basement tanked, 20 year guarantee, now it's flooding again

lama_pdx

I'm so steamed right now!

Two years ago we had our basement tanked, to a cost of just over £4000. We're in a terrace house. Shortly ther there were some serious floods in our town, but our basement remained dry. We were thrilled.

Now the basement is flooding again. Our tanking/waterproofing service gave us a 20 year guarantee so we called them in to fix things.

Now they're saying that the problem is that our next-door neighbour needs to clean her drains. Once she does that they can fix the pump in our basement.

To me that's just the contractors saying that it's not their problem. I asked the contractors to put that in writing and they hemmed and hawed and said they probably could. We'll see if we get something.

Now we're on good terms with our neighbour but it's very likely that if we ask her to clean her drains she'll say, "No thanks, they're actually fine."

And then we'll be in the position of having spent £4000 on nothing.

I have half a mind to not even bother speaking with the neighbour but to take these contractors to small claims court right away. The guarantee says that the tanking will be good for 20 years, not that it will be good for 20 years only if surrounding neighbours keep their own drains to certain specifications or that any other conditions are met. What nonsense.

teneighty

What system of tanking did the contractor use? Cavity membrane or cementitious render etc?

ds1980

surely irrelevant. tell contractor that they need to address and quote your original contract wording about their guarantee. Tell them that if they have not come up with an amicable solution in x days taht you be pursuing the matter further.Their guarantee work should be covered under their insurance if they have any so find out who that is with as well.

put everything in writing and record all phone calls or correspondence.

anotherbaldrick

Something very screwy here ! What has the condition of next door neighbours drains got to do with your basement and drainage pump ?
If you have a sump which relieves the seepage into your basement and it has a pump out , the discharge should connect to your drainage outfall or at least elsewhere to your neighbours system.
The explanation given and expressed in the OP's post does not stack up . I would not accept the contractors explanation of the problem

southcoastrgi

do you have any idea of where the water is coming in ?
what's the pump for if it's been tanked or was it done just to prevent damp ?

BlueC

teneighty wrote: »

What system of tanking did the contractor use? Cavity membrane or cementitious render etc?

Given the OP mentions a pump I'd assume cavity drain membrane.

lama_pdx

Yes, it's a cavity drain membrane.

I've calmed down a bit now and have had another talk with the tanking man who came out. It's not that our neighbour has to clean her drains, there's evidently (in his observation) a major leak in her drains which is causing flooding into our basement and theirs. It's too much water for our pump to cope with.

The tanking man hasn't put this in writing yet. All I can do is put in my notes that I've asked for it in writing and he's refused. (In case it does end up in court.)

The neighbour in question has actually rented out her house. They are actually having a bit of flooding in their basement. We're on good terms with both tenants and the owner herself. I've had a talk with the neighbour and we've decided that I would arrange for someone to come and look at their drainage pipe with a snaking camera, then repair any leaks. Our plan at this stage is to go halfsies on the price. She'll leave it with me to arrange things since she lives out of town, and I can work out access with tenants.

Now I feel quite skeptical and grumpy about the whole thing. But after talking with my husband we decided we could go along and give the tanking people the benefit of the doubt in the first instance without taking the nuclear option.

Now, if the plumber we engage reports that there's no leak, I'm definitely getting that in writing!

Hintza

lama_pdx wrote: »

But after talking with my husband we decided we could go along and give the tanking people the benefit of the doubt in the first instance without taking the nuclear option.

Probably the best option. But if the drains don't sort the problem out add the cost of the plumber yo any action you take.

You have to assume at least early on that they aren't taking you for a ride.

teneighty

The cavity drain membrane systems are usually very good but a major leaking drain or waterpipe could overwhelm the system so investigating the drain is a sensible course of action.

Probably obvious but a simple 10 minute pressure test on the drain would tell you if it was leaking rather than paying out for a full camera survey.

lama_pdx

Thanks for the responses.

After I called around a bit, a local plumber suggested I call our water supply company in the first instance to investigate the source of the leak/flood. I hadn't thought of that!

So I called out [OurCounty] Water. They sent out two very affable young men who... did nothing. Well, one of them came down and took a photo and said he didn't think it was waste water, because the water was too clean and it seemed like a slow leak. It was like tap water. He thought it might be a supply pipe, or maybe our radiator (there's a newly-installed radiator against the wall) was leaking.

I thought, great, so... now they'll do something? But instead they went back out to their van, "called it in," and gave me a card saying someone else would call to investigate the source of the leak.

[OurCounty] water telephoned a couple of hours later and said that they would send someone out Wednesday morning to "take a sample." I was like, "Take a sample and... do anything else?" They said, "And of course figure out the source of the leak."

TL;DR: Several affable people involved. No one's actually done anything concrete to help, but they might.