Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Bergen County
Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Ep. # 60 From Family Business to Basement Savior: Jermaine Jeffries' Waterproofing Expertise and Expansion Plans
Discover the secrets of keeping your basement dry and your foundation strong with insights from Jermaine Jeffries, the seasoned owner of Jeffries Basement Waterproofing. With nearly 40 years of experience, Jermaine shares his journey from overcoming the industry's customer service pitfalls to running a thriving family business. Prepare to uncover essential waterproofing strategies like French drains and learn to spot signs of water intrusion, such as efflorescence, early. Jermaine also sheds light on how realtors and inspectors can be your allies in identifying potential issues before they spiral into costly disasters.
Our conversation with Jermaine takes a personal turn as he recounts the gratifying challenges of taking over the family business. The episode takes you behind the scenes of operating crews across New Jersey and the exciting plans to expand into North Jersey. You'll hear riveting stories about quick-thinking solutions that prevented basement catastrophes, emphasizing the importance of backup systems like generators and sump pumps.
Join us for this insightful discussion and don't forget to nominate your favorite local businesses for future episodes of the Good Neighbor Podcast!
Jeffries Basement Waterproofing
Jermaine Jeffries
(856) 417-1227
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Doug Drohan.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast coming to you live from Bergen County, new Jersey. Today we're joined by Jermaine Jeffries. Jermaine is the owner of the well. He has a waterproofing company. It's called Jeffries Basement Waterproofing and it's a good name. Considering what your name is and it's, I guess we could say you're a full-service basement waterproofing and foundation repair company. Is that correct? That's correct, nice. So where are you guys based out of?
Speaker 3:We have two different areas Cherry hill, hamilton, um, and now we're moving into to hackensack, so hackensack okay, okay, we're gonna cover the full state right, right.
Speaker 2:So when did you guys, when did you start your business?
Speaker 3:oh, we actually started back in 1984. My parents started, uh, they worked for they were like subcontractors for other companies and they were seeing how they were having issues like the bigger companies. They were having issues kind of not doing the customer the right way. So what they did is decided let's do it you know, honest way and go ahead and start our own company. So that's where we started back.
Speaker 2:Way back when, when it's been almost 40 years yeah, yeah wow, wow. So is it. Is it just you like? After your parents you took it over? Do you have any siblings that also work with you, or yep, my uh older sisters.
Speaker 3:They're also part of the part owners in the company.
Speaker 2:Nice nice yeah, you know, I I meet a lot of family-run businesses. In fact a company that I spoke to earlier today on my show, they own a decks and railing company in Ramsey and it was started back in 1970 by the guy's father and now he and his wife run it. But their daughters are also in the business. So you know, that's great when there's like this legacy of families that keep running something and you know to your point, you see, what's worked, what hasn't worked, and I'm sure the company's evolved over the last 40 years.
Speaker 2:Yeah so yeah, now waterproofing is this something that I need only like if I have a wet basement, like, oh my God, we had tons of rain or all the snow you know that we've had. We've got all this rain and now my basement's wet. I need help. Or is this something you can be proactive about?
Speaker 3:You can be proactive. That's a lot of times, like when I go out for my estimates. We'll start on the outside to see if the gutters or if that's the main problem. If the gutters are, you know dumping water, thousands of gallons of water next to the foundation, that could be an easy fix, you know, versus major surgery, like you know, french drain or, you know, exterior waterproofing.
Speaker 2:Right Now. What is a French drain? That's something that's done on the outside of the house interior.
Speaker 3:It's basically a drain channel with a void in it, like some sort of pipe surrounded by stone, and anytime water comes up there's pressure or it actually redirects it towards either a sump pump or to daylight, away from the foundation, or even yard drainage.
Speaker 2:Right. So it's kind of like an in-ground gutter in a way, because gutters are meant to draw the water away from the house, right? Yes, and some people might have that actually in their basement. You've got a French drain that's in your basement.
Speaker 3:Yes, you could do it. You'd break open the concrete and put it inside next to the footer, which is actually the piece of concrete holding the foundation wall, and then you can continue to use their basement.
Speaker 2:I do a lot of uh, new time homeowners or people that are in the market to buy a home. Do they uh, like there's? You know you have to get an inspector, but we all know what inspectors are. Like a lot of them it's just like a rubber stamp. They don't really tell you much. Uh, do you work with inspectors or do you work with realtors, with people trying to buy a new home that are maybe concerned? Because if you do your homework, you know that you're looking or you're living in an area that has maybe high water tables or has a history of having wet basements. Do you work with new time homeowners or people that are looking to buy?
