You know you’ve got to get the problem fixed. Water has been gathering in small pools on your basement floor for weeks and there are water streaks cascading down from the windows. If this keeps up you’ll never be able to furnish your basement in to the media room you’ve always wanted.
After much deliberation and months of saving it is finally time to get your basement waterproofed. You know you’re making the right choice to get it done but you don’t know who to hire for the job. You scan the Internet but there are too many choices and you don’t know who to trust. Can they really stop the water from coming in? Will I really never have to get it redone?
If you choose the right waterproofing specialist, then the answer to both of those questions is yes. Vincent Boccia of Boccia Inc., a waterproofing and masonry company, has spent years successfully waterproofing homes and knows what to look for when hiring someone to do work in your basement.
According to Boccia one of the best tools any waterproofing specialist can have on their side is experience. With so many people going in and out of the business you want someone who has lasted the test of time. If the company has a website, than do your homework and browse it to see the type of work they do and how long they have been around. Has it been two years or 20? That should be a major deciding factor.
Don’t rely on online reviews, warns Boccia, because you never know the whole story or who is even writing the reviews. If you are interested in hiring a business that has only been in practice for a year, but that has 10 great reviews, can you be certain that it is not just the company’s own employees writing the reviews you see online boosting up their own egos? It is not a risk you should be willing to take.
You also have to take in to consideration the validity of the guarantees that a company offers. If they have only been around for a short time but are promising a lifetime guarantee than how can you be sure that if in 10 years something breaks they will even still be around to come to your home and do the repairs?
Boccia also recommends contacting your local Better Business Bureau to gather more information. You can see if the company or any particular specialists has had any major complaints filed against them as well as how many years they have been in business.
While it does not necessarily have to be a deal breaker, consider hiring a specialist who has obtained a degree in engineering because they will be the most knowledgeable. Becoming an excellent waterproofing specialist takes both time spent practicing the trade as well as time spent learning about the correct properties and formulas. The specialists coming into your home should be as educated as possible so that they can handle themselves accordingly and give you the best results, even if they are faced with a new or difficult dilemma.
