...I don't even know where to start.
Part 1. (Very pessimistic)
We moved into our "dream" house in August and after the first rain here I realized that the wall in the basement (cold room) was actually leaking. It was horrible!!!
The previous owner disclosed nothing and even the home inspector - didn't "see" anything. It was a huge stress for us since we have never been in this situation.
The house has a "built-in" concrete flower bed at the front of the house (on both sides of the porch/cold room). So water from the leaking sprinkler system pipes installed was inside flower bed plus the rain water year-after-year which finally found its way into our basement.
The house also has a walkout basement and located on a steep hill. During the inspection I saw some water around corner of the house at the bottom of the hill but the inspector assured me that it's normal - probably just water from the yesterday's rain. Hmm... after few weeks I realized that water level had not decreased ... and after digging a hole near the wall I realized that the water was actually coming up from the underground like in a well.
When I told my neighbor about my concerns, he simply replied with something like: "everyone knows that there is a natural spring water under this house. It was always like this".
At that moment, we just panicked.
Part 2. (More optimistic)
I knew nobody in this business and just googled "waterproofing". I found HomeStars.com and start reading reviews. I selected seven (7) companies with 10/10 stars and invited them to my house. Reps from four companies showed up quickly. Their findings and proposed solutions were so different ranging from "let's waterproof that leaking wall from the inside" to "better put this house on MLS tonight" ...and as you may imagine their estimates were well, let's say ... very different.
Aquamaster guy was one of two who sounded at least logical and reasonable to me. I almost decided to go with another company ... but that guy was always too busy to answer my calls. I was in distress and was desperately looking for help. Vasyl, on the other hand, was very responsive and open to answer all of my questions, and discuss any of my concerns.
So I decided to go with AquaMaster and we agreed to split the project into two phases.
1. To deal with flower bed and leaking basement issue.
2. To try to solve "natural spring" surprise.
Vasyl didn't asked for deposit or anything, and told me to pay after job is done.
Part 3. (Exciting part)
I live in Aurora and the crew needed to drive a long way from Mississauga so they were coming around 10:00AM every day and leaving the site around 6:00PM - always on time, with no excuses.
Some days it was 4 people working on site - sometimes even 6. Vasyl was present EVERY day.
So, they removed 4 Christmas trees and 45 boxwood bushes from the flower bed, stored those in designated places covering with top soil to preserve, excavated 11 feet deep and removed all soil on both sides of the porch/cold room, disassembled sprinkler pipes, cleaned all walls and filled scratches with hydraulic cement, replaced over 80 feet of old "weeping tiles", installed a sump pump in the cold room, wrapped all walls with a "blue skin" and covered all walls with membrane, installed new pipes for sprinklers, dumped soil back to the flower bed and tampered with "jumping Jack" tool, planted back all trees and bushes and covered with 4 yards of triple mix soil. Surrounding area was cleaned/washed every day after work.
I was so happy with the results and I asked Vasyl to do waterproofing not only on front but all around the house. In some places they didn't have a choice but to remove and re-install back the interlocking. Also they replaced a good 400 sq.ft of the sod. Those guys also diverted all of the rain water from the roof into white plastic tubes installed und3rground.
Ohh...and I forgot to mention - Vasyl and the team also solved my "natural spring" mystery: we learned that during house construction - builder decided to discharge all water collected in weeping tiles by simply placing "ends" of those tubes under the house. And since the house has a walkout basement it was no wonder that all of the water was simply going to the bottom of the hill and staying at the same spot for the last 10 years!!!
It took them almost TWO (2) months to do the whole project and Vasyl always kept his word. His team worked very hard every day, lots of manual labor ... and they never demanded or complaiied even handling my "extra ideas" and "valuable suggestions".
Only now, thinking back about those crazy days in September/October - I fully understand how much I appreciate the guy and his team. They did it!
Glad I made the right choice. Thank you guys!
Regards,
Oleg
