It was one week ago that AmericanDry Basement System, Inc. (AKA A.D.B.S., Inc) finished the water proofing of our basement. Tonight will be a good test of their system, as we have 12-14 inches of snow on the ground, temperatures are expected to rise through the night, we have so far received about 3/4 of an inch of rain and we are to get 1-2 more inches of rain. If ever there were a “Perfect Basement Flooding Storm” this is it.
As of 7 pm, both pumps were cycling on and off, with pump number one running once every 1 1/2 minutes and pump number two running once every 10-15 minutes.
1:00 am Update: Heavy Rain. Pump one is running once every 30 seconds, pump two is still running occasionally.
4:10 am Update: Weather Radio goes off, National Weather Service has issued a flood warning for the Esopus Creek, well north of here. This is normally the first place to flood, but is not a good sign of things to come. Still raining heavily.
5:52 am Update: High water alarm for pump one. The pump is running full time and water is still getting higher in the pit. Pump number two is running about once a minute. Water stains noted in some of the floor and wall cracks. Overall basement floor remains dry. Deployed third pump (small submersible) and cleared snow and ice from surface drains on the patio area. Camera Battery dead.
Sump pump pit one, pump running all out and not keeping up with incoming water. The capacity on this pump is 2220 gallons per hour.
Water flowing into sump pit two. This pump is keeping up with the incoming water, capacity on this pump is about 2000 gallons per hour due to the larger friction head.
6:34 am Update: Water is shooting from wall cracks in outside basement stairwell. Work harder to clear patio drains, about 6 inches of water/snow/ice on patio.
7:44 am Update: Third pump is doing the trick. Water level in sump pump pit one is dropping slowly. I will call American Dry Basement and tell them we need a bigger pump for this pit. The pump in pit two is working great. Throughout, no water on the basement floor. Because the high water alarm woke me up, I was able to avoid any flooding (at least so far)
Sump pump pit one with two pumps running.
This is the water that would have been in my basement, had it not been pumped out of the ground first.
12:44 pm Update: Mixed results from calling American Dry Basement Systems, Inc. First, there was no one to take my call so I had to leave a message. When they did call back, I was told how to deactivate the high water alarm, which I had already done. I told them how the water was about to come over the top of the sump and we need a bigger pump. Their response, the Zoeller M53 pump is the only model they sell. That’s fine, it is just a little under rated for the job. Zoeller makes an M98 pump, which looks perfect. I will call them again today and re-enforce my point that we need a bigger pump. Stay tuned.
Of course, I saved them a service call by dropping the second pump in the sump and keeping the water down. Perhaps next time I should let the water run out on the basement floor and make them come out and fix it.
Conclusion: The ABDS system does work, however, it is a little expensive. Negotiate hard and don’t fall for any of the fancy wiz bang clap trap that the sales guy might spout. It is a under slab french drain system with a pump, pure and simple. Materials probably ran about $500-600 or so. The labor is intense.
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Hope they hold! Good luck tonight.
Sounds like you need to tackle those footer drains this summer. Seems like there is a whole lot of water right outside those walls just waiting to get in.
That is amazing! Thankfully I’ve never had to worry about overflow for my sump pump. Did they use a concrete waterproofer on the walls? What kind?
Ethan, They used a mixture of KIM and portland cement.
Looks like you had a great weather event to test the system. It’s actually a good thing it happened so soon afterwards, I think you’ll get a better response from them because of that.
Do you have gutters on the house?
Todd, yes we put gutters on the house two years ago. This has been an ongoing project. The basement contractor thought there is a spring under our basement floor which has become more active in recent years because the above average rain fall.
Paul – Been reading your comments on this blog. We have a similar problem in our basement as well. It is so stressful and pumping and vacuuming is getting old. Did you get a response from ADBS? Did they replace the first pump with a larger pump? Do you recommend such a system? How did you make out with the most recent storm (03/07 – 03/08/08)? Hope your basement was dry! We someday feel this problem will never be resolved.
