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Tip: Joel E. Wihebrink tells the story of a project that was blamed for flooding problems that came from another source. This unfortunate instance of bad timing is a reminder that sometimes it is a good idea to walk away from a project if your site evaluation reveals potential nonlandscaping-related difficulties.

Joel E. Wihebrink, IAH, owner of Wihebrink Landscape Management in Warsaw, Indiana, has a “don’t” tip for readers. Last season, his company completed a landscape renovation on a house that was built in the late 1940s. The project turned out as expected. The crew removed all the current plant material that was at least 30 years old and installed a new, updated landscape with a lot of seasonal color and contemporary plant material. As Wihebrink relates, “The homeowner was extremely happy with the look of his new landscape.”

Shortly after the landscape renovation was completed, a storm system dropped more than six inches of rain in a short period of time. The next day, Wihebrink received a call from the homeowner, who reported that water was getting into his basement. “He thought it was our fault, claiming that the new beds were sloping toward the house, thus causing all the water to run toward the foundation and into the basement,” says Wihebrink. “The beds were not sloping toward the house; they sloped away.”

The house was built in the late 40s or early 50s. All the downspouts ran into a tile that drained somewhere off the property. The clay tile was installed at the time the house was built. There were also several large, mature trees on and around the property. Wihebrink asked a concrete company that builds foundations from either block or poured walls to take a look at the house and property.

“As soon as we arrived on the property, the company representative noticed two things,” Wihebrink recalls. “The house was on a block foundation, and the drainage tile was made of clay. He told me without any uncertainty that the tile was broken and that water coming off the roof into the downspouts was not draining properly. The tile was full of water, and during a heavy rain, the downspouts would be full as well. He also said that there is no way that the landscape renovation we performed could ever cause a basement to flood.”

To make the customer feel better and rule out the landscape renovation project as the source of the water getting into the basement, Wihebrink revisited the property. He removed all the landscape stone and fabric, added materials to ensure the customer that, in fact, the beds sloped away from the house, and, then, replaced the fabric and stone. The customer was satisfied with the noticeable slope and thought it would help. About two weeks later, the area received another significant rainfall, and again water entered the basement.

This time, the customer called in someone to determine if the tile was functioning properly. He learned that the tile was broken in several places and had tree root damage as well. The tile damage and the landscape renovation project just happened to be bad timing. The customer apologized for his actions and harsh words to Wihebrink and his crew.

End of story? Not totally. Just last week a customer asked Wihebrink to replace a concrete patio with a new brick-paver patio. “The customer was getting water into his basement and thought a new paver patio that sloped away from the house would solve the problem,” says Wihebrink. “We quoted the new patio but informed the customer that we cannot be held responsible if water continues to get into the basement. We even put a clause to that effect into the contract.”

After Wihebrink delivered the proposal, the customer tried to “nickel and dime” the price of the project. Giving the entire project more thought, Wihebrink decided to walk away from this one. He felt he was backing his company into another basement flooding situation that someone eventually would want him to pay for.

Says Wihebrink, “I hope someone else can learn from what we went through. Situations like this are neither pleasant nor good for word-of-mouth referrals.”

By Joel E. Wihebrink
Wihebrink Landscape Management
Warsaw, IN
jhwihebrink@hotmail.com
(as told to Rod Dickens, ALCA Contributing Writer)