Perma-Dry Waterproofing & Drainage, Inc.

I had a LOT of questions and Ryan, the owner, responded quickly to each email. The work crew were all polite, quiet, and all-around good people. The price was reasonable compared to comps, and the job was finished when they said it would be. We've had some torrential rains since and not a drop has gotten into my basement!

Don't hire anyone else. If you're looking for a company run by someone who understands what customer service looks like, call Perma-Dry. 4 years ago we worked with Perma-Dry to install an internal basement footing drain system - they were prompt, responsive, and did a great job. We've had zero issues. We recently discovered an issue with an old external drainage system (not installed by Perma-Dry) which backed up during a thunderstorm. When I discovered the issue, I called Ryan (owner) to get some help; he showed up at 9am on a Saturday (his day off) and spent 5 hours with me troubleshooting the issue and coming up with a temporary fix until he could get a crew out to install a permanent fix. He not only was a huge help, but his attitude was incredible - he was actually having fun working on his day off. In the 12 years I've owned my house, I've worked with dozens of contractors and never had an experience like that. True customer service is a lost art, Ryan and his team have shown us twice that they understand how to take care of customers and care enough to do the right thing.

I contacted Perma Dry after being told by another company that Perma Dry did the french drain install, so it is best to work with the same company. I contacted them for an estimate which I had to pay for after they said the issue was not connected to the french drain system. That's fine. I then waited over a month for the estimate and called multiple times, only to be told "Oh, we will call the tech and get it to you". After a month we call again and are told the tech was unexpectedly out, and that is why it was taking so long to get the quote. But the person we talked to on the phone never said anything like "The tech is out, we can't get that to you now". They never offered to send someone else out to get us a quote. And once we got the quote, it was for a completely different scope of work because the tech said the company does not do that type of work anymore. The customer service and communication has been so poor from this company, if my system was not installed by them, I would never work with them again. I have sent a message to the company asking for a call back to discuss this. Guess what...I'm still waiting. This has been the worst customer service experience. Save yourself some grief and go with someone else.

Perms-Dry did an outstanding job. They explained the work to be done in detail, arrived on time, completed the work in one day. Their workers professional and did a great job of cleaning up once the work was complete. I have seen no signs of water issues since they installed the system

Perma-Dry did a wonderful job installing our basement drainage system. Ever and his team were very friendly, professional, and efficient. They did the whole project in two days!

it went really great. they showed up on time and were a very hard working focused bunch of guys who seem to really enjoy their work. they were very polite and also extremely helpful and informative answering all of the many questions which I could think of during the two days of work they did.

