Ohio State Waterproofing Company review: Basement waterproofing system 16

Hardcore sales people! May 13, 2017, I signed an estimate for foundation and waterproofing the basement with a very nice salesperson. This was a Saturday. After consulting with family members and others who were knowledgeable about this company history, I decided it will be necessary to cancel. I canceled my check immediately and called Ohio State Waterproofing. They would not cancel over the phone, which is suspicious already but scheduled to cancel personally on May 17, 2017. Canceling the check was not considered valid, according to them. The original sales person brought a pit bull of another sales person along, a so-called 'structural engineer', but after checking his qualifications -
it turned out that he is not at all what he says he is. His estimate was double the original amount. Instead of $16, 000+, the estimate became $38, 000+. Unfortunately, I am a gullible senior and trusted these people, so they succeeded in talking me into signing papers. He explained that it is better to do the foundation and waterproofing the correct way. After I was advised by professionals and family members that this is a ripoff, I canceled the second estimate. Of course, they don't do that over the phone, again - they have to show up in person to make it official - the second time. Now they are threatening to sue me for the whole amount of the first estimate ($16, 000), since I canceled 'too late' (note: they did come to cancel that estimate originally, but could only schedule after the 3-days allowed, because a phone call was not enough). It is important to note that they would not have even been able to start the job until September! I am reporting them to the BBB and Angie's List. It has been a nightmare - DO NOT HIRE THEM! There are MANY better foundation and waterproofing companies at reasonable prices who are professional and who take cancellations by phone via their personal cell phones. This company is a huge RIP-OFF! By the way, the pit-bull had what looked like a gun in his back pocket, which was covered by his shirt. BEWARE!

Hardcore sales people! The website does not have a way to contact them personally, nor does their business card. I could only cancel my check, but they will not accept that as a cancellation. Now they are threatening to sue me for the whole amount of the estimate and they would not have even been able to start the job until September. Two of them showed up and one of them said he is a structural engineer - he is not! I am reporting them to the BBB. It has been a nightmare - DO NOT HIRE THEM! There are MANY better foundation and waterproofing companies at reasonable prices who are professional and who take cancellations by phone via their personal cell phones. This company is a huge RIP-OFF!

I had Ohio State Waterproofing out to my house in 2006 right after I bought it. The basement appeared to be damp but what was really bothering me was a stair step crack in my foundation. I stressed to the agent my concern over the crack and that that was my main concern. It needed to be fixed. They assured me that they could take care of it all. I paid $16, 000 to have the crack fixed and the basement waterproofed. Long story made short----ten years later and my basement wall is now collapsing into the basement. When I called to talk to their service department they pulled up my information they informed me that they did not "fix" the crack. Not even their stupid "stabile wall system". All they did was fill in the crack. That is not what I was told while I was signing over $16, 000. Now I'm convinced that the white sheeting they put up on the walls is just to hide their shoddy workmanship. Wish I would have known that the company does not stand behind any work that they do. They just want you to keep paying them every year. I could have slapped some concrete into the crack just as well as them. They assured me that I was paying them to actually fix the problem. What a joke. Too late for me but I hope someone looking for a quality company may read this and look elsewhere.

The house had been done by them for a previous owner. Salesman told me if I paid to reinstate the warrantee they would upgrade everything. I needed a new drain dug in the front, the basin for the sump pump had to be enlarged. He told me the pumps would also be covered under the new warrantee. He sold me an Easy Breathe air purifying system that he said would ex change air in the whole house 10 Times a day. Not true. It is a very expensive dehumidifier that only runs when humidity is high. I found out that the sump pumps were not upgraded unless I pay $1500 more AND they are not included in the warrantee as they stand now. Not what he told me. I paid $3200 to upgrade the warranty replace the 11 feet of drain, get a new sump basin and the useless Easy Breathe. If the pumps fail, I'm on my own. Stay away from them. If you go ahead and do it, Get everything the lying sales people say in writing every word! I have a Friend who paid $16 thousand and she wishes she went with another company.

We hired OSW in March of 2013 to rebuild one side of our basement wall that was caving in. They also put stable wall patches on the other three walls to stop them from moving. My brand new, completely built from scratch wall was seeping water in October of 2013. A supervisor came out and inspected the issue. I requested that they dig all the way down to the footer and redo the tar and membrane. The supervisor insisted that they just needed to install a J channel system to divert the water. I said no, that isn't going to fix the issue. I insisted again, in order to fix the issue, I wanted them to dig all the way down. He agreed and two months later they came out. When they came out all the did was install the J channel system. Never did what I asked and of course never fixed the issue.
Today, October 24 2014, guess who came out again because I still have water seepage. The foreman who supposedly is a supervisor that came out today had no information with him about my service history. I had to go pull my files to supply him with the information that he needed. After finishing his 15 min investigation, he said the earliest they can come out is February 4th of 2015! They are going to dig and 4 foot inspection trench and go from there.
Thank goodness I got an amended contract negating the usual one year warranty and changed it to a five year warranty without paying the yearly maintenance fee. Hopefully these guys can get the issue resolved by 2018!
I highly recommend that you research other options for your basement waterproofing needs.

