We hired AquaResist the year before last to put in a basement walkout, including a door, and paid over $17500.00 for the job, which included a "lifetime guarantee" for all work done. While the work progressed slowly, and the owner Vasyl was painfully difficult to get ahold of, the job eventually did get done. Unfortunately, they did not frame the door correctly (did not anchor the door appropriately to the foundation) and didn't parge the doorway correctly. After only 3 months of use, the door couldn't align correctly with the jamb or the threshold, and locking the door was increasingly becoming impossible.
After over 8 months of arguing with the owner as to what the problem was, he finally sent Roman out to fix the parging but refused to fix the doorframe (saying there was a problem with our foundation - which is complete nonsense). After repeated problems, the door wouldn't actually close anymore because of alignment problems with the doorframe that was cut.
After another few frustrating weeks of trying to get ahold of Vasyl, he finally agreed to send someone (someone who he contracted out), who actually had to remove the steel door, the interior case, the exterior parging, the post, and jamb etc because the original work was so shoddily completed. The contractor had to continue to cut through the foundation because the original crew didn't actually finish the job correctly the first time. He single-handedly fixed the door, installed the correct jamb system and re-installed the door. That said, he had to leave before the interior casing and exterior parging could be finished.
Weeks go by again, phone calls and emails go unanswered, and still no one shows up to finish the parging work. One day out of the blue, someone from Aquaresist (my guess is Roman) shows up unannounced to finish the parging - but actually leaves without fixing the top post and parging.
We then hired someone to fix the top post, thinking that the basement walkout ordeal was over. I had to fix the interior myself - Aquaresist refused to pay for any damages re-installation of the doorframe would have cost.
As it turns out, the parging that Aquaresist completed around the exterior started cracking - my guess is that they were in such a rush to apply the parging the second time around that they didn't realize they should have applied 2-3 layers instead of one very thick layer.
After about 6 months of exposure to the elements, the parging completed cracked off on the bottom of the doorway, exposing the foundation to water and frigid temperatures. After speaking to many contractors in that time, they firmly believe it was due to an inadequate mixing of the concrete materials necessary for the parging. We contacted Aquaresist again on multiple occasions to ask them to repair the work, and we received no reply.
After multiple requests by phone and by email, Vasyl indicated by email that the work was not something he would fix, and that it was not under warranty. This is in complete disagreement with the statement of the warranty. Clearly this work was under warranty, otherwise Aquaresist would not have sent out workers like Roman and the additional contractor to complete this work in November of 2013 (which, unfortunately, was completed incorrectly).
This is clearly not the case, as we outlined multiple times in reply emails. Vasyl indicated that the parging was not Aquaresist's job, which it clearly was. Vasyl indicated that the parging job was apparently only a temporary solution, and that aluminum casing was required - when in fact the parging should hold for many years after the completion of the job.
We did not hire Aquaresist to put in aluminum casing - we hired Aquaresist to put in a basement walkout staircase, with a door that clearly INCLUDES parging around the foundation wall. There isn't a masonry company in existence that would leave the foundation wall exposed to the elements, and Aquaresist is well aware of their contractual obligation to finish working on the basement walkout door, including the parging. That is why Vasyl had workers return in mid-November of 2013 to fix the parging (albeit poorly), and that is why Vasyl should have returned this past summer to fix the parging once and for all.
We gave Aquaresist between 3.5 and 4 months to finish this work. Since you did not return to fix the parging around the door, we sought out three companies to finish this work and hired one that fixed this door parging issue at a competitive market rate.
We're now down over $300 (plus a lot of additional expenses, including our own time in fixing the interior), and Vasyl has indicated that he will not be refunding us the cost to fix their shoddy work.
This company can do good work, but they're either poorly managed, or they really just don't care to actually honour their guarantee. Ironically enough, we're in the process of acquiring another house and will need to install another basement walkout. Had Aquaresist simply honoured their contract and written guarantee, we would have hired them again in a heartbeat. But there are clearly better companies out there to do this work, that honour their guarantees.
