Active Basement Waterproofing

Assessment: This company is a true 0. I wish we could give zeros on Unilocal because some companies do not even deserve a one star. One star would mean they performed a service of some kind and it was bad. This company doesn’t even perform that service. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. I wish more people would write honest reviews that alert people about companies like this. I would hate for anyone else to waste their money. I am writing this review to warn homeowners.
I’m not sure what it is about home services these days, but it’s really sad that you can’t trust in a company to come and complete (or complete correctly) a job you paid them for. I know everyone is trying to make it in this world, but what I don’t understand is people who actively try to take advantage of other people. I can say that Active Basement, ‘actively’ is dishonest, unreliable, and lacks integrity — all of which go against their motto.
Like many others in the world, I do online research in order to find the best companies to provide services for me. First, I want to say that I did not hire this company. The previous owners hired this company to waterproof the basement. They have some positive reviews online, but they sound like this.“great”,“I’d use this company”, and so on. They don’t seem like real reviews. Real reviews give an accurate depiction of the job, what was done, the interactions between the client and the company and general feelings on the quality of the work. Real reviews are written to help other people make decisions.
In the first couple days of living at the house, I realized there was a water issue. How did I know this? The entire perimeter had water seepage and there was standing water in multiple places. I wasn’t really worried about it because one of the selling points was the dry basement and also that this company has a LIFETIME transferrable warranty. So if anything ever happened they would be out to fix it. That seemed fantastic and simple. So, when I saw the water of course, I called the company to try to get someone out. After multiple emails, I finally got a response when I called. Neil David Knapp (owner) agreed to come out, but I called and made an appointment with his company without him knowing it was his company that did the work previously. I knew he wouldn’t come out if he knew that the issues were because of his company’s work. I attempted to confirm the time/​day of the appointment 7 times… He showed up 2.5 hours early and proceeded to tell me there wasn’t a problem. Even though there was water. I had talked to multiple waterproofing professionals previously and did my research. I have a basic understanding of what needs to be done in order for the job to be correct. All companies (reputable) that I have had into the house to look at the work have said that it was a ‘hacked’ job and the company clearly did not know what they were doing. Yes, this could be because these companies were ‘selling’ me their services. However, I had each company walk me through how they would do the job and each company said the same thing. There really is only one way to do this.
To give you a general understanding of the issue. Waterproofing is supposed to provide a way for the water that usually collects on your basement floor to seep into a tubing that drains into your sump pump. This keeps your floor/​basement dry. It also relieves some of the water pressure from the outside wall. Active Basement made it appear that they did this by digging out parts of the perimeter (they should have did all) and laid in tubing and rocks (tubig did not go around the perimeter) and covering it with some quickcrete cement. They didn’t put in their clean outs in case the system needs to be flushed in the future, or drill holes into the walls allowing water to leak into the tubing… the tubing wasn’t connected to the sump pump either. So, where is the water going? Yes, on the basement floor. Just $ 6500 dollars down the drain. err on the floor?
David made it clear he did not do the work because he couldn’t answer any of the questions. When I asked to speak to the contractor that did do the work he said, «he died last week.» If that is true. that’s horrible, but through the sequence of the conversation that seemed unlikely. I requested the documentation his company had on the job, he said he didn’t have documentation and he proceeded to explain that this job was done 3 – 4 years ago and anything could happen in that time. Yeah, maybe, but the job was 5 months ago.
Don’t believe the ‘lifetime guarantee’. It’s just to make the buyer feel better about spending thousands of dollars. Also, in general this company lacks good customer service. When the owner came over he was barky at my friend and I. At one point he yelled at my friend. I’m surprised he is in business at all.
He refuses to come back unless there’s a flood. Watch out. He seems like one of those businesses who change their name. Go with highly reviewed companies.