Introduction: My services include waterproofing and restoration of new and existing building structures, including exterior walls, planters, windows and decks using various manufactures coatings, sealers, siloxanes, silicones, and polyurethane systems.
I am also certified in monolithic single-ply urethane. This would include the repair, renovation or restoration of any and all subsequent damage caused by or relating to the water intrusion. This is what I do. Part of the trade (on existing homes, offices, warehouses, and commercial buildings that are leaking) is isolation and elimination.
A leaking retaining wall might need to simply surface coated with a cementitious overlays or could need blind side hydro grout all the way to complete excavation of back fill soils to patch, coat and protection board.
Okay, someone made some very uneducated comments about "what is your primary trade". I used the term "jack of all trades in jest". I'm not going in the science of waterproofing. I have a multiple trade experience of nearly 40 years.
I am a journeyman level plaster, carpenter, and brick, block and cement finisher. I'm a licensed painter in California. I'm a leak detection expert and worked on the board as both expert witness and forensic evaluation and arbitration.
I currently hold a valid, but inactive contractors license (#C33-513699). My business was founded and owned since 1987.
As such, I began my trades at an early age of 17 as an apprentice of a block and stone mason. I moved up to a union cement mason journeyman doing mostly the placing and pouring on the many industrial buildings that were abundant in the early 1980s.
In 1982, l was hired by one of the biggest, if not the best, companies in Southern California and began my career as a leadman/foreman and waterproof and restoration specialist.
Over the next 8 years, I was privileged to learn the many facets of residential, commercial and industrial waterproofing, leak detection/isolation, and redimifaction.
I quickly learned the vast and seemingly infinite types of chemical and structural applications ranging from single-family wall and floor coatings to below-grade hydraulic and hydostatic pressure alleviation using injectable single and multiple component polyurethanes, polysulfides, bentonite, and polyureas.
I went on to master the complex tasks of sealing and waterproofing construction joints, control joints, expansion joints, and seismic post-tension thermal joints. This also included the simpler, but not always an easy task of removing and replacing structural high-rise window and all break metal joints and mill core.
I have a vast and reputable knowledge of most of the old-school applications, as well as the newer UV-cured urethanes, ureas, and cementitious overlays. Although I'm blessed with as much knowledge in waterproofing and structural restoration, it needs to be known that I've never been above anyone else in waterproofing and building, for that matter is not an exact science.
I also am a journeyman-level, rough carpenter with a vast knowledge of the Ca U.B.C. I am quite proficient with high- and low-voltage electric. I am also a journeyman caliber for lath and plaster (gunite and shotcrete certified).
I have a list of clients ranging from the Koll Co., Disneyland, In-N-Out Burger, Home Depot to a list of few corporate names. I also served numerous general contractors/owners, including:
* Fed-Ex
* UPS
* Knott's Berry Farm
* Sukut Development
* Roadway Package Systems
* Telco Foods
* Edwards Air Force Base
* Long Beach Naval Shipyard
* J.P. Kilroy
* Alamo Rent-A-Car
I have also personally overseen the restoration for celebrities, such as Vidal Sassoon, Giorgio Armani, Johnny Carson, Charles Schwab Investment, and many HUD Projects.
Well, there it is, and now, I am semi-retired at 54 years. I am young and still hold that inactive contractors license and want to scale down a little bit! I want to provide services for small property owners. When I first started out, I served struggling homeowners.
I provide a fair and honest day's work for as inexpensive as possible. You ask me why? Because these are the days, and I am tired of unlicensed contractors taking your money without remorse of concern.
I am not perfect; didn't claim to be. What I am is honest, reliable, and forthcoming, and I am hungry. I miss my passion. That is what I am, an old-school builder wanting to let the price reflect the times, not the quality.
Thank you so much.
Richard Van Leir