Speaker 3:We do. We get a lot of calls from realtors or people in the market to buy a home to do an actual inspection because one of the home inspectors did catch efflorescence or something on the wall or marks stains on the wall. So we'll go out and advise them on what they need done. But we do. We get a lot of calls from realtors. So the stains are there, like white stains that stains on the wall, so we'll go out and, you know, advise them on what they need done. But we did.
Speaker 2:We get a lot of calls from realtors so the stains are there, like white stains that you see. Yes, they kind of look like calcium deposits or something yep, exactly okay.
Speaker 2:So if you're looking to buy a house and you go to the basement and a it smells kind of musty, that's a, that's a tip that the basement might be wet or or and or, you see kind of these white stains at a certain level off the you know the bottom of the floor, so maybe it's a few inches up. Then that tells you that the the basement's been wet before. That's signs of of it having to, there was water in there before, or just that it's kind of creeping up from the ground.
Speaker 3:Right, it's pretty much a telltale sign that there's some kind of water intrusion in the wall. Got it? Because it's water coming through the wall and then drying and leaving the mineral deposits which are efflorescence.
Speaker 2:Got it, got it. So it's probably the home seller's worst nightmare to have a home inspector or somebody looking at it and saying, oh, this has got some water issues. And obviously a lot of homes around here have some pumps, which doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing. You can't buy the house, you just make sure you have some pumps are always working. But so if you come across a home that has shown signs of being wet, what types of waterproofing can you do?
Speaker 3:So we could start from gutter extensions on the outside to uh, we'll start at stay on the outside, so exterior. Um, a lot of times grading will help a little bit. Uh, grading like the, the, the yard, uh, trying to move water away the top of the water, but then the water that's actually penetrating it. Next to the foundation you should excavate, uh put a like drain tile in there, french drain system, either to a sump pump or to daylight or vice versa. Then you go inside the home and put you could put a french drain system on the inside, or you could actually coat the walls with a certain membrane to try to keep the water from penetrating and causing more moisture in the basement.
Speaker 2:OK, so what are you talking about in terms of like a bill, if you have, if you're buying a house and then you see that certain repairs need to be made? I mean, obviously the gutters are probably the least expensive, even though replacing all your gutters could be expensive. But what are you running range-wise, if you want to buy a house but you see it's the perfect home. But now you see these issues and you're like, well, if I can get this fixed or if the seller will give us a discount or whatever to to make up for it. Like what are you looking at? Like 10,000, 20, 30, 40?
Speaker 3:It could be we can go from gutter extensions what are about $800 to now. If you have to excavate on the outside, you could be around 20, $30,000, but the interior system normally arranged about 8,500 to 12,500, somewhere in that range.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay. And then you do something called crawl space encapsulation. So where would the crawl space be? It's like somewhere down in your basement where you might have a crawl space, or where is typically a crawl space found? And what is encapsulation?
Speaker 3:Yep, some homes actually don't have a basement. They have half a basement which is kind of considered a crawl space kind of. Or they do have a basement but there is a crawl space attached to it Like you would have to jump up into it to get in. You know it's storage, small storage area. So a lot of times what encapsulation is is taking heavy like 17 mil plastic, really thick, breathable plastic, and putting that all over the floor and up the walls. Now you seal around the top of that to make a closed kind of system and that way it keeps any moisture from that's permeating through the floor or the walls down under the vapor barrier. That way you can control the moisture coming into the home into the rafters above.
Speaker 2:Got it, got it. So I guess, if you have that crawl space and you need it encapsulated, some of the things that you might notice might be telltale signs that you need some help or that you know you notice mold or mildew. I mentioned the musty odor, which I think is you know you always that's probably the first thing that hits you if you still, you know, smell like musty odors. Um, you know, I have dehumidifiers in my basement that, um, two of them go right into my um some pumps. I have two, some pumps. So you notice, in the summer those things are running. Um, so I guess if you have high humidity levels in your basement, that's another sign. Yeah, yes, okay, okay. What happens if you ignore it and you just say you know I don't have the money this year, I was like all right, so it's a basement or crawl space, it's supposed to smell musty or I'm not going to store anything down there for that reason, so I'll just leave it. What's the risk in leaving that?
