Do you remember when I discovered my backyard leaking water into my Jersey City basement on New Year's Eve?
Water was pouring in through the closed-off hatch (maybe an old coal chute? hard to say) and through cracks in the wall nearby. I had a hard time finding anyone to deal with it. I called the landscapers in town—the best-known of them sent over a guy who showed up with alcohol on his breath, then kept saying he'd send me an estimate.
He never did.
Another one showed up and seemed efficient, and offered me the unexpected price of $19,000 to redo my yard. It's about 13.5 feet by about 10 feet, so I was stunned. When I said that was vastly over my budget, she said maybe it would be less and she'd send her builder over to give her a price.
She never did.
Everyone else I contacted either ignored me or told me they didn't really do that kind of work. Apparently, my basement is fine—it has the little trenches, sump pump, and waterproofing it needs and the problem was how the water came off the roof and funneled up against the house.
Eventually, I google-fooed the name of the $19k woman's builder, and he came by and blocked up the hatch into my basement for a totally reasonable fee in the hundreds rather than thousands.
Then he fixed my yard for a totally reasonable fee. He showed up early, got the downstairs key from the woman who stays there once a month, charmed the nuns next door into unlocking their driveway gate, and work proceeded.
He and his team did a beautiful job. I look forward to putting up the patio umbrella in the summer and enjoying coffee in my yard.
If the backyard wildlife will have me, I mean.
Water was pouring in through the closed-off hatch (maybe an old coal chute? hard to say) and through cracks in the wall nearby. I had a hard time finding anyone to deal with it. I called the landscapers in town—the best-known of them sent over a guy who showed up with alcohol on his breath, then kept saying he'd send me an estimate.
He never did.
Another one showed up and seemed efficient, and offered me the unexpected price of $19,000 to redo my yard. It's about 13.5 feet by about 10 feet, so I was stunned. When I said that was vastly over my budget, she said maybe it would be less and she'd send her builder over to give her a price.
She never did.
Everyone else I contacted either ignored me or told me they didn't really do that kind of work. Apparently, my basement is fine—it has the little trenches, sump pump, and waterproofing it needs and the problem was how the water came off the roof and funneled up against the house.
Eventually, I google-fooed the name of the $19k woman's builder, and he came by and blocked up the hatch into my basement for a totally reasonable fee in the hundreds rather than thousands.
Then he fixed my yard for a totally reasonable fee. He showed up early, got the downstairs key from the woman who stays there once a month, charmed the nuns next door into unlocking their driveway gate, and work proceeded.
He and his team did a beautiful job. I look forward to putting up the patio umbrella in the summer and enjoying coffee in my yard.
If the backyard wildlife will have me, I mean.
1 comment:
That's much more reasonable and better done than you'd expect from the initial estimate.
And far better than anything from a contractor who shows up at a place with booze on his breath.
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