Our COO, Camden Kaminsky, was recently featured in Forbes Business Council with an in-depth look at how private equity consolidation is reshaping the basement waterproofing industry — from how companies are structured, to how homeowners find them, to what kind of work actually gets recommended. You can read the full article here: What Basement Waterproofing Reveals About Modern Consolidation.
The consolidation is not hypothetical. It’s already here.
In 2020, Groundworks — backed by the Cortec Group, a multi-billion-dollar private equity firm — acquired Foundation Systems of Michigan, the largest foundation services company in the state. That same parent company already owned Indiana Foundation Service. In a single move, one private equity-backed platform gained a dominant footprint across both states we serve.
They now operate in over 24 states with thousands of employees and annual revenues approaching a billion dollars. They’re not the only ones. U.S. Waterproofing, backed by Rotunda Capital Partners, has been making similar moves — acquiring Crawl Space Brothers and expanding aggressively across the country.
None of this is secret. It’s all public record. But here’s what most homeowners don’t realize: when you search “basement waterproofing near me” and see four or five different company names in the results, some of those names may share the same ownership, the same playbook, and the same economic incentives behind the scenes.
What this actually changes for you
As I wrote in Forbes, the core issue isn’t whether consolidation is good or bad in the abstract. It’s about what happens to the work.
Basement waterproofing is not like replacing a window or installing a fence. Every foundation is different. The soil composition in Calhoun County is different from what you find in Elkhart County. A home built in the 1950s in Battle Creek has different pressure points than a 1990s build in Granger. Diagnosing what’s actually causing water intrusion — and choosing the right combination of solutions — requires experience that takes years to develop.
When a company is built to grow slowly and prioritize job quality, that diagnostic process stays intact. When a company is built to absorb volume and maximize throughput, the system naturally gravitates toward whatever solution can be standardized and installed fastest. That’s not a criticism — it’s a structural reality. As I noted in the Forbes article, when growth outpaces the ability to build diagnostic infrastructure, the range of solutions narrows to fit the model.
In practical terms, that often means interior-only systems get recommended disproportionately — not because they’re always wrong, but because they’re easier to train around and execute at scale. More complex exterior work, or multi-step approaches that combine interior drainage with exterior waterproofing and ventilation, require more experienced crews and longer timelines. That kind of work doesn’t fit neatly into a high-volume operation.
Why we’ve stayed independent
My father, Matt Kaminsky, started in this industry in 1976. My uncle Dave joined in 1985. They opened EverDry Waterproofing of Michiana in 1993 at 4647 W. Cleveland Road in South Bend. Over three decades later, we’re still at the same address, still family-owned, still answering the same phone number.
We’ve had opportunities to sell. Every independent operator in this industry has. The offers come in regularly, especially from the platforms I just described. We’ve said no every time — not because the money wasn’t good, but because what we’d have to give up isn’t worth it.
When a customer from the ’90s calls today, the same family answers the phone. Our lifetime transferable warranty isn’t a marketing line — it’s over three decades of actually showing up.
Now, I’m carrying that forward as the next generation. Not because I inherited a title, but because I grew up watching what it means to do this work the right way — and I’ve seen firsthand what happens when companies stop prioritizing that.
What to ask before you hire anyone
If you’re a homeowner in Northern Indiana or Southwest Michigan dealing with a wet basement, here’s what I’d suggest before making a decision:
Ask who actually owns the company. A local-sounding name doesn’t always mean local ownership. Search the parent company. Check whether they’re backed by private equity. This isn’t about judging — it’s about knowing who you’re actually doing business with.
Ask how long they’ve been at their current location. Companies that have operated from the same building for decades have a fundamentally different relationship with the community than companies that have been acquired and rebranded within the last few years.
Ask whether they offer exterior waterproofing, not just interior. If the only solution being recommended is an interior drainage system, ask why. There are absolutely situations where interior-only is the right call. But if a company doesn’t offer exterior work at all, that tells you something about their operational model.
Ask about the warranty — and then ask who honors it. A lifetime warranty means nothing if the company that issued it has been absorbed into a larger entity, rebranded, or restructured. Ask specifically: if I need service in 15 years, who shows up?
Ask for references from jobs done more than five years ago. Anyone can show you a basement that looks great three months after installation. The real test is what it looks like after five Midwest winters.
This is what we’re built for
We’re not the biggest company in this market. We don’t operate in 24 states. We don’t have a private equity partner funding our growth.
What we do have is over 1,500 five-star Google reviews, a patented multi-step system that addresses water intrusion from both inside and outside the foundation, and a team of inspectors and crews who have been doing this work in this community for years — not months.
We do this work because it’s what our family has done for over three decades, and because we believe homeowners in Michiana deserve a company that’s going to be here long after the check clears.
Your Basement Deserves a Company That’s Been Here for Three Decades — and Isn’t Going Anywhere
Your Basement Deserves a Company That’s Been Here for Three Decades
If you want to see what that looks like in person, schedule a free inspection or call us at (574) 272-3788. No pressure, no gimmicks — just an honest assessment from people who’ve been doing this longer than most companies in this industry have existed.
Camden Kaminsky is the COO of EverDry Waterproofing of Michiana and a member of the Forbes Business Council. His recent article on industry consolidation was published in Forbes in May 2026.
