I gave them a call and talked to a couple different people, but they quickly came out and assessed the situation. The cost numbers that were thrown out were a bit much, but winter was coming really soon and we figured once it's taken care of, we'd be better off. Clint was the man in charge and he gave us all the scenarios, if they had to dig into just our yard, or into the cul-de-sac.
Ultimately, I'm sure there are other contractors out there, but I'm glad I went with these guys. They're local, honest, and up front about the process so you feel included every step of the way.
Now here's where I was impressed with their being upfront about my options. Rather than give me the doom and gloom option of only having to dig into the cul-de-sac and costing way more than we budgeted for, as well as get the city involved, he saw a more affordable option. It was to dig under our driveway (leaving it intact) and boring into a manhole. The only caveat was that the city wasn't too keen on doing that anymore, but they said they'd make some calls and let us know. Nice to know that there are companies out there that won't just screw you over with the most expensive option.
Inside of a week, we had flags and spray paint on the lawn indicating where the utilities were and the proposed dig sites. My wife and I were excited to see one was by the manhole, but the other led into the center of the cul-de-sac, the more expensive option, yikes! A couple days later, my wife noticed their trucks and equipment outside, and they were coming toward the house with a mini-excavator. I went out and asked what was going on and apparently they were ready to start work before I had a written estimate! (I'll explain their reasoning later) I had them hold off until I heard from their boss (roughly 20 minutes later on the phone), who explained that they were going to bore into the manhole instead of the cul-de-sac so we were happy about that. I just wanted it done, so I gave the go ahead.
Left a bunch of junk in the neighborhood. Drove on people's lawns. And blocked traffic on a dead end street without any notice.
After a day and a half of work, Clint flagged me down and gave me the fantastic news that hooking up our new pipe to the existing pipe in the cul-de-sac was going to work out just fine, they just couldn't see beyond the tree root so they thought they'd have to go another way. This meant not having to bore into the manhole, thus saving us a couple thousand dollars! I was ecstatic because usually when the foreman flags you down, it's not good news, but this time, we lucked out.
They leave job sites with out cleaning up after themselves. Leaving neighboring homes to clean up after them.
I get it, they're trying to do a job. I'm also trying to do my job, and I can get to it when the street is blocked with cement trucks.
Being in an older home, you accept the challenges of upgrades and necessary repairs that come as the years go by. As far as sewer repairs go, that's completely out of my wheelhouse. Since we moved in to our home, we've had a couple sewer backups that were finally solved by using 1 ply toilet paper. Not the most comfortable, but it's better than clearing out a clog every six months. Any way, we had a routine checkup and saw there was a tree root that had collapsed the pipe. I asked the drain guys who they work with and they recommended Key Contracting.
*As far as cleaning up once they’re finished, I did have to call to make sure they’d come and collect the brush and branches, and it was done inside of a week, no complaints here.
All in all, the work took a couple days and my yard is a mess with tread tracks and some filled in holes, but it was explained very clearly that was going to be the case. Having this done in October, they were able to beat the snowfall, so that was preferable for them. Another plus, was they took out some dead bushes for me since they were so close to were they were digging, my wife was excited about that.
In the end, there really was just one hiccup along the way, which was not being notified they were going to start prior to getting an estimate. When I inquired about the estimate, rather than a traditional one, I was given a hard number that they wouldn't exceed. Sure that sounds bad, but it was the same number the foreman had guesstimated the cost would be around. The really good news, the grand total was about 1/3 less the hard number.
Key Contracting Inc is a US General Contractor based in West Fargo, North Dakota. Key Contracting Inc is located at 245 7th Ave NE, West Fargo, ND 58078, USA.
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