Drainage and Support Post Replacement
I was having drainage issues in my yard that needed fixing, and three support posts to be replaced.
The contract stated that they would install a French drain system and regrade the yard. That the posts would be removed and new ones put in place. Bill promised me I would never have another drainage issue again.
When the work was complete, everything looked good, I even wrote a review stating how happy I was with the results - until we started getting water runoff and rain. Within two months we had 7 floods into our house that completely ruined an entire floor of our house. This was not into the basement, into was into the floor directly adjacent to where they had done the work.
The flooding was caused entirely by, and verified by city engineers and by my insurance companies investigation, to be caused by the improper grading of my yard. It was made into a bowl that water could not flow out of, and slightly sloped towards my house instead of away from it. This caused all the water to flow towards my house where it flooded in through a door. 7 times this happened after they fixed my drainage.
Additionally, the posts that were to be removed were in fact just cut down and burried in the yard, a fact I found when the flooding removed all the topsoil.
After contacting Bill, he was very rude and told me I don't know how a drain works and he would come by. He never came by. After months of calling and emailing, they finally came by when I threatened to write reviews and post pictures. At that point they saw the problems, looked me in the eye, shook my hand and promised to fix the issues. They said they needed the ground to dry up and would be in contact, in the meantime they would drop off a pump to help remove the water.
They never did. No pump. No call. No email. No contact for over two months. We did the work ourselves, an additional $20,000 to fix our house and correct the shoddy work they did.
My wife wrote a review on Google and surprise surprise, they contacted us the next day. They said they would still like to come fix the issues, admitted their fault, admitted they did not complete the items in the contract, and admitted they were at fault in not contacting us. I told them we had already done the work ourselves and if they wished to help, they could refund us the items on the contract that they did not complete. They refused to do this, just took our money and did not complete the work as stated.
I do not recommend this company and if you do hire them, watch every second they are on your property.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $8,000.00
- Company Response
In respond to your review Mr. Lamont and Ms. Codding, and Ms. Codding’s father , when the job was completed, we call you on every major rain storm to follow up how the new drainage system was performing and your responds was “excellent” every time and also stated that it did not require the use of the sump pump at all.
We value our workmanship by following up with all our drainage customers on every major rain storm from April until before the ground freezes late in November.We came twice in February and in April to view your concerns. On your ‘review’ you stated, “They took advantage of her good nature and didn't do what they were paid to do. Came back and said they would finish it properly, well they have disappeared again!”
Your project was completed on June 25, 2018, and you were very satisfied with the results and the follow up. You accused of us disappearing again. This spring was the wettest we had in sometime, which put us a month behind our schedule.
Your drainage issue was during the winter with the freezing rain and was not an issue during the spring/summer. We tried to schedule a return at the end of June or beginning of July. Our policy is, when we are committed with contract agreement, we honoured that agreement, and all parties can see the agreement.
As you know in February we had multiple days with freezing rain and you called us and complained that the drainage wasn’t absorbing the freezing rain, and I reply “that when the ground is frozen, no drainage system18 inches deeps will take the water away, because the ground is frozen and we are not responsible for any freezing rain”.
The drainage system was designed to handle even the overflow you are getting from your neighbours in the spring/summer.
We are not geared to handle service calls in the winter as our operations start from May 1st to November 31st.We came to see you in April, and explained that we will come back as soon as the weather gets warmer and because your issue was only in the winter months and not urgent. We also promised that we will come and re-arrange a small section, of where the Reservoir French Well was installed and drain it towards your neighbour’s property, where there is a catch basin, of which were we not previously informed of.
The original grading was sloped towards your neighbours and we intended to increase the grade. As you may recall this spring was very wet and we had booked multiple projects in 2018 to start at the beginning of May, but could not proceeded because the weather condition.
Contract/ Project in detail we did June 25-2018 with photos: Remove existing weeping system installed by owner in the backyard.
Remove grass and regarded where needed in the backyard.
Dig a trench 30 ft long running the width of back yard 18 inches deep by 18inches wide
add 3 inches gravel to bottom of trench on top of filter cloth followed by install of weeping tile and
add 5 inches gravel on top of weeping followed by covering weeping with filter cloth.
Fill remainder of trench with soil. Dig a 9 feet trench from the rear door and grade trench for a slope to connect to the 30 ft weeping tile and use the same process as the previous 30 ft trench.
Install a French Well with a water leaching reservoir at the end of the 30 feet weeping tile with sump pump to drain to front of house. (remove bush if necessary.)
Remove and dispose 3 deck posts and install two 5x5 12 ft long pressure treated posts to support deck on each end of the deck.
Remove and dispose small walls at the back of rear door. Re-level stones in front of rear door to slope away from the house.
Install stack stone wall 5ft x 9ft x 5ft four layers high to replace old wall.(customer to choose the colour)
Reseed area with Kentucky Blue seeds where is re-graded after the excavation was completed.
West-Hill Landscaping is responsible to leave your place spotless clean when the project is completed.
Estimate days for completion of the project 4 days or as weather permits.
Estimate starting day June 4-2018 or as weather permitting.