Why Robie’s The Boss

A problem: when we get rain — a lot of rain, as in several inches per hour — water seeps into two of our back bedrooms.

When the neighbors resodded their yard two years back, they altered the slope of our front lawns. Rainwater used to flow out to the street; now, any rain falling into their yard flows back across their lawn and into ours. This deluge quickly overwhelms our drainage system; in no time, a lake of muddy, dirty water gathers alongside our home.

We called seven contractors to get bids on the ditch-digging, pipe-laying, and drain installation required to correct the problem. All agreed to come take a look; ultimately, only five showed up … and only two of those ever even bothered to submit the bids they promised.

Another problem: one bid was for $1500 … and the other for more than twice that much.

With no basis for comparison, it was almost impossible to gauge whether one bid was far too low or whether the other was far too high. Clyde, especially, suspected the $1500 solution was a quick fix that wouldn’t stand the test of time.

Yet another problem: with contractors in Jackson, MS, apparently doing all the business they can handle, we couldn’t get anyone to call us back to schedule a third bid.

Our solution came from an unlikely source: the back of a Winn Dixie receipt. There, we saw an ad from a company called Structural Solutions. While they focus on foundation work, the ad also referenced their drainage work. At first, I was hesitant about choosing a contractor off the back of a grocery receipt; later, though, a realtor friend mentioned the same company as a good choice.

Robie, the owner, responded quickly, came out the next morning, and passed me the estimate — the highest yet — during that same visit. While expensive, we felt the proposal was the most likely to fix the problem once and for all.

(Note to other folks in Jackson: another of the contractors was Michael Bankston at MS Foundation Repair Specialists. They called us several times after they made their initial bid to ask if we had made a decision yet. When I finally said, “We’ve chosen another contractor,” the woman on the phone said, “You should have called us first! We would have lowered our bid!”

Sometimes, of course, it’s not about price — we actually chose contractor with the highest proposal! Meantime: if you ever get a bid from Michael, you might keep in mind that those numbers on his proposal may be more flexible than they appear.)

The work on our yard wrapped up yesterday. A new problem: the solution didn’t seem to match the one described in Structural Solutions’ proposal. Instead of removing earth to create a slope down to the new drains, the crew piled dirt against the side of our home to create a grade — not good. With some trepidation, I called Robie this morning and asked him to evaluate whether or not he felt the work done had implemented the plan we’d created together.

I was not in a good bargaining position. I’d already written the final check. Clyde, especially, was concerned that the contractor’s approach would be to justify the work and downplay the unfortunate, but necessary, solution: digging everything up and starting from scratch.

Robie was at my house thirty minutes after we spoke on the phone. He took one look at the work and said, “That’s not right.” He got down on hands and knees, dug around in the pile of dirt, and noted, “I told the crew to make a grade from the foundation slab down to the drains. Piling dirt against your house like this covers the weepholes, which will just create more problems.”

He shook his head and sighed. “We gotta do this over.” He took additional measurements, detailed how the new solution would work, and shook my hand. “We’ll be back next week.”

I was surprised and impressed and relieved.

A pessimist would point out the work is yet to be done … but everything about Robie tells me he’s a man of his word. When the work’s complete, I’ll update you and let you know if my gut feeling — that Robie’s the kind of owner who values and protects his company’s reputation — turns out to be right.