I recently had an agent ask me to look over this report from a foundation company. I think the idea was to discern if her clients are being upsold any unnecessary repairs and is the price quoted to them reasonable. It sounds like clients are only interested in addressing issues they understand to be absolutely necessary, rather than general recommendations at this time. Here are a few screenshots from the report.
Would be grateful for any general feedback or insights, thanks.
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I am not familiar with curtain bladder injections. In your guys experience is it worth the value of $27,000?
Foundation contractors are crooks… maybe not all of them. I guess just 99.99% of them. They prey on fear and make a fortune doing so. It’s hard to say from a few pictures and a quote full of fear-mongering but from what I can see I sure don’t see 27K worth the necessary repairs. Looks like drainage is the biggest issue.
The bid is so full of BS it’s laughable… Completely replace piers/posts? Why?? Efflorescence is all of the sudden masonry destroying? What is it, some type of concrete termite?
These clowns have caused me so many headaches over the years coming behind me on inspections… 25K to repair a hairline crack. Yep, after the repair, the foundation will be stable… Well, it would be stable WITHOUT the repair. What a genius business model… doing work that doesn’t need to be done.
Again, there are some things to be addressed there but from the pics and what I’ve seen/experienced, is totally overblown and full of fear porn. 27K? Should be less than 10% of that to do a bit of drainage work.
My first question is always… "Are these people actual “Foundation Repair Contractors” or “Basement Waterproofing Scammers”?
Their name usually gives them away! Go to their website, (Waterproof scammers ALWAYS have websites with very good SEO to draw in their ‘Marks’ from the internet)!
I never heard of “curtain injection” until I did a googoo search on it. Seams like it is alot of work for a repair that is not guaranteed, and if the installer doesn’t get it done correctly, the problem will only continue.
And that is my second question… “What is going on at the exterior”?
*The water/moisture is migrating from the exterior and entering the wall cavities.
*Moisture should never enter a foundation wall.
*How/where exactly is the moisture entering the wall.
*Was that moisture pathway exposed and repaired to prevent intrusion?
(So many questions, so few answers)!!
Yikes… with seeing those pics to do it right it’s probably more than 27K but not for the crap the foundation contractors want to do. All of the flatwork is graded wrong and should be redone. The foundation guys are being reactive rather than proactive. Any engineer worth a nickel will tell you the first and most important step by far at protecting a foundation and keeping water out is to grade surfaces close to the house away.
Exactly…
But be advised that bricks or not, regrading alone will not solve the water intrusion problem!
Other than repairing any damaged/cracked/breached foundation walls, in the photos, it also appears that the steps are above the sill plate, thus water getting diverted over the top of the foundation walls!
(Not inferring) the cost of proper repairs… but I would easily prefer to pay the $30K to fix it RIGHT than $27K to put a bandaid on something that will surely fail.
Yep… foundation elevation is probably the biggest oversight I see in construction. AHJs just don’t give it the attention they should and, once done incorrectly, the house is set for a lifetime of problems.
This looks very similar to a home I inspected in the SFV many years ago… 1950’s hillside home?
Anything they do to the foundation will simply be a bandaid unless/until the exterior grading & drainage is corrected.
There are a number of “red flags” for me with those price quotes and I would steer clear of that “contractor” regardless of the work that actually may be needed.
Have your client call Paul McGrath at 800-600-1633. He is a legitimate Foundation Contractor and has been in business over 30 years in the Los Angeles Area.
As others have pointed out, what these idiots wrote up will not do a damn thing per stopping water penentration above + below grade and will NOT stop any efflorescence pfffft! Yeah shtt sure anyone can try n clean some of it off blocks n pretty it up but i guarantee ya it absoluely will return, BET!
Agree w/Mr Jonas, farting with the grade will not solve the problems, it might help a bit but will not solve the existing problems
“PROFESSIONAL” foundation repair ? LOLOL holy shtt hell no.Kick em in the azz and out the door and any other company–contrator like them = Sham baby
From the video it appears that curtain injections is a way to weather seal the exterior from inside penetrations. But I would be curious on the effectiveness of this technique. Without seeing the exterior how do you even know it’s completely sealed and life expectancy of materials.
