Groundworks

UPDATE: Review changed from 2 stars to 5 stars. TLDR version: Denny and Bill demonstrated unparalleled professionalism and have made everything right. Work performed was excellent and home feels much more sturdy. Definitely recommend Groundworks. Denny and Bill contacted me directly and asked to meet face to face to discuss what had happened and to check out the work that was done. This was an excellent move as it showed they weren't going to be satisfied with simply checking the box on customer service but they really wanted to make it right. On that note, after examining the jobsite and seeing the damage done to the dehumidifier, Denny and Bill are going to make it right by replacing the unit. They also let me know that the team who acted unprofessionally during my install was no longer working for Groundworks. It's a rare thing to see this level of professionalism in our day and age and I'm overjoyed to see that there are some people who still value building customer relationships the old fashioned way. I am happy to be a customer of Groundworks and would absolutely recommend you contact them for any foundation needs. Begin old review: I hired Groundworks back in April 2024 for some foundation repair on my 1940s house. I had previously had a structural engineer give a recommendation on repair which Groundworks stated they would have no problem following. When the Groundworks rep came to see the property, he spent about 10 minutes looking in the crawl space before stating they could handle the job. I asked if anything down there needed to be moved since I have a dehumidifier and the rep said no. Upon inspection after install, the dehumidifier drain plug was cracked from being knocked over, the stand it rested on was broken, the pump was tossed aside and running endlessly, and the installers continuously smoked on the property after multiple requests to stop both to them directly and to the office. There were several discrepancies with scheduling, pricing, and even the service that was going to be performed. The inspector, install team, and office all talked negatively about each other and seemed to have no communication between them. There appeared to be no accountability between the office and the install team. I called three separate times about the install team smoking since I have a baby and my wife is pregnant and each time the office said "This is absolutely unacceptable and won't happen again." My wife confronted the install team directly twice and it continued to happen. Debris was tossed aside in the crawl space, damaging the dehumidifier as previously mentioned and insulation for the HVAC was torn and pulled down. As far as the actual install, the foundation supports look really solid and appear to be installed correctly. The slouching floor has mostly been resolved already and the house feels more sturdy than before.

I first met with DJ to install an egress window and 3 other basement windows in my basement I am refinishing. I met with several companies for estimates and DJ gave me a great and fair price for what I wanted to be done. His mannerism and professionalism also won be over as well. Very knowledgeable and pleasant to do business with. He answered all of my questions and concerns with patience and in a detailed and thorough manner. His team did a terrific job installing all of my windows and I am totally satisfied with their work. I am very detailed oriented and I am quite pleased with the job they did. His team cleaned up everyday and was very pleasant to have on site. Great experience! The experience was so great I decided to hire them again to do my waterproofing as well. DJ once again gave a great and fair price for waterproofing my entire basement and also adding water taps to the windows they installed so I never have to worry about windows ever leaking. I did get a few other quotes before I hired DJ just to keep him honest and once again he out shined the rest. I cannot thank DJ enough, he made some suggestions to some issues that were going on in my basement that saved me quite of bit of time, money and possible headaches in the future. He also worked out a flexible schedule due to my contractors are also doing work in the basement as well. He did a great job coordinating that with me. Super great guy! Once again his team did a phenomenal job but this time spearheaded by their waterproofing supervisor Kenny. This guy was awesome! He led his team in a professional , organized and productive manner. This was a big job that required a lot of man power with multiple jobs going on at once and he was able to keep all of his guys in sync. Kenny was the best, he explained all the work that was to be done in detail. I mean he would not just explain it but would actually bring me to whatever we were talking about and show me exactly what and how it would be done. Kenny had impeccable patience for all of my questions and answered them until he knew that i understood what was going on. It's not everyday that you get a tradesman that not only explains what will be done but demonstrates it to you so you have a full understanding. Kenny made sure I was satisfied at every step of the job and I could tell that all of his men were experts at their craft. These guys went above and beyond to make sure I was satisfied and that everything was done correctly. They cleaned up everything nicely and when they were done it was almost like they were never there. I was extremely impressed with Kenny and his team. I am very happy with the waterproofing job that was done. It came out great and couldn't ask for a better experience! I definitely recommend Select Basements by all means and I personally will use them again for any future projects.