We hired Ohio State Waterproofing because of cracks and water and the salesman went through the same spiel as all of you got...to top it off we just bought the house and had been dupped by the sellers telling us that the basement only got damp! So they said Oh we will go to court for you and supply you with any statements that you need to win your case. A HUGE $15, 000 mistake! We got the run around, our lawyer got the run around..finally talked to the foreman and he said Oh I don't even remember if your basement was bad or not. So statue of limitations ran out on the lawsuit and we are stuck with the bill. NEVER hire them, they are scam artists and will do or say anything to get your business. OH and the guys kept dumping the muddy water down our wash basin in the basement and we had to pay a plumber to snake the drains to finally unclog them!
Signed
Another VERY Unhappy customer of OHIO STATE WATERPROOFING!

Had these guys out for their free estimate. Two guys showed up with a tape measure to get the size of my foundation. I told them initially what I wanted but this fell upon deaf ears. Without any testing they asked if they could "sit down" to explain their process. Out came the three ring binder from the '60's with recommendation letters (most without dates) from cities and organizations including NASA. We put people on the moon but NASA can't solve a water problem? What the heck! I keep asking "how much and when?" But the pitch kept going for over an hour. The price was above $20k. Wow! I told them I wanted to think about it. I was then asked what it would take to get my business. This left me with a sick feeling in my gut.
Just got a call from their secretary who told me their owner wanted to send out a top supervisor to give me a substantially reduced price. If it looks like s__t, smells like it and tastes like it, then it probably is.
I then decided to check Angie's List, no listing! Google found this website and a few others like it. Wow! Whatever happened to providing a valuable service for a reasonable price with professionalism and integrity? I don't care what a substantially reduced price is if I lack confidence in a contractor. I haven't heard this much sales hype in decades! Why would anyone spend this much money with anyone without checking them out? I'd rather burn my money than buy a world of frustration!

I have been dealing with this company for four years! Still experiencing the same problems in the basement. I did seek legal advice, I was told as long as the company was still coming out (free of charge) I really didn't have much of a chance fighting the company. Sick of having my inside and outside dug up! Last time crew came out they broke my inside water line and I had to call in a plumber immediately. Still waiting for the company to reimburse me for that bill! If anyone has any luck fighting this company please post, I really don't know what else to do.

We hired Ohio State Waterproofing to dry out our basement and crawl space. The salesman told us that they would replace both of our sump pumps (one in the crawl and the other in the basement) with their super pump that would be located in the basement. When they were working on the basement, they told me that they could not do what they sold me and use one super pump to replace the one sump in the crawl space. He told me because it was a new sump pump (we had just replaced it within the last 6 months) that they would honor that with the FREE warranty that we were going to get for THREE years. I saw it in writing on the yellow paper!
Well I fell for the distraction and what I signed was not what I read, because what he gave me to read when no one was around stated the warranty coverage of the sump pump and 3 years of free warranty. Then the circus began, I had the some roaming foreman and the foreman for the job asking me all kinds of questions about how happy I was with the service and he hands me the yellow sheet of paper for my signature, assuming it was the same one I had just read, I signed it...of course it was the bait and switch! What I ended up signing stated NOTHING about any warranty I don't have 3 years for FREE or any coverage for the sump pump. I am writing this and getting my blood pumped because I am waiting for a service guy to come and look at the sump, because my husband seems to think that it has been disconnected. Mind you it has been only 4 months since we had them work on the basement and crawl. If they left this pump in this condition and charged me 15K, I might be looking for a good attorney! Please if anyone else out there had this happen to them please respond!

Sad I came across THIS site after searching "saliva on mold test swab"! The irony is that we just had a consultation and it really bothered that he did that! I asked him about it and he said it just needed to be wet. Hmmm... Still skeptical, i found the same site you did and confirmed it was a test for proteins. He had the sale until that little gem. Unbelievable. Happy I'm not the only one disgusted. You'll always have my business with honesty.

Just had them out for an estimate and consultation and they sent a true salesman, basically regurgitated word for word from his preprinted sales book, showed me a BBB report listing them as an" A+" when I just looked it up they are actually listed as a "B". I seemed to have a greater understanding of the construction and water problems than he did. Worst of all when he did a mold test on some calcium efflorescence on the wall, he first put the swab in his mouth and then rubbed the calcium deposits with the swab for the test. At first I thought maybe this was to wet the swab so it would collect a sample but I know most test have to be completely uncontaminated to be valid. I noted the test brand and style to look it up later. Of course the test came back positive for mold. When I looked up the test online later I found that it is a one minute test, the directions never indicate that the swab needs to be wet, in fact, the test swab needs to be sterile. I found this direct from the companies website: "Features & Applications:
This Sporicidin microbial test kit is an easy, fast, and accurate tool for detecting potential micro-organisms on many common interior surfaces. It determines the presence of microbial growth such as bacteria, mold, fungi, blood and body fluids, as well as typical allergen contaminants in less than one minute. The Sporicidin Microbial Test Kit is useful in residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial applications."
Notice it says it detects "BACTERIA" and "BODY FLUIDS" I believe saliva counts for both. What a scare tactic and a scam.

