Cheers to 30 Years
Cheers to 30 years
Sure-Dry, LLC specializes in foundation, waterproofing and concrete repair
by Lee Reinsch
Independent Contributor, The Business News
Sure-Dry General Manager Jamie Budiac said 40% of Sure-Dry’s work consists of water control; 25% concrete lifting; 15% is structural issues; 15% is crawlspaces; and 5% is egress windows.
MENASHA – April showers may bring May flowers, but they can also bring unwanted mold, mildew, damp basements and buckling concrete.
Jamie Budiac said no worries – Sure-Dry (formerly Sure-Dry Basement Systems) has it under control.
The Menasha-headquartered company has specialized in tackling wet basements, damaged foundations, musty crawl spaces and mold and mildew problems for the past three decades.
Good fit for region
The business was founded in April 1994 by now-retired Doug Newhouse out of his basement in Little Chute.
Newhouse said he was 34 when he founded Sure-Dry Basement Systems and, at the time, was serving as a pastor in Rhinelander.
“I had felt my calling was ministry, and I was hoping one day a door would open in ministry,” he said.
When a full-time opportunity in ministry didn’t present itself, Newhouse said he returned to his hometown of Appleton and started working at the same company his father (Wesley) did, where he estimated foundations for water control.
As the company’s leaders neared retirement and planned on closing the business, Newhouse said the idea of opening his own business with his father hit him.
The father-son duo said they researched options, found suppliers, came up with the name – Sure-Dry Basement Systems – and in the spring of 1994, officially launched the company.
“We had a three-quarter-ton van in the driveway, with hand-painted logos,” Newhouse said.
He said his basement served as their first office, with the garage serving as the company’s first warehouse.
Newhouse said his wife Jenny was the company’s secretary, and his father served as the company’s estimator.
“I was looking at it as a way to tap into a market and to specialize in an area where few people brought professionalism,” he said. “Fixing basements (is) something that there is a great demand for, especially in the corridor between Green Bay and Fond du Lac.”
The soil in this area, Newhouse said, retains water due to its high clay content, which can wreak havoc on building foundations.
“There is a lot of hydrostatic pressure that results in wet basements,” he said.
Budiac, Sure-Dry’s general manager, said rain and moisture cause the clay to swell up and push on foundation walls.
During dry spells, he said the clay shrinks away, and as it shrinks, debris can fall into the resulting gaps.
When the soil swells again, Budiac said, it pushes on the foundation, which can unleash all sorts of mischief – including flooding basements, pooling water, bowing foundation walls, water in crawl spaces and basement walls, rotting wood, buckling concrete, sagging patios, dry rot damage and moldy floor joists.
“We do a lot of basement wall stabilization,” he said.
Budiac said Sure-Dry also specializes in basement waterproofing, foundation repair, concrete lifting, egress windows, crawl space repair and water damage mitigation.
The company addresses these situations through a variety of ways – many he said don’t involve exterior excavation.
One of its 30 patented solutions – called PowerBrace – can bolster the foundation with steel I-beams attached to the joists via brackets, Budiac said.
Between its two locations – Menasha and Wausau – Sure-Dry employs 90 people, including 20 system design specialists, seven service technicians and 12 three-person installation crews, plus its office and administrative staff.
Then there is a wall restoration system called EverBrace, which he said involves attaching steel beams to the concrete slab and floor joists, then paneling between the beams with steel panels.
A dense polyurethane foam option, which Budiac describes as “great stuff on steroids,” gets injected into any gaps that might remain – which he said is less expensive than replacing the foundation.
“If you have a fieldstone foundation or a block foundation that is crumbling and about to fall in, we can save that foundation without having to put your house up on stilts and rip it out and pour a new foundation,” he said.
Budiac said Sure-Dry started using the EverBrace method two years ago and called it a game changer.
Another option Sure-Dry uses to stabilize walls, he said, are straps made of carbon-fiber fabric, epoxied to the interior basement wall.