Erica,
I will say it can get depressing seeing water in the basement over and over again.
The ABDS people have so far not responded to my request for a larger pump. The M53 is the only pump they sell. Over the weekend we did fine, the pumps ran a lot, but there was no water on the basement floor. We received about 3 inches of rain, plus another 2 inches from snow melt, so it was a significant storm. Several of our neighbor’s basements flooded, which does not normally happen.
I think the ABDS approach is good and they certainly earned there money on the installation work. We will have to see if we come close to flooding again with the installed pumps.
Paul – I am glad to hear that your basement was dry this past weekend. We had to pump, but we managed to keep the water away from our water heater and furnace. Water can be strange, and it seems each time we get water, it creates a new place for it to come in next time! I hope your system continues to work for you. Thanks for responding.
Hi Paul,
I’m considering ADBS & found your blog helpful. They came to my house gave me one price then offered me a lower price ($2700 lower) if I was willing to commit quickly as part of a commercial last minute fill in. They followed up a month later with a “higher up” person who was able to drop the price even more (another $2700). It is now about half of the very original price. I liked both reps that came out. And their system seems to make sense. I am very interested in your experiences since March and if you would recommend them at this time. Thanks for taking the time ot read and answer my email. Most sincerely, Bill
Hi Bill,
You must have had the same sales guy we did. He did the song and dance about the commercial last minute fill in, bla bla bla. In the end, they came down to around half of their original price, which still seemed like a lot, until they showed up and did the work. It was a lot of work and I feel like we got our money’s worth.
As far as the system goes, it is a good system. They made a big fuss about never flooding again, it thus far it has not. We had a second very good storm in April with about 8 inches of rain in 12 hours, both of our pumps ran a lot, but, no water made its way up onto the floor.
I recommend you bargain hard for the lowest price possible, then go for it.
I have the same problem, pump not able to handle the amount of water comming in. I how ever only have one pump. The response from ADBS is I will have to pay another 1,500.00 for a larger 1/2 hp pump. If I want another pump in the basket it will cost me 1,300.00. The guarantee that the basement won’t leak…well its just print on a contract. The guarantee does not hold water!
I must say ,after coming across this blog,I feel the need to put my 2 cents in.I have had my entire basement waterproofed by A.D.B.S and have no regrets.I have had this for about 2 years .What some of you are saying about the commercial “song and dance”.That maybe so,but a sales guy is a sales guy,what about when you bought your car or your house ? does’nt it all sound the same? I do not regret going with this company, cant say no problems at all,small issues, that is no fault of anyones,that were tended to promptly.I have a relative right down the road with somebody elses system and lets just say ,they are not nearly as satisfied as we are( their not satisfied at all).I would also like to add that I also did plenty of research before chosing which company to go with and not 1 company was 100% flawless.
What it comes down to is always this; would I recommend this company to my 74 year old mother? Short answer, for the final negotiated price, yes, just be careful. It is a good system and it works well. I don’t regret going with this company or installing this system. I have yet to test the no flooding guarantee because our basement has not flooded yet.
Basically, it took three guys all of two+ days to get this system installed. I would estimate 65-70 man hours, plus material, plus insurance, etc, etc. The price we paid was about 1/2 the original price quoted. As I said before, I recommend that you bargain hard.