We too are experiencing problems with Ohio State Waterproofing and I would not reccomend their sevices to anyone. Our original work was done in 2006. We had no problems until this year over Easter weekend. We had water in our basement which ruined $2900.00 worth of carpet and some misc personal items. I of course called them and was told that it would be 6 weeks before a field supervisor could come out to diagnos the problem. I found this to be unacceptable and gave them a huge earful. They supposedly pulled a supervisor off of his vacation that week just to come and look at our home. Well, he did come and with a huge attitude and a letter in hand from the president of the company. The letter basically stated that under "normal" rain conditions their system works fine, but when the city storm sewers are over taxed as they have been with all the rain this year then the storm sewer backs up into their system and consequently into your home. I tried to explain to the field supervisor that it was not a heavy rain the night that our basement flooded and our pump did not ever get full. The water appeared to come through the walls. He didn't listen to a word that I said instead telling me that I needed a piggy back bump which would pump the excess water out into our yard instead of into the storm sewer during an "emergency" situation. Of course they could not come to install this pump for another 8 weeks. When the crew arrived to install the new pump they asked me for an extension cord because they needed another electrical outlet for the new pump and the 2 existing outlets were being used by the original pump and my dryer. While the crew was still there I called to ask the service department why I was not told by the field supervisor that I would need another electrical outlet and was told "well we're not electricians". My point that he totally missed was that I had 8 weeks to have an electrician come out to install another outlet but now instead I have an electrical extension cord drapped over my dryer, washer, and utility tub and plugged into another outlet...safe, right?!

At this point I am still not convinced that our pump was the problem so I insisted that the company send out a different field supervisor which they did yesterday. He was actually a very polite and pleasant man that actually listened to me and did a few tests instead of just blaming the problem on the overloaded storm sewers as the original arrogant superivsor had. Well low and behold, 2 of our wall are leaking! It was not the pump at all and I was right all along! Unfortunately now they have to come back and dig up my basement again to fix the problem and guess when they are able to come...3 months from now! Yep, I guess that I just have to hope and pray that the walls don't leak again before they fix it.

This water issue in the basement has caused a huge disruption for my family. My kids playroom is in the basement and so is my husband's office. We all feel totally displaced at this point and unfortunately it will continue to be that way as we will NEVER put carpet in our basement again. Such a waste of money (carpet and waterproofing)!

I have been experiencing the same problems as everyone else, had my first job done in 2009 and still experiencing water problems. Different excuse everytime they come out here! Their service rep. for this area (Jerry) was rude last time he came out, had the nerve to tell me he was tired to coming out! Believe me I'm tired to having him out! Has anyone ever filed suit against them? How long to they have to keep trying to fix the problem? How many re -digs do we have to allow them before we have legal rights against them? Need some answers. Totally frustrated.

I would never recommend Ohio State Home Services to anyone. We installed our system in 2003 and still to this day we are encountering problems with the company's system and with their service department. We had them out to our house not less than a dozen times for what began as only a few minor cracks in our basement walls. They claimed this was a sign of water pressure that would eventually enter our home. After contracting with them, they changed their story when the cracks re-opened to state that the problem was the clay soil around the foundation. They are CROOKS! To this day, the only water in my basement is the water that has entered through the EZ Breathe Unit that they forced upon me as part of an entire system. They refuse to repair the damage to my home that the system has caused.

I have had 5 floods since I had them do the work. Every time they make up some excuse and fix something or put in a bigger pump. 2 years ago they put in what they called a "super" pump with a regular pump on top of the super pump. They said that there was no way they both could get overwhelmed. What they forgot to check is how many amps the pumps pulled when running together during a heavy rain. Turns out they plugged them into a 15 amp service and never bothered to check. On 5/14 they were both running, tripped the fuse and we had 10 inches of water before you could do anything about it. They keep telling me they are not electricians and that it was my responsibility to check the sevice to make sure it was ample. Talked to a lawyer, he says we should file a claim. Oh State says they have defeended their contracts many times successfully and will do it again. Has anybody out there ever sued them and won?

Definently go for it. I told my parents to do the same. We paid more then $15, 000 for the job and as of NOW, May 18th 2011 at 5:21pm there is about 3 inches of standing water in my basement. They told us when the storm drains back up itl flood. THEY DIDNT SAY THAT TO US WHEN WE WERE BUYING THE CRAP. The salesman said this, and I quote "I don't care if there is boats floating around your house, YOUR basement will be dry." I just wish I would have recorded him saying that. Another thing about storm drains is they back up wheneverthere is mass amounts of water, which is when our house flooded anyway, what good did ohio state do to waterproof? This is the biggest rip off ever. There has to be some sort of class action lawsuit against these guys. I dont know how theyre still in business.