The carbon material the company’s CarbonArmor uses, Budiac said, has 1,000% the tension strength of steel.
For walls that are tilting inward, Sure-Dry has a wall anchor system called Geo-Lock, which he said uses galvanized steel wall anchors to stabilize a foundation, securing it to native soil around the home.
The polyurethane foam Sure-Dry uses in its EverBrace process to stabilize wobbly walls, Budiac said, is also the secret weapon in the lifting of concrete that has sunk or collapsed.
The foam, he said, is a two-part mix heated in customized trucks equipped with reactors that heat the material and push it through a pressurized line.
“There’s an instant chemical reaction that takes about 12 seconds to fully expand to the size it needs to be,” he said.
Budiac said Sure-Dry team members inject the foam through a hole the size of a pinky finger drilled into the area under the concrete that needs lifting.
Bursts of injected foam, he said, create small pillows to build and lift the concrete slab.
When the foam expands outward, Budiac said it fills the gaps and cavities beneath the concrete.
He said Sure-Dry has been using the method for the past eight or nine years.
“We’ve gotten good at it,” he said.
Some homes, Budiac said, run into trouble when their corrugated drain tiles, which are supposed to remove or move stormwater into the sump pump, are set low in the building’s footings, in what he calls “the mud zone.”
As groundwater moves, Budiac said it picks up sediment, which gets lodged in the ridges and grooves of the corrugated drain tile.
Eventually, the drain tile gets clogged and water can’t move through it.
“Our WaterGuard system sits on top of the footing,” he said. “It’s not sitting down in the mud where it is going to get full of debris and clogged up.”
Their systems have ports, or access points, so they can be maintained and flushed, if necessary, to make sure everything is functioning properly and the water is getting to the sump pump, not into the home, Budiac said.
Best experience possible
Budiac said Sure-Dry aims to redefine the industry.
“Contractors have historically had a bad reputation, and we have worked hard to change that,” he said.
Budiac said the company wants to deliver a remarkable experience to all of its customers – from the moment the customer calls through the time the work is finished and even beyond to periodic maintenance checks, if desired.
“We decided everything we do is going to be the best that can be done,” he said.
Sure-Dry’s design specialists are there to educate homeowners, not sell to the homeowner, Budiac said.
“Show them what’s happening and what their options are to fix it, and let them choose what level of protection they want,” he said.
Sure-Dry, LLC, which began in 1994, is headquartered in Menasha.
Focused on providing its customers with the best service experience, Budiac said Sure-Dry reaches out to customers 30 minutes before showing up, practices dust mitigation and lays down carpet runners, plastic sheeting and floor shields to protect the homeowners’ property from damage.
Forty percent of Sure-Dry’s work, Budiac said, consists of water control; 25% concrete lifting, 15% is structural issues, such as walls that are pushing in or houses that are sinking into the ground; 15% is crawlspaces; and 5% is egress windows.
The mild winter Wisconsin has had this season, Budiac said, allowed the company to take on concrete lifting jobs, which are typically only done from April to December.
Between its two locations – Menasha and Wausau – Budiac said Sure-Dry employs 90 people, including 20 system design specialists, seven service technicians and 12 three-person installation crews, plus its office and administrative staff.
Sure-Dry’s systems design specialists and service technicians, Budiac said, undergo an eight-week training, with half of it in the classroom and half on the job.
Production crews undergo six weeks of training with three weeks in the classroom and three weeks in the field.
Sure-Dry does foundation work in and around Green Bay, Appleton, Oshkosh, Sheboygan, Fond du Lac, Wausau, WI Rapids, Manitowoc, Neenah and Stevens Point.
Well worth it
Newhouse – a self-described visionary with an entrepreneurial nature – said reaching 30 years means a lot to him.
“To start the business, be able to build a business, scale it, make it so we can grow and reach out and impact a lot of people’s lives with a great experience – that, to me, was worth stepping out for,” he said.