During periodic heavy rains we sprung a leak in our basement wall. I called Perma-Dry because both Angie's List and a plumber recommended the company, and I do not know the first thing about waterproofing a home. I scheduled a date and time for a salesperson to inspect the basement and provide me with an estimate. Mark was friendly and professional, and in his estimate he wrote that a sump pump may be required. What he did not elaborate in his inspection is the sump pump requiring GFCI, a term he wrote on the estimate but did not explain during the inspection. I am not an electrician and I have already established I do not know the first thing about waterproofing. What I came to learn during the scheduled work is that a) the crew confirmed a sump pump would be required, and that b) GFCI means a dedicated electrical line for the sump pump. We have a warbox-style home from 1942 and there is only so much we can do to the existing structure. Our washer and dryer are in the basement and now our washer will share an outlet with the sump pump, and I'm going to hope for the best. The work crew is nice but they do love to get animated about the work they are performing. I'm fortunate to work from home today and participate in phone conferences on mute so my colleagues didn't have to hear "BULLSH_T" being exclaimed loudly. Bonus use of the n-word when they returned from lunch. What would have been immensely helpful in the original inspection is Mark explaining, "We should check to see if you have the necessary electrical setup for the sump pump, otherwise you will need to hire an electrician and that could run $600." When I had Mark in our basement I was trying to think of every possible question to ask him before agreeing to an estimate and scheduling a service appointment. Where I failed in my exercise is that I didn't know the questions to ask during the inspection, and now the crew is installing a sump pump that I cannot reject because it's the only way I can achieve the goal of waterproofing the basement. A quick email to the company did not feign a reply from anyone other than a follow-up call with Mark who, professionally, explained he did his part to address his due diligence in the estimate to cover liability for the company. I explained to Mark that since I do not know the first thing about waterproofing (established) I did not know all the right questions to ask, and I am now having to authorize $825 for a sump pump in hopes that I don't need to hire additional servicemen to confirm the work is complete. The conversation was moot aside from him understanding my frustration. If you are a homeowner like me that is unfamiliar with waterproofing and home electrical, be sure to ask the salesperson if your home is properly set up to accept a required sump pump, or if you will need to schedule an electrician to wire your home ahead of the waterproofing work. If you are a homeowner like me that is unfamiliar with waterproofing, make sure you ask your salesperson for visual examples of the sump pump so you can adjust any configuration of storage solutions you had in your basement that must now be reconfigured due to the size of the pump and the space it will occupy. Because you don't know if there is more than one option for the sump pump (there isn't on the day of work). You can, however, hope the crew will not cut into existing pipes and do their best to work with the plumbing. FYI: the warranty offered for the drain system DOES NOT apply connection to an existing non-company installed drain line. Meaning that the sump pump required for completion of work is not covered by the drain system warranty when the crew connect it to your existing plumbing. The crew finished ahead of schedule and I was shown the results. The poured concrete will take 3-4 days to thoroughly dry; we can move our washer back at that time and reinstall all the hoses. I wish I would have known in advance how long it would take for the concrete to be dry but I guess that, too, was a question I was supposed to know to ask. The sump pump is already plugged into the wall socket but we'll need to rely on the battery powering the sump pump control box because we don't have another outlet to spare for the second plug. If we didn't have that outlet at the ready, I would be back on Angie's List looking for an electrician and I wish Mark would have had a checklist at the ready to make sure all of this was addressed before the crew tore open the basement floor with a jackhammer and then concluded a sump pump was necessary. The purpose of Angie's List is to reduce the risk of "Buyer Beware" for consumers, yet here is a business model that penalizes consumers because they don't know the questions to ask. I hope my experience will save you from a similar situation so you're not left frustrated with a company's reply being "I understand" on repeat.

Excellent! One of the best contractors that I have dealt with.

It went very well. They do schedule very very far out though and when it appeared it was going to take an additional day to finish the work they suggested we do part and then schedule the other part 3 weeks later, that didn't work for us so they figured out a way to work one long day and get the work done. Overall very happy and will recommend to others.

From my first call to Perma-Dry requesting an evaluation of a significant water problem to the assessment visit to scheduled work timing every aspect of Perma-Dry performance was excellent.

The guy that comes and bids is seriously legit. He knows his stuff and is very helpful. Workers do a great job clean up and get the job fast. Show up on time. HIGHLY recommend.

