Ask the Builder: Don’t Sign Contracts for Unneeded Work

Asking for a second opinion save this homeowner $30,000.

This ponding water in front of the house foundation can cause many problems. There's an easy way to prevent it. Tim Carter/Tribune Content Agency

Two days before writing this column, I saved an Ohio homeowner $30,000. He had stumbled across my website, and he saw that I consult with readers on the phone. Water was ponding against his house foundation, and he was considering signing a contract with a waterproofing company for the above amount.

Once I studied the photographs he sent me, I asked him if he was sitting down. “That ponding water is NOT causing the problem you’re having,” I told him. “If you had signed that contract, you would have wasted all that money.”