Looking back – though he had thought a life in ministry would one day come back around – Newhouse said he never imagined that when he started Sure-Dry it would become one of the largest residential waterproofing and foundation repair companies in the State of Wisconsin.
“While I was waiting for an opportunity to minister, a ministry came to me,” he said.
For more on Sure-Dry, visit suredrybasements.com.
Jamie Budiac said no worries – Sure-Dry (formerly Sure-Dry Basement Systems) has it under control.
The Menasha-headquartered company has specialized in tackling wet basements, damaged foundations, musty crawl spaces and mold and mildew problems for the past three decades.
Good fit for region
The business was founded in April 1994 by now-retired Doug Newhouse out of his basement in Little Chute.
Newhouse said he was 34 when he founded Sure-Dry Basement Systems and, at the time, was serving as a pastor in Rhinelander.
“I had felt my calling was ministry, and I was hoping one day a door would open in ministry,” he said.
When a full-time opportunity in ministry didn’t present itself, Newhouse said he returned to his hometown of Appleton and started working at the same company his father (Wesley) did, where he estimated foundations for water control.
As the company’s leaders neared retirement and planned on closing the business, Newhouse said the idea of opening his own business with his father hit him.
The father-son duo said they researched options, found suppliers, came up with the name – Sure-Dry Basement Systems – and in the spring of 1994, officially launched the company.
“We had a three-quarter-ton van in the driveway, with hand-painted logos,” Newhouse said.
He said his basement served as their first office, with the garage serving as the company’s first warehouse.
Newhouse said his wife Jenny was the company’s secretary, and his father served as the company’s estimator.
“I was looking at it as a way to tap into a market and to specialize in an area where few people brought professionalism,” he said. “Fixing basements (is) something that there is a great demand for, especially in the corridor between Green Bay and Fond du Lac.”
The soil in this area, Newhouse said, retains water due to its high clay content, which can wreak havoc on building foundations.
“There is a lot of hydrostatic pressure that results in wet basements,” he said.
Budiac, Sure-Dry’s general manager, said rain and moisture cause the clay to swell up and push on foundation walls.
During dry spells, he said the clay shrinks away, and as it shrinks, debris can fall into the resulting gaps.
When the soil swells again, Budiac said, it pushes on the foundation, which can unleash all sorts of mischief – including flooding basements, pooling water, bowing foundation walls, water in crawl spaces and basement walls, rotting wood, buckling concrete, sagging patios, dry rot damage and moldy floor joists.
“We do a lot of basement wall stabilization,” he said.
Budiac said Sure-Dry also specializes in basement waterproofing, foundation repair, concrete lifting, egress windows, crawl space repair and water damage mitigation.
The company addresses these situations through a variety of ways – many he said don’t involve exterior excavation.
One of its 30 patented solutions – called PowerBrace – can bolster the foundation with steel I-beams attached to the joists via brackets, Budiac said.
Between its two locations – Menasha and Wausau – Sure-Dry employs 90 people, including 20 system design specialists, seven service technicians and 12 three-person installation crews, plus its office and administrative staff. Then there is a wall restoration system called EverBrace, which he said involves attaching steel beams to the concrete slab and floor joists, then paneling between the beams with steel panels.
A dense polyurethane foam option, which Budiac describes as “great stuff on steroids,” gets injected into any gaps that might remain – which he said is less expensive than replacing the foundation.
“If you have a fieldstone foundation or a block foundation that is crumbling and about to fall in, we can save that foundation without having to put your house up on stilts and rip it out and pour a new foundation,” he said.
Budiac said Sure-Dry started using the EverBrace method two years ago and called it a game changer.
Another option Sure-Dry uses to stabilize walls, he said, are straps made of carbon-fiber fabric, epoxied to the interior basement wall.
The carbon material the company’s CarbonArmor uses, Budiac said, has 1,000% the tension strength of steel.
For walls that are tilting inward, Sure-Dry has a wall anchor system called Geo-Lock, which he said uses galvanized steel wall anchors to stabilize a foundation, securing it to native soil around the home.
