All Forum Posts by: Gaddiel Garza

@Gaddiel Garza I strongly suggest speaking with a structural engineer. I have found that foundation companies can have wildly different ways of dealing with an issue. I like to get plans from a third party on what needs to be done and get the contractors to bid off the recommendation from the engineer. BKE are good people and the cost is generally a couple hundred bucks for their recommendation.

http://bkengineers.com/Contact_us.htm

I got bids from several foundations contractors last year for a foundation issue I needed to screw a few pile in to attach and stop a sunken corner. 15k repair or so. Ram Jack was the best quote and did a good job. Western Construction Systems was at #2. Terrance Firma was pretty far behind. 

Western Construction hands down! When you get a scope of work from then it’s reliable for pricing and timing. M Leon is a close second. They can be a bit more pricy, not every time though. 
My experiences with other foundation companies have not been the best. It comes down to having expertise and professionalism. 

I got bids from all three major players; Terra Firma, Western Construction and Ram Jack for a possible foundation issue. All three had their own way of fixing the issue and all three were north of 15K with the highest being about 22k. My GC took a closer look at what was going on and found the real issue was rotted sill plates and then replaced them for 2k.

I am not saying these foundation companies don't know what they are doing but not one of them actually went into the crawlspace to look at what was really going on. I agree with @Trevor Emmett, get an engineer to diagnose the issue before reaching to a foundation specialist.

I also agree with not messing around with getting the repairs done right especially considering your location in the West Hills. I have seen some jobs go south in the hills on foundation repairs and some ended up in court with six figure sums to fight over.

Two well known in the area are Western Construction Systems out of Salem but they travel to Portland no problem and will give free-bids. The other we’ve had good luck with is M. Leon Construction. 

Jay is right-this is an area where you don’t want to mess around! 

Thanks Mathew! Western Construction is going out there today. Theyve been efficient so far.