Speaker 3:I have heard that you close the door, you forget about the whole space and hope nothing happens. But the issue is, mold loves moisture and wet areas and that's where they thrive. So at that point it starts getting on organic materials, which could be the rafters, anything that's stored down there, even sometimes the concrete block, and too much of that becomes a health hazard.
Speaker 2:Got it. Now you're looking at mold remediation and now you're talking major, major.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, what else? Like, what else do you guys do aside, or have we covered pretty much everything? I mean, I think you also work on foundations, right, right?
Speaker 3:right, we have replaced some black walls before we also do parging, which is, you know, the old crumbling stone walls.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll shave them down and actually put a new coating on there so they look nice and fresh coating on there so they look nice and fresh and, um, you know, so it has to be like an old stone wall in one of those 1800 houses or you know 200 year old houses. Okay, yeah, what about? Like the outside of your foundation you notice is kind of cracking or you see like, uh, the outer coat is kind of peeling away. Is that like that needs to be? Is that just basically getting a mason to just kind of patch over it, or like what?
Speaker 3:are the.
Speaker 2:What are the signs that maybe you need some foundation repair?
Speaker 3:okay if they're, if you can actually see daylight coming through it or it's a larger crack than maybe an inch, you might want to have that checked out. But if they're just small, uh, small hairline cracks, then most of the time that's just settlement cracks.
Speaker 2:So you can just medically go over top of them with a sealer got it, got it, and a lot of times you might have the cinder blocks but then there's a coat over it that makes it look like just a solid wall, um, and I guess you don't know, like, if you buy a house, you just think it's poured concrete, right? So is there a way that does that happen, typically, where there's the cinder blocks and then there's a sheet of a smooth sheet of concrete over it, so you think it just might be a poured concrete wall?
Speaker 3:It does happen. Sometimes people are just doing that to make their the blocks look look better, the outside of the house look a little better. Right, nice coat. But if that happens, then maybe you could just go in the basement and see and it should, as long as there's no code on the inside to be able to tell what type of wall foundation you're dealing with got it, got it.
Speaker 2:that's interesting, so in some cases it it could be. The foundation has to be reinforced because there was some water damage Right To place over the years and was ignored.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, because a lot of times I just went to a home yesterday in Cherry Hill and they're having a bowling issue where the cinder block is pushing in in the middle.
Speaker 2:And what's causing that?
Speaker 3:uh, we call it hydrostatic pressure. Basically it's water and soil, the weight of it pushing against that wall once it rains and over time, the middle, oh really the soil from outside.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, wow. Now I imagine you you work on. You work on a lot of old historic houses. So certainly in parts of New Jersey I mean you mentioned Cherry Hill we have Revolutionary War era homes. We have certainly a lot of homes from the 1800s. So do you do a lot of work like restoration work on older historic homes?
Speaker 3:It's here and there, but not too much of that. Mostly the exterior, interior. Uh, dry shoes nice, nice.
Speaker 2:So when, when did you start working in the business? Like, how, like, how old were you when you said, yeah, and I want to work, uh, you know, with the family?
Speaker 3:right. So I was 18 right out of high school in 99 jumped okay yep, started on the crew, uh, helped my father I mean I going out to jobs with him when I was like 12 years old. But once I got older, you know, jumped in, enjoyed, it's like to me. I look at it as working out, you know. So ever since then I just continue to learn the business.
Speaker 2:And here we go, you know yeah, and you know it's a difference between working for your dad and he's paying you to now being responsible for the company. You know billing, collecting, paying your employees insurance. You know if you have an office, a staff. So what was that like and did your dad prepare you for that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, my mother, luckily my mother took care of most of that for him, so he could just go out and get the job done and she would handle all the clerical stuff. But I pretty much handle well most of that, you know. I do have some help with, of course, sisters and stuff, but it's a big changeover from just going out doing the dirty work and coming in and, you know, forgetting about the business, versus now it's 24 7, you know, you know yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And you have a big uh team that works with you, a lot of guys that uh that work with you no, we have, uh well, basically two crews okay, um, but you're I mean you're I mean you're in North Jersey and you're going all the way down to Cherry Hill and now you're opening up in Hackensack. So do you have two crews per location or just two crews throughout the entire state of New Jersey?
