tell me that if I didn't remove the review, they were going to bring their wife and children to my home, to my home. They were going to bring other people to my home, where my children have to live, I felt VERY uncomfortable and unsafe in this situation. I didn't know what they or the workers might do if I refused, so I took it down.
There is so much wrong with this job I don't even know if this is everything.
This is not okay, you took a lot of money to do a subpar job.
What is Nusite going to do to make this right?
With the nature of this, I would like all correspondence to be written, so email works well.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $33,000.00
- Company Response
We are currently working with the customer to sort this out in an acceptable way. We will update once we've come to a mutual decision.
Thank you.