Keystone Basement Systems, Inc

Was charged over $7000 to dry my basement. It is worse than ever. They installed a sump pump and battery system that has never come on, and therefore, wasn't needed. They charged me extra saying I needed a new foundation footer and installed french drains that have not fixed anything. There salesman was quite the con artist.

Jim Krall was excellent. We were time crunched to get the inspection completed in 2 days. He was very accommodating with his schedule and fit our house in. He had great communication skills and was readily available on his cell phone. He is very knowledgable and detail oriented, and takes his time explaining what is going on. He is punctual and arrived on time. He provided feedback/​inspection report in a timely fashion. He truly cares, he pointed out a critical issue with the sewer cap even though this was not why we consulted him for. Thank you Jim Krall!

They said they did engineering report, which they never showed me. Never emailed me photos of work being done during each phase. Showed me photos on cracked cell phone which i couldnt see very well. Then after rain storm the basement leaked after water proofing new basement wall they replaced/​waterprooofed. Huge puddles of water everywhere. Installed french drain outside house which they tied into old downspout pipe, which foreman of construction said might be clogged, thus making the french drain un– usable. Left debri dumped in backyard. Did not afix the basement window metal window well to house, took one of my basement metal house jacks made of steel which cost 106 dollars, which about 5 phone calls later i got back after threatening to make police report. They want to charge me 18,000 i dont even know if the french drain is at a correct angle. Also the outlet, if it works would be pouring water onto my back patio against the back of house. The original pipe goes out to the back yard grass, which they did not extend to and they only have to removed some small pavers and dig small trench. Its not like they are jackhammering cement, its only moving some small 12 inch cement pavers.

Description of the job:
Keystone installed carbon fiber /​epoxy foundation wall reinforcement straps on the walls of two adjacent properties. For one property they also demolished a poor condition finished wall. Prior to this work, two evaluation technicians visited the properties to provide observation and planning info. Throughout the process Keystone was available and helpful when responding to questions and changes in my intent and availability dates for the installation.
Summary of their work:
It went very well. A multi person team arrived promptly on the day of the installation. The guys were friendly, clean, and professional. The amount of time taken for the work and their cleanup/​footprint was very impressive. The foreman was responsive to calls before installation day and questions on the day of.
Overall I was very pleased with all of the team members that I interacted with. They were very available over the phone and in person on occasion. I would suggest a few things upfront, 1. if you are looking for a structural engineering evaluation of the home, I’d suggest going that route before contacting Keystone. 2. I wouldn’t skew their first impression by setting the context of work you think needs done. let them come, make observation and then determine a path for the work.
I’d recommend this company to friends and family.

Very professional, arrived on time, took extra time in explaining what is happening and how to address the issue. Tried contacting other companies and it was like pulling teeth to get an onsite visit. Keystone scheduled very quickly to accommodate our schedule.

I’ve only had my basement waterproofed for about 2 months now so I can’t really comment on the sustainability of the work done but I can certainly comment on the service we (didn’t) receive.
Everything seemed to be going along very well, our field agent was really nice and we placed our confidence in this company without going out for other bids. They worked with us on the pricing. We received our first bill and my husband and I were confused with the monthly payments etc. I emailed our field agent about it and heard nothing for 3 days. I decided to give him a call to make sure he got my email. He said he had and that he was working on it. he even went as far as to say «I just talked to my guy about 2 hours ago and it’s in the works»… because I had no prior issues I felt confident that my questions were being worked on.
It went another 2 or 3 days and I hadn’t heard anything back so I again emailed my field agent with no response. Yet again, I sent another email about a week later… no response. We were certainly getting antsy to have our bill explained as our first payment was coming up — we didn’t want to be late but we didn’t want to pay it if the bill was incorrect.
After many unanswered emails, I called Keystone and asked for the owner. Like most owners, he was unavailable so I left him a message. I gave that 2 days with no return call. I called Keystone again asking for the operations manager who wasn’t available so I left another message. Yet again, no return call. This phase repeated itself 3 or 4 times.
I had a simple question and couldn’t get ANYONE at Keystone to contact me to help me understand my bill. I turned them into the BBB and am still waiting to see the outcome. I get more respect from McDonald’s when my $ 5 order is wrong than I did spending over $ 8500 with this company.
Stay away!!! I can’t image what’s going to happen if something happens in my basement and I actually NEED someone to come out to repair it.
**Update**
As you can tell in Aarons response to my review, they aren’t addressing the concern, they keep going back to the financing. The review was in relation to the fact that no one told us to contact GE because no one would call us back from Keystone. I would have been happy to contact GE if someone would have told us to. It’s amazing how quickly people respond to your complaints when they’re public. I guess maybe I should have posted this review before calling them, someone MIGHT have called me back.

Two years ago the leak in my basement reached a point that was unbearable. I lost a lot of my possessions to mold and water damage.
I contacted multiple companies. I was most impressed by Keystone. The other companies seemed to present low price /​low quality options. Keystone presented the high quality option I was looking for. It should be noted Keystone was the second most expensive. When I made my apples to apples comparison list between all the proposals, Keystone’s approach made sense. They were the best value. This was a major reason for choosing them.
I was also the most impressed with their inspection. Most of the other companies didn’t take the time to look at everything. Aaron Stul from Keystone performed my inspection. He was the only person who looked under my work bench and in the garage. The other representatives missed these problem areas.
The work at my house was performed as advertised. The most impressive part was the dust free hammers. I assumed that the sales pitch about the work being «dust free» would not live up to expectations in real life. To my surprise it really did. The least impressive part was the noise. The equipment was very loud and I was forced to work at the library for 2 days.
When the work was done the basement was put back to normal and it was clean. I informed the supervisor (Tony) that I would not give my final judgment until after sufficient time and rain had past.
This afternoon I received a call from Aaron asking if I would share my experience. I told him yes as sufficient time had past (Two Years). I am pleased to report the basement is very dry.