Speaker 3:Throughout the entire state. Right now they, you know they go back and forth. We try to keep them even with the runtime. But I am looking to build, you know, North Jersey, another crew to you know, so it's not so much time up and down the turnpike for them. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I mean it's interesting because you know there's so many different types of businesses and careers and what people become attracted to and what they love to do. And you know, like you're saying, you love working with your hands, you love like the workout part of it. But I guess there's also some satisfaction and you're helping out a homeowner, a family. You know, maybe it's that's where the kids play and the basement's been unlivable or right. Or even going back to what I was saying, if you want to buy a house and everything about that house is perfect, but oh my god, the basement, the basement's wet and it could ruin their entire. You know they love the school system, they love back in the day, you love the commute or whatever, but so I would imagine that being able to help people and either putting them in their homes or keeping them in their homes or keeping them safe as some satisfaction.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'll give you a story. Just a few years ago there was a lady that called me, probably about 1030. We were having massive rainstorms. She was crying. She lost everything in that basement, so I went over and helped her putting it in the trash. I had some pumps down there trying to get rid of the water, because I think it was about a foot, foot and a half deep around. So, yeah, but after that, of course, we came in and put a system in to make sure that that didn't happen again.
Speaker 3:But it was terrible to see this lady lose everything because she was older, she was in her 70s but was okay. All of her uh, memorabilia and everything. Wow, it's, it's satisfying, you know, once you know that that's not going to happen again. Of course you have small things like a sump pump or whatever will go out yeah you just go and change that. But you know at this point we try to get it right the first time so they don't have to deal with it ever again I had a uh two weeks ago.
Speaker 2:I had the owner of a generac installation and repair business and you can have a sump pump but if the power goes out during, like a hurricane and there's a lot of rain and your sump pump's not working because the power went out. You're in trouble yeah yeah, you are.
Speaker 2:So you know, I know a lot of. There was a big flurry to get gener generators after hurricane sandy and, I think, rita, but now it's been kind of quiet for the last 10 years or so. But I always say, yeah, I've got three. I have two sump pumps in my basement, one that's kind of in a crawl space area, but you could see there was a basement window but it wasn't facing the outside. There was no daylight, so there was a crawl space.
Speaker 2:So when they made an addition to the house they must have added on a second foundational wall. And I had a plumber running a gas line for a fireplace we're putting in the family room and he had. He's like I'll go through this crawl space. And he went into the window thinking it was going to be just a place he could crawl in and he says you know, you could stand up in this and it runs the length of your house this way. And then it goes back on L shape over there. He's like if you could open this wall up, you could have a storage room in here. It could be a wine cellar, could be whatever you want. So we ended up doing that.
Speaker 2:But the guys I hired, hated my guts, because it was like breaking out of Shawshank Redemption, shawshank Prison, trying to go through 12 inches of concrete. But you know, they did it. We had a door, but then there's a French drain in there, which is what I noticed. So you know, when it rains a lot, you see that, though, that fills up a little bit more with water. But then there's a sump pump in there and I replaced the sump pump and have a dehumidifier in there. But it was a. It was almost like finding uh al capone's, uh treasures, because you had no idea that was this big space behind there. Now we have our skis there, my son's got his toys, we've got our seasonal stuff. Maybe I can make it a safe room. Yeah, it was interesting, but that was the first time I ever saw a French train.
Speaker 3:I was like okay, interesting.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, jermaine. How do people get a hold of you? Where would they find you?
Speaker 3:Real simple. Our website is called IHateMyWe hate my wet basementcom nice uh, yep, uh.
Speaker 2:Try to make something memorable so people could find us and uh yep, and all of our information's on there, all our social uh Facebook, everything right and the fact that you you might be in Cherry Hill or Hamilton, it um the fact that you're opening up in Hackensack says so. If I live in Bergen County and I need your help, you guys can come out here.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, We've worked pretty much all last year in Teaneck.
Speaker 2:Nice. Yeah, I'm in Harrington Park and some of my neighbors their backyards get so wet that they can't even go back there in the summer. You see them playing in their front lawn. I I'm like why don't they use their backyard? Then you find out it's like a swamp, yeah, um, and then I guess if you have a wet backyard, chances are you're gonna have a wet basement. So, um, there's a lot of that. I think they built these homes in what used to be more of like a wetlands, you know wooded area. So now know we're paying the price. But yeah, now, this was great. I really appreciate you sharing this with us, and we're going to just just close it out with Chuck. He's going to say goodbye and I'll be right back.
Speaker 3:All right.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the good neighbor podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpbergencom. That's gnpbergencom, or call 201-298-8325.