First of all, I want to thank Everdry for giving me a waterproof basement. The guys worked hard for 5 days and did such heavy, messy work. I can't imagine such hard labor for 5 days at my house and then, very soon, going on to another job that was just as physically taxing. Steve did a great job covering the floors and my belongings with plastic to make sure, every day, that everything was still covered. And whoever did the encapsulation underneath the steps going down to the basement did a stellar job. There was some tweaking to do with the rest of the encapsulation so they came back to work on it and now it looks great. They'll be coming back to smooth out the dirt and remove stones and pebbles underneath the front porch, the front lawn and around the perimeter of the house when the weather is more predictable. Matthew, the owner, was even kind enough to pay for boarding 2 of my kitties that would have gotten underfoot that week. The guys were here January 8-12.
Unfortunately, the process of digging up and unplugging the down spout drain was not explained to me, whereby the run-off pipe could be connected to it, taking the water under the sidewalk and onto the street. Instead, the pipe was routed up the basement wall and connected to a pipe outside that they placed 10 inches or so underground, stopping at the edge of a small embankment overlooking the sidewalk. When the foreman showed me what had been done, I knew it wasn't right. I knew that water would spill out of the pipe, directly onto the sidewalk. The next morning, January 13, ice was covering a good part of the sidewalk and I had to call the City to quickly have 3 orange cones placed on the ice. I called a plumber and they came over immediately to have this corrected. The only thing that could be done was to reroute the sump pump line to the sewer drain, which is allowed where I live. As I stated, I didn't have it routed to the down spout drain as it had not been explained to me; I didn't know it had to be dug up and unplugged.
A week later, Roy, the Project Manager, came up to assess all that had gone on. He made a list of all that needed to be done. I had a friend with me, a retired contractor, and he heard all that was said between Roy and me. I asked Roy to pay the plumber bill for rerouting the sump pump line to the main drain. He agreed to pay it and my friend will wholeheartedly vouch for that. Roy and I continued to talk about other issues, eventually summarizing what was discussed. I asked him again about the bill. I remember that he lowered his head, shut his eyes briefly, nodded yes and said yes, to confirm that he would pay the bill. I asked him if I should email the invoice to Matthew and he said, no, that he had a separate email address for the Service Department, which he gave me. I remember writing it on the paper I had in my hand. I emailed the invoice to him that same day, January 22, using the Service Department address. I would never have known to use that email address if Roy hadn't given it to me, I have the email to prove it. Therefore, I was surprised to receive a past due bill from the plumber. I sent an email to Accounting, Matthew and Roy, thinking that perhaps their payment and the past due bill crossed in the mail. Roy called me and stated that he never said he would pay the bill. I very nicely disagreed; I didn't want to argue. I was going to let it go entirely but it wouldn't be right if I did. I called and emailed Matthew this week to discuss, I still hope to hear from him. Roy also thought that I was asking him to pay to have the down spout drain dug up and unplugged. I never asked him to pay that and I would never expect him to do so; that is my responsibility. On February 2, when Matthew fully explained to me the procedure involving the down spout drain, I had the work done, Everdry came up February 19, connected it all, the run-off is going under the sidewalk and onto the street.
I would like nothing better than to have the aforementioned bill paid and a good relationship...
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