Basement Project

Back in March our basement flooded.

It’s flooded before, so what?

In March it flooded in ways it hadn’t before, or at least we thought it hadn’t before.

Tearing out the carpet, we discovered this was an ongoing issue. An issue that had to be stopped if we wanted a nice place to live and sell one day.

The fix is your standard “french drain” running to a sump with a pump to remove the water, but part of our basement is finished. How do “they” deal with that.

Turns out most of “them” deal with it just fine.

Jen had the first contractor out for an estimate. He’d tear up the concrete, remove the drywall 2′ from the floor, move and move back my water equipment, drill drain holes in the foundation wall, lay pipe, cover it, put in a sump/pump, and replace the drywall to paint grade for a very reasonable price. Said his price was so reasonable because he was a general contractor. All the individual jobs within the project are totally within the realm of his everyday work, so nothing was subbed or out of the ordinary for him.

Seems like a no brainer. Go with him.

No thanks. I’ve done that too many times before and been burned. Let’s do some more research.

Is he on BBB? No.

Is he on Angie’s List? No.

Next?

I used Angie’s List and the internet to find the next 3 vendors. The first guy (of the last 3) would do all the same (except touch the water equipment), and couldn’t give me an estimate for putting the drywall back. Said he could do it, but would need to know how much he was actually going to remove and have to replace before he could give me a price. His price for everything without the drywall replacement came in above the first guy.

Next please.

The third guy would do all the same (iffy on the water pressure tank) and put back the drywall, but was 4k over the very first guy.

Nice guy, but next please.

The fourth guy had laser levels, was willing to upgrade me to the 1/2 hp pump for free, had a proprietary pipe system, but would only cut out 6″ of the drywall and not put it back. Really?

Back to square one. We called the first contractor back, discussed alternatives learned from the other 3 guys and asked why he wasn’t on BBB or Angie’s list. Said he was “in the process” of joining those groups and offered references on the spot.

What to do?

Our basement is a swamp. We need the work done. What the hell.

He’s scheduled to show up middle of next week, and take a little over a week to complete the project.

That means I’ve got to empty out the basement over Memorial Day Weekend. All the stuff in the main room must be located elsewhere and all the stuff in the workroom covered and protected (it’s going to get a little dusty).

We’ll be without water for a day, but should have a totally dry basement in two weeks. Hopefully it stays that way.

Stay tuned. You know there will be updates and probably issues.

Oh the fun we will have.

– b