Do Your Research: How To Find The Best Basement Repair Companies Near You

Resting on the shore of Lake Erie, Cleveland sees a lot of lake effect precipitation. As a result, locals often need to waterproof their basements to retain the value of their homes and keep their belongings dry.

When looking for a basement repair company, though, what factors should you keep an eye out for?

Basement Repair Companies vs. Basement Repair Contractors

Before you get started, you’ll need to decide whether you want to work with a contractor or a basement repair company. On one hand, basement repair companies are vast and frequently have years of experience backing up their waterproofing solutions. These companies will be able to quickly provide you with the repairs you need to reclaim your home’s lost value. However, basement repair companies are frequently unable to negotiate their repair costs.

Comparatively, basement repair contractors will be able to match their peers’ prices a little more easily. In exchange, you may have to work on a slower schedule, and your contractor may have fewer tools at their disposal.

No one solution is better than the other here. Even so, you’ll need to choose early on which avenue you want to take, as doing so will dictate the rest of your research process.

Licensing

Once you’ve decided what kind of basement repair entity you want to work with, it’s time to look for the appropriate licensing. The last thing you want to do is sign on to work with someone who hasn’t been licensed by the state or a trade school to work on your basement. Most basement repair businesses and contractors will not only list their licenses but any certifications and education they may have on their websites. If you can’t find this information, you’re free to reach out to the party in question to ask more about their qualifications. If they can’t give you any, it’ll be time to move on to your next candidate.

Experience

Experience is a tricky factor to consider when researching potential basement repair partners. On one hand, decades of experience will allow your partnered party to quickly and efficiently fix a leak in your basement. On the other hand, if you want to work with a newer organization – one which may have lower prices than others in the industry – you’ll have to sacrifice experience for cost-efficiency.

In these situations, the value of experience is entirely up to you. It is still a factor you’ll need to consider, however, before committing to a partnership.

Reviews

You can always quantify an entity’s listed experience by looking at its consumer and employee reviews. It’s best to head over to a third-party platform to do so, as both established businesses and contractors alike are going to share the best reviews on their websites. That said, take every review you read with a grain of salt. You never know when a reviewer had a bad experience or is just in the middle of a bad day.

Putting their subjective nature aside, you’ll still be able to learn more about a business’s customer service reputation by tracking review trends. Any basement repair entity that has more negative reviews than positive reviews should be approached with trepidation.

Budget and Pricing Flexibility

You might think that budget and pricing deserves a higher spot on the list of factors you want to consider when shopping for a contractor or business to work with. While budget and pricing flexibility are both important, you do need to consider other factors, like licensing and reviews, before you make it to this point.

Once you have a little more information about your preferred contractors under your belt, it’s time to start gathering free quotes. Most contractors and waterproofing businesses will make it easy for you to receive a free quote. Pull these together in an Excel document or something similar to see which entity will give you the best deal for the work you need. If you want to work with someone whose prices are on the high end, you can bring this sheet to negotiations with you. Contractors are able to be more flexible with their prices than big businesses, but you are still within your rights to ask that your partner of choice to match the lowest price in the industry. You might not get your way, but it’s always nice to know that you have the option available to you.

Installation Schedule

Once you’ve determined how much you should expect to pay for your basement’s waterproofing, it’s time to think about the schedule. When do you need your basement waterproofed? Most contractors will be able to provide you with an estimate as to how much time your waterproofing installation will take. While these estimates can never entirely account for any mishaps or unexpected events that may occur during the process, they should still help you determine whether or not you’re interested in working on that particular party’s schedule.

Available Warranties

Last but not least, check with your interested parties to see which of them have warranties available on their work. Some may argue that the need for a warranty indicates insecurity in a waterproofing job. This is not the case. A contractor or basement repair business that offers you a warranty on their work is both financially stable enough to correct their faults and dedicated to ensuring that their work lasts for a long time. You want that kind of care to go into your basement repair because it’ll keep you in the black and your belongings dry for longer.

Don’t let your basement repair company research overwhelm you. When you keep an eye out for the aforementioned key features, the process will be faster and your results will be more rewarding.