ComplaintsforDiSabatino Landscaping & Tree Service

• Initial Complaint

  04/30/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Index structure is an historic house in Wilmington, DE. This building has a basement water penetration problem that creates humid interior air and, thus, toxic mold growth. Evaluation of the outside landscape revealed that the soil was graded towards the house foundation and that the existing hardscape, such as the patios and walkways, had deteriorated and were also directing water towards the foundation. Surface water needed to be redirected away from the building foundation. DiSabatino Landscaping said they could do the job and they were hired to regrade the soil and rebuild the hardscape to International Residential Code standards for surface water drainage. A complex system was designed with outside engineering assistance that included raising the ground surface 6 inches, constructing drainage swales with underground water conduits below the swales and swale grates where water entered into the underground conduits. The conduits were tied into the city storm sewer system. Soil was to be graded away from the house to direct water into the swales. Hardscape was to be rebuilt so as to direct surface water away from the building foundation, as well. After the work was completed, water continued to penetrate the foundation but mostly at one foundation wall. Otherwise, water penetration diminished at all other foundation walls. Measurement of the new outside landscape grading revealed many of the grades were not at code but the worst errors were adjacent to the foundation wall with the ongoing water penetration. Inspection revealed several major construction errors. First, when decorative stones were removed from around the swale grates it was revealed that the 2 swale grates nearest the area of ongoing water penetration were above grade. One was 3 inches above grade and the other was one inch above grade. No surface water could enter the underground conduits in that problem area. Second, the adjacent patio was pitched towards the house meaning the new hardscape was directing water towards the foundation wall that continued to leak water into the basement. I called DiSabatino Landscaping about these problems. Mr. DiSabatino himself came over to evaluate along with the supervisor who had directed the work. Mr. DiSabatino’s response was dishonest. He blamed soil erosion for the above grade swale grates. There was no evidence of soil erosion. Also, the system was new. It would have taken a large amount of water over a long time to wash away 3 inches of surface soil. And why was there erosion only in one area? Besides these 2 grates, other swale grates were at grade. He agreed to regrade that area but that was months ago. Crickets since then… Worse, he denied the patio was a problem. His denial was self-serving. He and his worker admitted the patio was pitched toward the house, but he denied that was the reason water was still penetrating the foundation in that area. They blamed the water table. Why would the water table penetrate the slab only in one corner of the basement? Irrational logic except they had suggested I hire them to install a French drain and sump pump to remove the water from that corner. Oh, now I get it. I hired DiSabatino Landscaping because their online reviews were good. This was a complicated project and maybe it was too complicated for them. Nonetheless, they took the job and the job went badly. Honorable contractors stand behind their work. DiSabatino is not an honorable contractor.

  

  Business response

  06/29/2023

  Good Afternoon Mr. ********,

   

  I hope this email finds you well. I am sorry and disappointed that you felt the need to leave a negative review with the Better Business Bureau on the work that we performed. After our meeting to review the elevations to the drains, we utilized our laser to show you that all elevations were greater than 2% to all the drain boxes we installed. We discussed sending a crew back out to repair the settled soils.   We sent our crew leader, as promised out to regrade around the settled drain boxes to fix all the settled soil.

   

  In addition we created at no extra charge as promised a foundation drainage zones with impervious fabric and river jack and we redirected any runoff issues away from the house foundation.

  Customer response

  07/02/2023

  Better Business Bureau: I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to my complaint and have determined that this does not resolve my  issue.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below. **In order for the bureau to continue to assist you, you MUST provide your view on the matter or your complaint will be closed as answered. Their response does not address the area of concern. It only provides obfuscation. The complaint does not involve the elevations of the drains which were corrected as they assert. It involves the patio which they do not mention. The patio was supposed to pitch 2% away from the house. Instead it is pitched towards the house so it channels rainwater towards the house foundation contrary to code. That is, it is pitched in the opposite direction of that specified in the 2018 International Residential Code: R401.3 Drainage. "Impervious surfaces within 10 feet of the building foundation shall be sloped not less than 2% away from the building."  The patio is sloped towards the foundation creating basement water penetration. Regards, Complaint ID: 19999391    

  

  Business response

  10/04/2023

  We went out to Mr. ********* and took care of his issues

  We were under the impression that it would have been taken down. 

  Thank you

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