The process of foundation repair has been well documented by the iFix team, both throughout these posts as well as our videos on the jobsite. One thing that we haven’t touched upon yet however are the actual foundation inspections.
So you noticed some issues in your house or foundation, or maybe you just want to make sure that everything is in perfect order, and you have called us to conduct a foundation inspection but you are unsure of exactly what to expect. So what does foundation inspection entails?
To help us answer these questions we will enlist the help of James and Monica Barnhart, star inspectors for iFix construction, who will share with us their experience as well as their process of inspecting your foundation.
All the following information is taken directly from their own words.
The process of inspecting a foundation goes as follows: first comes an appointment scheduled by the office. We, the inspectors, head down to the given addresses and introduce ourselves to the homeowners. First thing we do is the outside inspection, then we do the measurements and then we inspect the inside of the house.
The outside inspection consists of walking around the perimeter of the house, looking at the actual house and checking if there is any physical damage that could have happened due to foundation movement. We also check if there is proper drainage, any erosion taking place or water collecting by the house after big rains. This way we already have an idea of what is going on even before entering the house. Then we draw a map of the house as we walk around it; just a quick, basic outline.
Then we use the zip level, which is our measuring tool. We measure high and lows in the house, based at zero in the middle of the house and then take zip level around the walls to the determine whether the house needs any work or not.
Sometimes during the appointments the homeowners tell us about the signs of what is going on. Sometimes they mentioned that some doors are not working properly, that there are some cracks here and there, and when doing the numbers it all makes a lot of sense. The numbers always back up what the costumers tell us.
And typically when we go into a house its is not unusual that the homeowners have had done some other estimates. Sometimes even up to nine or ten of them and in almost every case when we are finished they compliment us because we were a lot more detailed; the reason for this is that we take the time to explain everything so much more clearly than any of the other companies.
A lot of the other companies are very vague, they don’t give them any numbers, any information, they just tell them how many piers and how much it’s gonna be and that your house is going to be fine. They don't explain the process, they don't explain what could happen. There are times when we cant level the house, sometimes we can lift a little bit and support to make sure that the house remains stable but it wont be completely leveled and we explain all that to the homeowner also.
And from what we’ve heard from a ton of our estimates a lot of the other companies don't give them a lot of information, but typically the costumers end up very happy with us, even if they don’t use us, they are very happy that we explained everything completely and it makes a lot more sense to them other than the other pile of estimates that they did.
And this is paramount for us; being completely honest from the get go; to take the time to do things correctly, the extra steps needed. If needed we will spend two or three hours in a house explaining everything; we have had people with notebooks with a bunch of questions written down and we will not leave until everything has been answered; we are very patient and we want to make sure the costumers understand everything that could happen.
Also, we are quite passionate about doing our job, sometimes costumers are quite stressed out because they’ve paid 1 or 2 or 3 times to get their foundation repaired and it is worse every time and we can put ourselves in their shoes. Money is quite hard to make, it takes a lot of time, lot of work, lot of time away from family in order to have money. And we understand what they are feeling, in the same way we wouldn't want for another company, for roofing or whatever, to take our money, do a bad job and run away with my money.
Sometimes what has happened is that we go and do an estimate for what turns out to be a house about to be sold. And the current owner does not want to invest a lot of money given that the house is no longer going to be theirs and we don't like to work like that; we want to do exactly what the house needs, so it will be in perfect state for the first, second, third owner, etc. And given that we pass the warranty down, with a little charge, they know that when we fix the house, even if it is sold down the road, the house will be ok.
Also, one thing to take into consideration sit the homeowners are smart; most of the times they already have gone through some inspections; they know who is giving the right information and who is not. On occasions we have visited hoses where where previous estimates have mentioned needing 20, 30, 50 piers, when it doesn't really need any. And unfortunately a lot of companies don't care; they just want to make a buck, come and go or change their names and you lost your warranty with the company that you work with. So lots of people are hesitant when we go to do the estimate, but we have a lot of videos on social media that show our team, us, Jorge and Paola, the crew: they see exactly what we do and when we go to a house we show them videos of our crew because sometimes, even when we explain how foundation repair is going to be like, when homeowners see our videos it is quite eye opening for them, because they can see there is a lot of work involved and how dirty of a job it can get.
We were just asked why iFix is different from any other foundation repair company and the answer is that it is a family business.
I (James) married into the family and the company about 8 or 9 years ago. Jorge was already doing foundation work. I was working at another job, but he was getting very busy, the company was getting successful so he taught Mony and I, we went with him to do estimates and he would show us all the ropes. On my days off at my other job we would help Jorge do estimates and he continued to get busier and busier and I decided to quit my other job and I started to do estimates full time.
I think being husband and wife team puts people at ease; specially if we go to a home and only the wife is there, seeing us together puts the costumer at ease, and of course ourselves. We don't have an agenda, we don't have a quota, we honestly want to give them an honest opinion about what the house needs.
And if we see that there is a little extra that we need to do then we’ll make sure everything is done correctly, because we do give a warranty, a lifetime warranty. Every other company does of course, but it is very deceiving because a lot of the other companies don't really back their warranty or the other companies go out of business. In our case we make sure we make a very good job from the start because we are going to remain in business and we do honor our warranty so we make sure everything is done correctly the first time.
It has always been a family company. Our daughter is the secretary, our daughter-in-law is the one in charge of running the whole operation and it is very important to us, because we want to be sure it remains successful to maintain the family successful also. Therefore it is quite different than a lot of the big companies; some of them are nationwide and they don't have the family feel that we do. We care about we do. We are passionate about what we do. And we care about our costumers and their homes.
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