Had a talk with my neighbor that made me rethink my whole approach to basement waterproofing

So last week my neighbor across the street stopped me while I was unloading drywall. He told me he spent $8,000 on a French drain system two years ago and now his sump pump still runs every time it rains hard. Said the crew just dug a trench and threw in some pipe without checking the grading on his lot. It hit different because I was about to call the same company for a quote. Now I'm wondering if I should just rent an excavator and do it myself or if that's a terrible idea. Has anyone here actually had good luck with those waterproofing companies around Parma?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_thea11d ago

oh man that's such a bummer. i feel for you, i had a similar thing happen with a roofing company and it's so deflating when you think you found the right people. hopefully you can save yourself the headache and maybe find someone who actually checks the slope first.

janarivera10d ago

Ngl I used to be the exact same way, just trusted whoever I hired and figured they had it all figured out. But then I watched a neighbor go through this nightmare with a deck build where they didn't check the ground slope and it was all lopsided after two months. That really changed my mind about just hoping for the best. It's wild how many simple steps get skipped that end up being the difference between a job lasting years versus falling apart. Makes you realize you gotta be more careful or you're just throwing money away.

kellys7811d ago

Wait, people actually measure the slope before starting? I always figured you just go with whatever the roofer says and hope for the best honestly. That's what I did with my gutters and ended up with pooling water everywhere. It kinda changed how I see things now though. I used to think contractors all knew what they were doing and you just pay them and they handle it. But after seeing how many people get burned by basic stuff like not checking the slope, I'm way more skeptical now. Makes me wonder how many other simple steps get skipped that end up costing people big later on.