Martine Walker, A+. Would definitely recommend, all the way.

Classy trenches R us.

We have drainage issues in our house. The side of a cliff with the basement 1m into the ground. Water pools behind the house in a metre and a half of mud. Seriously, we dug it out and it is like a pond under the house now. It's chest high with clear water. You could keep those fish that live in caves in there... and we would love to. But it's making the lower level mouldy, which is no fun at all.

We went through virtually every local plumber that does drainage. From the budget guy in the back of the paper to the people with the slick websites who promise the world. We got quotes ranging from $15k to $42k for essentially the same scope of works. They all said 'dig down to the footing, waterproof the walls, then put an agi pipe along the base of the wall'. They all also said that their quote did not include any 'rock'; they all said that if they hit rock then costs would go berserk.

We all knew there was a ton of rock down there.

When asked about how the water would actually drain away (you know, how it doesn't flow uphill and all that super complicated stuff you'd expect plumbers to be all over), many had no answer. Some mentioned positive fall as the way the water would drain out and they went on a short list. But when asked how they would achieve positive fall when the bottom of the wall is flat they wouldn't have a clear answer. One guy tried to say that 'capillary action' would suck the water horizontally down the agi pipe. That one was my personal favourite.

Then Lucas came in with the only actual method that was going to work. His solution was to dig down to the footing of the building, just like all the other guys, but then jackhammer trenches into the stone the foundation is resting on, to make trenches below the footing. Then put the agi pipe in the trench. When they jackhammer the trench they cut it in with positive fall, so the water just flows down the trench.

Masterstroke. He's the guy. For sure.

It cost a touch more than the cheapest guy but only a few grand more. They were nowhere NEAR the guy trying to jack us for 42k.

Even when we hit the rock (almost immediately of course) and they had to have 6 guys down there with jackhammers for a week cutting a 0.5m x 12m canals a metre deep into the rock around the house, so they could then cut the trench in the bottom, the cost went up by 7k. Which is pretty good for 6 plumbers on jackhammers for a week. The dog guy would have hit us for another 20k for sure. The whole thing came in at only a bit over half what the dog was going to hit us for, and about the same as many quotes, even with the additional jackhammering.

The end result is that we have some crazy trenches in the rock around the basement. You could see the water draining down the trench before it was even finished (or rather flowing.... there's that much water), the agi pipe is barely needed.

The upshot? These guys make drains that actually work.

Approximate cost: $25000

All good baby. Went way beyond to repair and replace some ancient pipe that turned out to be broken and leaky, near our old hot water system he replaced. Other guys would have tacked on a fat extra bill, but Adam just fixed it for free and moved on. Simple stand up advice and quote, did the job quickly and professionally. Plumbers are often sketchy, but Adam does what he says he will do, then goes above to help where he can. A+

Approximate cost: $2700

Literally the worst haircut I have ever had. Was so bad I had to go elsewhere and get it repaired about a week later.

Approximate cost: $35