Chapman Waterproofing Co

I think they are crooks. From the word going around the Boston area construction industry, they have been bilking millions from their customers for many years now. Check out this letter apparently written by former employees now blowing the whistle on them.

"For years, Chapman Waterproofing has enjoyed their position as one of the preferred commercial waterproofing and restoration subcontractors in New England. They have attained this reputation through not only their experience and ability, but also through a calculated and methodical program whereby they first assure their award of contracts through aggressive bidding, followed by the recovery of excessive profits through artificially inflated billings, covert utilization of non-specified materials and work performance modifications, and questionable contract modifications.
Contractors can identify the extent of their victimization by carefully reviewing their past billings and contracts with the Chapman Waterproofing Company against the following scenarios:
By far, the largest illegal revenue generator for Chapman involves their excessive overbilling for labor, materials and equipment billed on time and material sheets and change orders: Chapman routinely marks up all materials billed off of time and material sheets at 20% to 30% over their actual costs. Their considerable buying power assures that Chapman pays the lowest possible material costs to vendors. Their 20-30% artificial mark-up added to the contractual profit and overhead inclusions can result in up to a 50% mark-up billed to customers. Chapman justifies this action internally by rationalizing that the prices they bill customers is what the customers would pay for the materials if they walked off the street into a distributors and bought the materials themselves. Any opportunity where they can bill customers without providing back-up receipts for their purchases results in excessive overbilling to contractors or owners.

In addition to gouging customers by overpricing materials, they also increase their profits by inflating the value of rental equipment. Chapman maintains an extensive inventory of equipment and tools used in support of their operations. Most of these items are older and outdated as they do not like to expend capital on new equipment purchases. The age and condition of their equipment actually serves to slow down or impede the effectiveness of the work being performed. When billing for this equipment on T&M sheets however, Chapman utilizes un-depreciated values from published Blue Books, charging for the equipment as if it were brand new. When these amounts do not generate sufficient billings to customers, they revert to commercial rental rates, again rationalizing that these prices are what the customer would pay if they rented the items themselves.

In addition to these ploys, Chapman is also guilty of duplicate billings on T&M change orders. Often work crews are assigned to cover more than one job is a single work-shift. This presents an opportunity for duplicate billings for use of the single crew and equipment. Crews start at one site, depart mid-shift and finish their day at another. This often allows them to bill both customers for the entire work day of labor, equipment, and vehicle costs. When astute customers question crew work hours, it is justified as the crew leaving to obtain additional materials/equipment, or work delays that arise and are the responsibility of the owner or general contractor. They will also simply double bill T&M work, including them on separate change orders in hopes that a busy Accounts Payable Department will not catch the error and make a duplicate payment.

Misrepresentation of union labor classifications also provides Chapman with opportunities for overcharging customers. Apprentices of varying percentage of competency are employed by Chapman on a regular basis. On T&M sheets these employees are all listed as mechanics at the journeyman level and are billed as such. This means that a 70% apprentice billed at the journeyman rate will result in a 30% markup in labor billings, again this is before the overhead and profit are added. Chapman will do this whenever certified payroll is not required to be submitted and apprentices can be used on billable work crews.

All of this activity, results in exorbitant overbilling to customers, and generates hundreds of thousands of dollars in unjustified revenue for Chapman each year.

Posted 12/25/09 | Report Abuse

Was this review helpful to you?

I am a former employee of Chapman Waterproofing.
Do to the fact of being put into hostile,dangerous,unhealthy and unsafe environments by my supervisors,I can no longer do my job.Including being set up to work on a platform staging that the tiebacks were removed prematurely.
Similiar to the staging that fell off of Emerson College building on Boylston street.
The incident that occured to me was prior to the Emerson College tragedy.And all supervisors in the chain of command had come to the job and seen the improper set up.
I was sent to work at another jobsite.
And there was no disciplinary action taken by the company.
To the contrary,Chapman employees were scheduled to work on the platform that fell off of Emerson College on Boylston Street.
I was told by workers that were there that the plan was for the tie back to be removed,the platform brought back down to base and then Chapman Waterproofing workers would then go back up and waterproof opening that tie back was removed from.

When I heard about the incident I knew what had happened and how obvious it was that the staging would fall off of building.
And that the operators manual clearly stated that workers should never bring platform up above last tie back other than to install another tie back.
A very important rule that Chapman Waterproofing and many other contractors in the trade have ignored to the point of training workers to operate those types of stagings improperly on a regular basis.
It is unfortunate that with all the safety programs in the industry that the underlying theme is that the victims are the ones at fault for their injuries and even deaths.And the main goal is to lower the number of reported accidents/incidents.

Adam P.How much is the reward for Jim Fredericks?

Posted 10/05/09 | Report Abuse

Was this review helpful to you?

Reward for Jim Frederick,former purchasing agent for Chapman Waterproofing. He is being sought by Boston police for embezzlement..........James R.Frederick........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Posted 09/11/09 | Report Abuse

Was this review helpful to you?

We were recommended by a previous customer to this company. It took them over two weeks to respond to our service inquiry with a very abrupt and rude receptionist. Yet we utilized their service but the process was tiring due to a lack of ill mannered management. They did not clean areas of work and the service warranty was slow to come by.

Posted 10/23/08 | Report Abuse

Was this review helpful to you?