We had been dealing with minor basement leaks for several years and we knew that they would only get worse and expand if left unchecked. After meeting with several different contractors, we had decided to go with City Wide Group mainly because we were very impressed with their representative, Alex Vieira, who was nothing but professional, informative and personable.
One quality that really stood out about Alex was that he we was consistently easy to reach whenever we contacted him with questions, concerns or to make arrangements. He always followed up on any voicemail or text messages usually within minutes. This level of responsiveness is a rarity when it comes to dealing with contractors and it made a significant difference in impacting our decision to go with the City Wide Group.
The project itself involved waterproofing the back and side of our semi-detached home, an undertaking of which would normally take several days with a team of 2 or 3 workers (i.e. the usual number of workers that contractors would employ for a job of this scope). However, we were surprised to see that Alex had assigned a total of 7 workers to the task and we knew that the overall work would be completed within one or two days. The team worked very efficiently and we could tell that they were thorough in ensuring that any cracks or weaknesses in our foundation were identified to us and repaired properly.
Before the work took place, we were quite anxious that a portion of our back patio needed to be dismantled in order to provide sufficient space for digging, but we were very impressed with how careful the City Wide team was in removing any boards and joists from the structure. Once the project was completed, they did their best to to reassemble the jigsaw puzzle of planks that made up that section of the deck and they refastened the joists using brackets so that everything was reasonably secured.
Another factor that led to our decision to go with the City Wide Group was the fact that the company exclusively uses the relatively more expensive material of Blueskin to seal off foundations as opposed to Aquablok sealant or tar, which tend to be used by the vast majority of contractors. Despite the higher cost of Blueskin, the overall price for the project was almost the same as any other quote that we had tendered from other companies.
Finally, we can confirm that the project was successful, as our basement has been dry as a bone and this is in one of the wettest fall seasons that we have seen for a long time in Toronto. Since the work was completed around mid-October, there have been at least 20 days of rain, some of which saw solid rain showers that went on for well over 24 hours. In fact, within a week after the waterproofing, we could immediately tell that our basement was dryer not only because the air was less moist, but, more importantly, because the watermarks and stains that we could once see under the tiles and grout in our basement washroom or under some sections of carpeting had almost disappeared. As a result of the success of the project, we were finally able to move on to upgrading the flooring of our basement.
If you are ever dealing with basement leaks or flooding, we would strongly recommend that you go with City Wide Group above all other options in the GTA. We are confident that their staff's level of professionalism and expertise is unparalleled, and the caliber of their customer service really stands out as a diamond in the rough.