Their work was very professional and courteous. The perimeter drain involved a lot of jackhammering, and hauling buckets of concrete/rubble out, as well as mixing bags of concrete and hauling many bags of concrete. All *very* labor intensive. While on the worksite, they accidentally struck three sewer lines, and performed repairs. Some of these repairs required extra work, which we negotiated to my satisfaction with their supervisor before the job was complete. The drain itself has been in place for one full year now, and has certainly prevented my basement from flooding at least 5 times this winter. I can hear the drain pipe discharging into the sump well when we are at flood stage. The pump, drain, and discharge work all as expected, except for one caveat. The bid was for a complete perimeter drain along the basement cold seam, except where the basement fireplace is located. It terminates at both sides. When receiving the bid, I asked if that was going to be a problem, he said no - there was sufficient drainage to intercept any water on either side of the fireplace. Later that season, I contacted Permadry because we noticed visible wet spots on either side of the fireplace in the few inches between the fireplace and the end of the drains. This, and the continued efflorescence in the brick meant that we had a moisture issue on the fireplace. Upon contacting them, they told me that they do not do fireplace work. I reminded them that they stood by a lifetime guarantee for their work. They reminded me that it doesn't include fireplaces. So, I have minor water intrusion next to my fireplace that they were unwilling to inspect or troubleshoot. But my basement isn't flooding. Later that Spring, when conducting a sewer repipe under the house, we uncovered debris (cast iron and rubble) that had gone into one of punctured sewer pipes, and had traveled 8 feet. The unforseen work is always unforseen. However, my pipe repairs could have been problematic. During our repipe, we re-laid all the pipe Permadry repaired. And, while their repairs were serviceable, they were not done as a plumber would have and could have caused problems in the long term. The debris certainly would have. While this review may sound overly-critical, I am not critical of this company. I had a very large, unpleasant job and they carried it out with great professionalism. I would hire them again. Unless I can find a company that includes fireplaces in their waterproofing work.

It took three days of hard work in heavy clay and rocks, but the basement has remained very good and dry.

Overall the service went really well. The Crew is friendly and works hard.

Not well. The guy who did the estimate saw a foundation crack they were going to repair from the inside. After tearing off the drywall they discovered the crack didn't go through, so they filled in the crack from the outside and only charged us a minimum charge. Unfortunately, that didn't fix the problem. We called PermaDry to come back and they promised to send someone, but they never called or showed up. We finally called someone else, who came right away and found another crack that turned out to be the problem; they fixed it properly, from the outside, for about the same cost PermaDry originally quoted us.

They performed excellent work and I feel they went above and beyond. When they were done, the basement was thoroughly clean and they removed rubble and other items for me as I am out of town. My tenants noted zero water entering the basement over the winter. Yes!

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They were on time, prepared the path to the crawlspace access with plastic on floor and walls, and we're extremely professional in their demeanor. They performed all the work promised in the work order and cleaned up perfectly inside and outside the house. It is clear that they are extremely skilled in their job and processes and we are very pleased with the result.

I had a crack in foundation and Permadry was tasked to fix it. The Estimator was great. He described the process and I felt comfortable that this was going to be fine. <br /> <br />The repair guy came out and started working, a short time later he said he was done. I went down to the basement to check out the work. There were chipped out holes in the foundation, the epoxy was dribbling on the floor, and the ports were left in the walls that were pointing every which way. I was told this was going to look as good as new, minus the wall paint. The guy told me he was done and said this is the way it will look. He said he did not have the paperwork so they would bill me later and left. I looked up what finished crack repair should look like and this was far from it. I called the company and the owner came out the following Monday and was not impresses with the work and had his employee come out to clean it up. He came out and took the ports out and patched the holes. The job, this time, was sloppy. He basically stuck filler into the holes and made no attempt to smooth it out or blend it. The owner called again and I explained the results. Now we have a third visit coming up with the owner coming to supervise. So the work isn't done, no bill, and I get a call from their accounting asking me why I haven't paid yet. The basic tone of this call was "why aren't you paying your bill dead beat?" Well, I haven't got a bill and the job still isn't done. So the third visit comes.. no the owner did not show like he said. The work was done and it's fine, but 3 visits to do this is not acceptable. Here's the thing, this should be a two visit job (fill the crack on day 1 and port removal and blending when everything cures) or better initial finish work (if the ports have to stay in, they should be perpendicular to the wall and everything should be blended up to them). <br /> <br />I am happy-ish with the customer service on the administrative side (estimator and owner have been good, but accounting, nope), but the work quality is another matter. My concern is there are uninformed people who trust that when the professional says the work is done then it's done. They will pay the bill and accept a subpar result or not know it is subpar. <br /> <br />Based on the work performed (time it took to do the work, needed equipment, size of the project), I felt the price is way too high. <br />