The polyurethane foam Sure-Dry uses in its EverBrace process to stabilize wobbly walls, Budiac said, is also the secret weapon in the lifting of concrete that has sunk or collapsed.
The foam, he said, is a two-part mix heated in customized trucks equipped with reactors that heat the material and push it through a pressurized line.
“There’s an instant chemical reaction that takes about 12 seconds to fully expand to the size it needs to be,” he said.
Budiac said Sure-Dry team members inject the foam through a hole the size of a pinky finger drilled into the area under the concrete that needs lifting.
Bursts of injected foam, he said, create small pillows to build and lift the concrete slab.
When the foam expands outward, Budiac said it fills the gaps and cavities beneath the concrete.
He said Sure-Dry has been using the method for the past eight or nine years.
“We’ve gotten good at it,” he said.
Some homes, Budiac said, run into trouble when their corrugated drain tiles, which are supposed to remove or move stormwater into the sump pump, are set low in the building’s footings, in what he calls “the mud zone.”
As groundwater moves, Budiac said it picks up sediment, which gets lodged in the ridges and grooves of the corrugated drain tile.
Eventually, the drain tile gets clogged and water can’t move through it.
“Our WaterGuard system sits on top of the footing,” he said. “It’s not sitting down in the mud where it is going to get full of debris and clogged up.”
Their systems have ports, or access points, so they can be maintained and flushed, if necessary, to make sure everything is functioning properly and the water is getting to the sump pump, not into the home, Budiac said.
Best experience possible
Budiac said Sure-Dry aims to redefine the industry.
“Contractors have historically had a bad reputation, and we have worked hard to change that,” he said.
Budiac said the company wants to deliver a remarkable experience to all of its customers – from the moment the customer calls through the time the work is finished and even beyond to periodic maintenance checks, if desired.
“We decided everything we do is going to be the best that can be done,” he said.
Sure-Dry’s design specialists are there to educate homeowners, not sell to the homeowner, Budiac said.
“Show them what’s happening and what their options are to fix it, and let them choose what level of protection they want,” he said.
Sure-Dry, LLC, which began in 1994, is headquartered in Menasha.Focused on providing its customers with the best service experience, Budiac said Sure-Dry reaches out to customers 30 minutes before showing up, practices dust mitigation and lays down carpet runners, plastic sheeting and floor shields to protect the homeowners’ property from damage.
Forty percent of Sure-Dry’s work, Budiac said, consists of water control; 25% concrete lifting, 15% is structural issues, such as walls that are pushing in or houses that are sinking into the ground; 15% is crawlspaces; and 5% is egress windows.
The mild winter Wisconsin has had this season, Budiac said, allowed the company to take on concrete lifting jobs, which are typically only done from April to December.
Between its two locations – Menasha and Wausau – Budiac said Sure-Dry employs 90 people, including 20 system design specialists, seven service technicians and 12 three-person installation crews, plus its office and administrative staff.
Sure-Dry’s systems design specialists and service technicians, Budiac said, undergo an eight-week training, with half of it in the classroom and half on the job.
Production crews undergo six weeks of training with three weeks in the classroom and three weeks in the field.
Sure-Dry does foundation work in and around Green Bay, Appleton, Oshkosh, Sheboygan, Fond du Lac, Wausau, WI Rapids, Manitowoc, Neenah and Stevens Point.
Well worth it
Newhouse – a self-described visionary with an entrepreneurial nature – said reaching 30 years means a lot to him.
“To start the business, be able to build a business, scale it, make it so we can grow and reach out and impact a lot of people’s lives with a great experience – that, to me, was worth stepping out for,” he said.
Looking back – though he had thought a life in ministry would one day come back around – Newhouse said he never imagined that when he started Sure-Dry it would become one of the largest residential waterproofing and foundation repair companies in the State of Wisconsin.
“While I was waiting for an opportunity to minister, a ministry came to me,” he said.
For more on Sure-Dry, visit suredrybasements.com.
