Traditional sump pumps, drain tiles, French drains, dehumidifiers and wall systems remain the primary conventional tools of the trade, although some innovative players in the game are introducing new concepts to create better return on a homeowner’s investment.
While many have seen the move as a logical response to market demand, and have experienced the expected rewards of having responded to the market, others have had some surprises along the way. For Elk River, Minnesota-based Abfalter Brothers Concrete, the foray into waterproofing was profitable, but the profit came at a price.
“You don’t get any referrals if you step on somebody’s toes,” says company president Gib Abfalter, explaining that waterproofing contractors who might have otherwise gotten work from Abfalter projects didn’t take kindly to Abfalter absorbing all that work for itself.
Abfalter Brothers, which started operating in 1981, began doing waterproofing shortly after it started pouring concrete walls, and made good money doing it. But Gib Abfalter says he had to find a way to benefit from the demand for waterproofing without antagonizing important referral sources. The solution was to sell the waterproofing operation to Minnesota Waterproofing, which gets the opportunity to subcontract on any Abfalter project that will involve waterproofing.
“The product we were putting out was done right, and we were able to utilize being out on the job site anyway,” Abfalter says. “When we finished waterproofing, those guys just became part of the stripping crew. The negative is that we were always having to have someone reliable and good to make sure the job was done right.” Whether concrete contractors are doing their own waterproofing or subbing it out, some point to the need for better coordination among all members of a project team to ensure that waterproofing applications do not go to waste. Clark Campbell, president, Atlanta-based Absolute Waterproofing Solutions, says work done after the initial waterproofing sometimes works against the long-term effectiveness of the effort.
“I can go in and waterproof a foundation,” Campbell says, “but if the mason doesn’t do his job after me, and if the framer doesn’t do his job, and we don’t all work together, that basement can leak.” Campbell says contractors need to exercise more oversight to ensure the effectiveness of all project elements—or waterproofing will often suffer.
“I can go in and work with that foundation wall, and that foundation wall will not leak,” Campbell says. “But the basement might leak because of another part of the total equation. I see contractors who don’t oversee the cooperation of the subcontractors. One thing I see is that everything the waterproofing contractor does in the very first stages of the job gets all covered up, like pipes that are supposed to have daylight in them so water can flow through them. There isn’t enough follow-up in the latter stages of the construction.”
Marketing Priorities
Rocky Mount, Virginia-based Procon Inc., a five-year-old concrete contractor, began offering waterproofing about two-and-a-half years ago in an attempt to become a full-service solution provider. In addition to offering waterproofing on foundation work, Procon has chosen to aggressively market the service on its own to individual homeowners.
“We do market waterproofing separately,” says office manager Sarah Long. “Obviously we do it all together, but we mail out waterproofing brochures with samples to a lot of homeowners, as well as builders who don’t have a whole package.”
Procon has also produced a television spot promoting its waterproofing services, and is now working on strategies for buying media time and airing the spot.
Procon is only getting waterproofing work on about 20 percent of its new foundation jobs, which explains in part the marketing initiative, but Long still says the foray into waterproofing is meeting the business objectives that led the company to initiate it.
Campbell believes that many concrete contractors who move into waterproofing need to be careful about the terms they use—and the promises they seem to be making—to consumers, especially when it comes to warranties.
“We will go in and retrofit a drainage system to an existing home,” Campbell says. “It’s not uncommon for contractors to offer lifetime warranties with that. They’ve heard this so much that it becomes an unrealistic expectation. There’s no such thing as a lifetime warranty. If they think it’s going to be a 100-year warranty, that’s just not realistic. It’s either the lifetime of the contractor that installed it or of the home, but it’s such a vague term.”
Anyone using a concrete contractor to do waterproofing work should test the contractor, says Campbell. “If they’re just adding it in as a way to sell their concrete foundation, and it’s an afterthought, then a contractor needs to say, ‘OK, what is your warranty? Who’s in charge of your warranty program in your office? What are your warranty procedures?’” he says. “Then a contractor will know whether a foundation contractor is a true waterproofing contractor, or if this is just something they’re trying to throw in there to get the concrete work.”
New Thinking
To Steve Andras, president of Westport, Massachusetts-based Pioneer Basement Waterproofing, the importance of waterproofing goes beyond the integrity of structures and goes straight to the health of those occupying the home.
“Forty percent of the air you breathe on the first floor comes from the basement,” Andras says. “So the healthier you can make your basement, the healthier you can be on the first and second floors. That’s why we’re focused on making the basement a healthy environment so people can go down there and utilize it, and at the same time make their family healthier.”
Andras believes too many people are undertaking to remodel their basements without recognizing that it is a different environment.
“They’re going in and remodeling as if they’re remodeling the first floor,” Andras says. “Because it’s a damp environment, mold can grow and cause problems, so we’re educating people to use non-organic materials.”
Pioneer is also seeking to impact the market through its establishment of Grate Products – a year-old venture that is designed to integrate various products to create an overall healthier basement environment. The products include a sump liner, a sub floor drainage system, a bulkhead air-resistant floor drain and various accessories.
Andras says he has invested more than $1 million developing the products, and is now conducting manufacturing operations to produce them, while lining up contractors who need to become qualified to sell and install them. Most of the marketing, however, is directly to homeowners.
“We have a system that now has drain system support,” Andras says. “The poured walls can be cleaned out and maintained now, which is something people are afraid to do. They don’t have the confidence they can do it because, if the drains have a clog, they’re going to mess everything up.” He expects it will take time for the $1 million investment to pay for itself, but is already seeing some return in the form of satisfied customers. He is not, at present, doing much work with contractors—but if more contractors find that the pros of getting into waterproofing outweigh the cons, perhaps that will change as well.