Permadry was great to work with.   <br /> We bought the house a year and a half ago, and went through our first very dry winter with no problems.  But this winter, severe flooding happened regularly (thanks, La Nina!).  It destroyed the carpet, drywall, new built-ins, and required us to gut much of the basement. <br /> After a poor experience with a side sewer service provider, we researched carefully before committing to another big ticket contractor.  Permadry was so busy at the time we called, they were backlogged almost a month just to come in and give us a bid.  And, from the point of the bid, it was another month out before the crew could actually come out and work on the house. <br /> When we signed up, we were given a quote that was right about what I expected to hear.  He offered a discount if we agreed to the work on the spot, which we did.  When I asked if they had any incentives for Angie's List members, he said he couldn't apply it on top of the sign up discount. <br /> When the work crew arrived, they were very courteous and kind.  And they got to work right away, using the basement entrance to the house exclusively. After taping down tarps to protect our possessions, they began their work. 3 jackhammers, a big bucket brigade, and a full day's work managed to open up all the trenches.  The second day they set up the french drain system, along with piping, and began working on the sump.  Although the work load was scheduled to only be Monday and Tuesday, they needed one more half-day to finish, and scheduled that for Friday.  On Friday, they closed up all the trenches with new concrete (hand mixed in the basement), and cleaned up EVERYTHING before they left. <br /> Overall, we have the peace of mind that our basement is dry and ready to get re-finished the right way! Our original sump pump discharged to the side sewer (a big no-no in the City of Tacoma), and the new one is *very* covert.  They decided to run the pipe back over in the open perimeter before covering it with concrete.  The only evidence it's even there is where it punches up and through the basement wall to tie in to the gutter lines as stormwater to the curb.   Super slick.  That's how you know they're professionals. <br /> The Hiccup: <br /> We did hit a snag on Monday.  The jackhammers accidentally hit 3 of my sewer lines: the master bathroom stack, the kitchen stack, AND the main bathroom.  Before leaving on Monday, they attempted to clear out one of our bathroom lines so that we had sewer service overnight.  On Tuesday, they got us back up and made repairs to all three lines.   <br /> On Tuesday, one of the owners dropped by to inspect the new sewer repairs that were needed: One line necessitated jackhammering and repairing approximately 6' of complicated  sewer line.  Another was deteriorated so significantly under the slab that a repair might not possible, and they might have to trench 8 feet in order to tie in to sound plumbing.  After looking at these options, we agreed to an additional thousand dollars as a fair price to those unforseen circumstances.  By the end of the day on Tuesday, sewer lines were all operational, and but the 8 foot trench never happened after all, because 6 inches of trenching revealed a good repair point. <br /> As the work crew finished up on Friday, I called in to the office to make a final payment, and with anxiety explained that the re-negotiated price was for 2 pipes, when I only had one replaced.  Without batting an eye, she asked if we could meet in the middle at $500.  Which was fabulous. <br /> Great professionalism.  Great customer service.  Great warranty (so I've been told), and a great value for all that backbreaking work!  I would hire them again in a heartbeat.  But I won't need to. Their work is covered with a lifetime warranty on the house. <br />

They were very responsive and held to the schedule. The scope of work was well defined and the requirements on me well communicated. I would recommend them to anyone who needs similar work. <br />

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<strong> to put up plastic sheetingBefore I could put a bathroom in this area of the basement I needed to stop the flow of water that would trickle in during heavy storm<br /> Before I could put a bathroom in this part of the basement I had to stop water from trickling in during heavy storms as we are now experiencing! Ryan came out to have a look and took his time explaining the process in detail some weeks before the job. The crew arrived on time and set to work by first putting up plastic sheeting to protect other areas from dust and such.  The work done by 5 followed by extensive clean up.  They were professional and methodical!  I found the price to be reasonable for this kind of work.  The sump pump working away a lot lately!  It is not noisy at all.  Sounds like a tub draining for all of 4 seconds or so.  I highly recommend their services!<br /> </strong> <br />