Why didn’t I see this blog sooner. I had my system by ADBS put in just before the big flood of April, 07. The water in my basement rose about four feet overnite. I started calling them the night of the flood thinking that a service like theirs had an emergency number. No such thing existed. I called a couple of times after 9AM–no one answered. When I finally got the someone to answer, he was upset with me for calling more than once. They didn’t come for weeks. I kept calling and the woman who answers finally sent me two guys who didn’t speak much english and who come from countries where homes don’t have sump pumps ( I asked-I speak the language). They saw the standing water and seemed very sad that this was happening to me. They put in a new pump and kept assuring me it was a new pump. Funny, I had assumed that it would be a new pump. In time little by little I got rid of the water with pails and mops etc. But the NEW pump kept failing the mickey mouse alarm wouldn’t stop screeching and I keep getting flooded in the same area of the cellar. This has been going on for a very long time. I’m dreading that a mold problem will surface and impact my home and my 25 year investment in it. Now I have 2 acres of snow about to melt big time and I go down to check the pump and see what’s happening. The water is up near the top soon to flood AGAIN. I call them, the same woman answers. she actually says ” I don’t know if ‘he’ll’ send someone out– but I’ll tell him. No one comes, ever, and I have to call a plumber when the the water overflows. Now I have a new pump and a brand new big bill for pump and labor on a Sunday. It seems the men or married women who have written to this blog have been treated better that me, I am a woman alone and easy to take advantage of. Judging from the blog that precedes mine I got taken to the cleaners on top of everything else. I am now going to proceed legally. Wish me luck. God bless America.
Hi Ella, sorry for your troubles. Good luck with everything, I am not a lawyer but sounds like you might have a case. Let me know how it turns out.
I was wondering where you are from. We just contracted with them, and as you stated, had to negotiate hard. I got 3 quotes from 3 different companies all about the same price. The ADBS seemed to be enginered better than the other two. I don’t think my water promlem was as bad as yours appears but still very annoying come spring. I hope I’m making the right move.
Steve, We live in Ulster county. In all fairness to American Dry Basement, the system does work. We have had it for 1 year now and there has been no water on the basement floor, the incident described in this post is the closest it ever came. My system works well.
hey there- i just met with a rep from ctbasement and they want 11k to waterproof my basement. i have ADBS coming this afternoon. help!
Hey Mary,
First, let me say the ADBS (system) works. This last week we have received about 10 inches of rain, the basement is dry. That is the good part. Second, you have to bargain hard to get the price down. 11k is too much, 10k is too much, 9k is too much, 8k is getting closer… you get the idea.
i used to work for adbs in there telemarketing room. There are no big sales, its just a pitch to see if they can get you to buy faster. All prices from every inspector is gonna differ by how much commission they want to make off of you. Your best bet is you explain to them you don’t want them to come out 4 times and u want the best price 1st and if u get a call from one of them trying to lower price you will do business somewhere else. Also to warn they jack up the price the 1st time they are there so the second time they come out its still higher then wat it cost
I have a 180 degree opposite problem. Since I travel alot I worry about coming home to a flooded house. Insurance company has said I live in a flood plain area… However I have not seen that.
My basement is dry. My sump has never turned on in the last year or so (I have cobwebs in my sump well and in the outlet pipes).
Since I have a dry basement any suggestions on how to trigger a pump remotely? I can manually raise the float, which turns the pump on, however I am not at home all of the time to turn on the pump.
How about any web enabled alarms?
Does such a thing exist for sumps?
I just had ADBS install the waterproofing basement system. Job was completed on Wednesday. We had less than 1 inch of rain today (less than 1 week since the installation), and there’s water spots on the basement floor. Strangely, there isn’t enough water in the sump pumps to have them go on. I don’t know what the problem could be. I left a message at ADBS office, but haven’t heard back yet.
I called again this morning, and reached someone in the office. They are having their product manager come out this afternoon. I will keep everyone posted on what happens next.
I must say that ADBS works .I had alarms going off at 2and 3oclock in the morning, called the office kind of slow at first but when they came
it was taken care of. Showed and explained what the problem was.I call it a job well done
The A.D.B.S. system does work. The owner works very hard to ensure every customer gets treated fairly, unfortunatly it is impossible to watch every salesman in the field. Also remember you are not only paying for materials and labor, you are also paying for the tremendous cost behind advertising as well as insurance and a large office staff, rent and the list goes on and on. In this day and age there are quite a few companys that do the same exact system, however, so if you are not happy with one you may try mid atlantic waterproofing, basement solutions, or action basement solutions, they are just a few i have researched.