Miles, Rahad, and Tamir were on time and willing to answer all of my questions. They installed a basement gutter system and new sump pump. They were very good at recognizing problems and finding solutions. The original plan was to tie into the main sewer pipe, but they discovered that the foundation had a lot of sand. Therefore, they came up with a plan to run the pipe out the front of the house to an underground pipe. We will see how it goes when it rains. We had our first big rain storm. There was not a single drop of water in our basement . I analyzed the system the entire day. The pump was pumping a ton of water away from the house. However, there was no detectable water in the access ports on the drain system. My explanation is that I think I think our old sump pump was releasing water too close to the house. The sump pump was probably doing okay pumping out the ground water, but it was releasing it close to the corner of the basement where water was coming back in. The water was coming back in from above, probably between the footer and foundation. The new sump pump is probably just catching ground water and shooting it far away from the house. If water does ever come down from above, the new system will catch it. Clearly the water in that corner was not making it down to the old French drain that was found during excavation like it should have been. My understanding after doing more research is that the cement basement slab is laid over sand or gravel, which allows water under your basement floor to move through to the place of lowest pressure, which is your sump pump pit. If water is coming in through the footer foundation joint it has to be directed down past the footer to make it available to the sump pump zone. It seems to me that excavating a much larger trench to install a drain tile is overkill and maybe you just need another sump pump if that is your water issue. The water guard system placed at the footer requires less excavation and catches water from the wall and joint at the location of the water.

If I could do ZERO stars I would!! DO NOT USE GROUNDWORKS!!! They have no problem taking your money when their work does nothing!!! We asked Groundworks to look at our patio and driveway area that is against the house to see if they could make the existing concrete slope away from our foundation. Sales guy took a look and provided a quote. We got it scheduled to be completed 3 months later. I called a couple months before the project was to be completed to cancel so that I could get more educated on this kind of thing and they told me that I would lose my $800 deposit. I kept the appointment because something needed to be done. The guys (Josh and Conner) that came out to work on the project were fantastic and explained things along the way. They were not able to use much product because it started going between the insulation and the house. It started to bow and we were afraid that we would not be able to put the siding back on. We wrote the check and away they went. After the first hard rain we could see puddles of water leaning against the house so we decided to check the work with a level. (pics attached) There are also 2 spots that are now uneven with the rest of our concrete and are a potential trip hazard when walking on the side of the house. We did not notice those until after the guys left. I just kept thinking that $3500 was a lot of money to not get any or even close to the results we needed to protect our foundation. I called and they sent the same guy out and he checked out the area and just said he was not comfortable doing anything else to it because it would continue to go between the insulation and the house. Again he was great! I called them again to see if there could be anything they could do for us and I quote he said "well you signed a contract that said there is no guarantee that the concrete would lift" I guess you guys are OK taking people's money for nothing. I will NEVER recommend Groundworks for anything!!! $3500 is a lot of money and I would expect the sales person to be educated enough to tell us whether or not Groundworks services could do what we needed it to do. Or if they could not fix the problem then he should have told us we needed to look for another way to fix our issue. We could have saved $3500 to put towards new concrete. I explained that we are not concrete experts and that we were expecting them to be since that is their business. The experience has not been pleasant at all and all I see is the uneven ground that you don't seem to care about that was caused by your work. Also water leaning towards and draining next to our foundation is something you have zero cares about after we gave you $3500!! I feel like we were robbed for not being concrete experts ourselves.

Update: Owner reached out to me and apologized for my uncustomary experience. He made an offer to make things right, to which I excepted. He was sincere and professional with our phone call. It’s nice to see management that actually cares about its customers. BQ basement & concrete, a Groundwork’s Company, installed a French drain “basement gutter”, and sump pump in my finished basement due to a foundation leak. Part of the contract was for them to open the wall if it was suspected that water was coming from the wall, and not the floor. When the crew finished, they asked that I pay the full price by approving the loan payout, & I said no. I had to contact the company to take off the fee to open the wall & apply sealant because that wasn’t done. Contract stated “if there is a vertical crack, they would remove small amount of drywall and apply seal. If none detected it would come off the site work”. It was obvious though that the water was coming from the wall because of the water stains coming down the wall. Next big rain fall still got water coming down the wall & ponding on the floor next to the drain. Contacted the company to come out. They agreed it was coming from the wall & would remove wall & seal for $1525, when it was much less in the contract to just do the portion that was leaking from. The crew that did the work left their trash on the furniture in my basement. Did a HORRIBLE job containing the dust. Took 2 days to clean up after them. There’s two windows in the basement & they didn’t think to open even the one above where they were working! The head crewman didn’t explain anything about the sump pump or backup battery. When they were done, it was like they were in a rush to leave. I had to stop them from leaving my driveway because the sump pump alarm had been going off the entire time. The guy told me it was because they tripped the breaker, but never decided to correct it. So I went and did it myself.