Groundworks

Plenty of eastern Massachusetts homeowners still call this company by an older name — customers writing in 2026 refer to it as Busy Dog, Basement Technologies or Boston Basement, now Groundworks. From its Plainville branch it does foundation repair, basement waterproofing, crawl space repair and encapsulation, and concrete lifting, reaching Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Lowell, Framingham, Brockton, Cambridge and Plymouth. Service calls are where the praise is, and the technicians get named. A February 2026 customer thanked Archie Boone for arriving on time and working through a French drain and sump pump, and was informative about the products; another that month described Alvin Miller III patiently explaining how the sump pump and backup battery operate during an annual checkup. One Thumbtack customer wrote in February 2026 that they had been with the company for over 20 years and the same technician, Archie B, for 17 of them. Crews get named on the concrete side too: an August 2026 reviewer credited Christan Roy and Tyler DeBurgo with levelling a garage floor, and in November 2025 Guiles Hall and Jason Lewis raised slabs and filled cracks on a settled pool deck. The complaints are about installations, and they are serious. A July 2026 customer wrote that they paid over $25,000 for a full perimeter waterproofing system with two new sump pumps, that it was installed on April 27th and 28th, and that by the middle of July the basement still leaked, with three more leaks that past weekend. A September 2026 reviewer described waiting months, people not showing up when they said they would, and things broken or ruined in the basement with no compensation. In January 2026 another wrote that no project manager was assigned, leaving the sales rep, the crews and the managers miscommunicating while the job ran weeks. In November 2025 a customer said the work was cancelled on the day of the project, the deposit kept, and weeks passed before the money came back. The sales visit draws its own criticism. Commenters in a March 2026 r/Somerville thread described a "today only" discount and a "why Groundworks is best" pitch that felt like a red flag, and in May 2026 a commenter there described pushy tactics and anger after saying they wanted to look at other options. Its Massachusetts construction supervisor licence, CS-121892, is active on the state registry, and its Better Business Bureau page is graded A+. For annual service on a system already in your basement — especially one Busy Dog put in — this is the company that knows the equipment. For a new installation, take the estimate away before signing anything, and get the schedule, a named project manager, and what happens if the basement still leaks written into the contract.